Information and the Fusion of Spatialites

Aharon Kellerman

Information has been defined as a "compromise between presence and absence", since it represents a "form of something without the thing itself" (Latour 1987, p. 243). Communication is, thus, "being; persons literally occupy the media they use; their existence cannot be separated from these symbolic systems" (Adams 1995).

The flow of information is extremely abstract, even more than that of capital. Whereas capital flows can be measured quantitatively, by a limited number of convertible currencies, it is impossible to measure information, and its contents may be endlessly varied. Capital always departs from a specific location and reaches another one, whereas information is transmitted from one location, and it may either not be received by anybody, or it may reach several locations simulteneously. Moreover, global capital flows undergo local concretization processes through urban construction projects which imply fusions with local spatialities. Information remains abstract and uniform all along: at its origin, in its flow and in its destination.

Information transmission, notably through the mass media, may play a decisive role in the formation and fusion of spatialities as has been shown for films (Hopkins 1994) and television (Meyrowitz 1985; Adams 1992). The spatialities of information comprise spaces of representation or imagination, which may fuse with local material spatial practices (experience) as well as with their representations (perception). Contemporary information flows are interrelated with experienced space. They reflect an increased curiosity about other places and spaces, which may be translated into tourism, which on its part, may bring about additional information flows (see Lash and Urry 1994, p. 309).

Our concern here is with the role of computers in fusion processes of spatialities, which is different than that of television broadcasting. Computer communications is personal in both the creation and maintenance of social contacts, as well as in the selection of information, compared to monolithic television (Adams 1992). This discussion is, therefore, confined to the function of computers as instantaneous information machines, permitting the storage, processing, retrieval and global transmission of information. These capabilities yielded global information networks, notably Internet, which "have come to be experienced as places where we network: a networld" (Harasim 1993, p. 16).

It is important to distinguish between space and place in film, television and computerized information, on the one hand, as opposed to these media as space/place, on the other. Landscape in films was defined "as a filmic representation of an actual or imagined environment viewed by a spectator" (Hopkins 1994, p. 49). The process of transforming real landscapes into artistic ones was termed by Benjamin (1986) "mechanical reproduction". However, space in computers is more complex in its reproduction and expression than in films and television. As will be detailed later, space can be reproduced in computerized information in rather simulated and schematic forms, such as maps. It further serves as a language for the very use of computer information networks, so that language and space become unified rather than separate as was argued for television (Adams 1992).

Television as place was defined as: "(1) a bounded system in which symbolic interaction among persons occurs (a social context), and (2) a nucleus around which ideas, values, and shared experiences are constructed (a center of meaning). It is obvious that these two conceptions of place are closely related: social life is founded on shared meanings and meanings are created through social life; each constructs the other" (Adams 1992, p. 118).

In computerized information transmission the interaction among persons is both symbolic and interpersonal, and these two interrelated aspects of the medium as place are tied with the representation of space and place. The simulation of space and the use of spatial language are forms of representation which constitute social formation in the construction of virtual communities and sense of place. The latter reinforce the use of geographical language and symbols, or a signification of place and space takes place (see Hopkins 1994, pp. 51-2). Space production has, thus, four dimensions in transmitted information: simulation, metaphor and language, community, and place production or sense of place. These dimensions appear through varied expressions, associated meanings of space, and local expressions (Table 1). These spatialities will now be presented and commented upon from the perspective of fusion.

Simulation

Simulation refers to the computerized two or three dimensional presentation of non-local territories and landscapes, in the form of pictures, maps, or short films. Such simulations constitute an integral part of other media as well, notably movies and TV. However, here the "importing" of these simulated landscapes is controlled by the viewer, regarding choice and type of information. Furthermore, whereas previously a person had to visit immovable places, computer images allow the viewer to remain geographically static and the "places" to become dynamic. Despite the growing sophistication of multimedia transmission, simulated landscapes cannot replace the uncontrolled and unmediated physical presence in other locations, but they do permit the transmission of geographical images without the friction of distance, time and costs involved in physical visits. Simulated geographical images may faithfully represent transmitted landscapes. However, sometimes they may bring about a homogenization of distinct places and landscapes, such as in the standardized street maps of the Magic hotel reservation system.

Simulated landscapes may possibly be integrated in the near future into "mirror worlds", the technology for which exists already. "You will look into a computer screen and see reality. Some part of your world...will hang there in a sharp cool image, abstract but recognizable, moving subtly in a thousand places" (Gelernter 1991, p. 1). These places may not only enhance the functioning of virtual communities, but they may permit production and business, from home or from any other single site. Under such circumstances real places and virtual ones may fuse with each other.

Metaphor and Language

Language is an important ingredient in place making (Tuan 1991), and vice versa: space can also become an important element in language construction. Space serves as metaphor in computer networks and programs in two ways: verbally, through the use of geographical language, and graphically in the adoption of place icons and symbolic landscapes. Geographical language is used, for example, when "travelling", "navigating", "cruising", or "surfing" the Internet system (see Schrag 1994). It is also used to describe one's position on a network, through phrases such as: "see you online!", "let's meet online", or just "I'm here" (Harasim 1993). The common name for global information transmission "the information superhighway" is also geographical. Graphically, the use of place icons and symbolic landscapes is rapidly approaching Gibson's (1985) science-fiction "cyberspace", envisioning three-dimensional urban landmarks replacing text and icons. Symbolic places and landscapes are used as opening screens for standard computer programs and network communications (e.g. MS-Office, Apple's eWorld, Magic Cap, ImagiNation Network), so that they constitute "geographic interface" (Schrag 1994). Symbolic places are also used as guiding structures for social networks (e.g. MOO), which are organized along neighborhoods, buildings, rooms, etc.

Spatial metaphors are attractive since they are well known to computer users from their daily lives, and are simple to use (Schrag 1994). On the other hand, the spatial language must be extremely homogenized and simplified in order to be understood by people of different cultures and languages. This rather shallow global spatial language may be in conflict with local rich spatial languages. It seems, however, that the more meaningless location becomes in global space the more geographical language and symbols increase in importance for instantaneous computer communications. Thus, when space loses its basic significances as territory and distance it has an important role as interface, medium, and basic common denominator in virtual images.

Virtual Communities

Computerized global networks may develop into placeless social communities, or "virtual communities" (Rheingold 1993a; Mitchell 1995), turning the networks into a new social space (Harasim 1993), or "electronic agora" (Mitchell 1995). They amount to an extensibility of human beings across distance (see Adams 1995). Communities without a spatial anchoring, such as religious ones, are not new (see e.g. Halbwachs 1980, p. 136). However, the social bonds in virtual communities may not necessarily be as strong, since joining and leaving may be flexible.

Computerized networks may partially replace space as a mediator and context for the emergence and maintenance of human relations, yet space and spatial language play an important role in the functioning of such social networks. Some global networks may develop around an initial location, (e.g. the San Francisco-based WELL network) (see Rheingold 1993b); others, such as MOO, may also be organized around a symbolic city, implying centrality and agglomeration in the number and intensity of communications to specific "rooms", "buildings", or "neighborhoods" (see Schrag 1994). Such a network structure may also imply differentiated times and codes of usage between business meetings in "meeting rooms", and chats in "cafes" (Harasim 1993). Spatial structuring of virtual communities constitutes a fusion of local and global spatialities. Concepts and ways of behavior shaped and originated locally are fused with global social networks, which set their norms of behavior accordingly.

Place Production

The emergence of global social networks, and the growing interaction with global information networks bears upon the sense of place of users and on processes of place production. Halbwachs (1980, p.134) proposed the terms "implacement" and "displacement" for social reactions to urban changes. By the same token, the simultaneous sensing of local-physical and global-virtual places may be termed "coplacement".

The major aspect in this regard is the growing tension between the distant and the local, the absent and the present, or between disembedded space and place, expressed in distanciation and time-space compression (see Giddens 1990, p.118). Distanciating transportation and communications brought about the so-called "hyperspace", referring to experienced space which does not coincide with the place where it occurred. Conflict may, thus, arise between imported images of places and a possible later lived experience in them (see Gupta and Ferguson 1992). By the same token, when the experienced space is metropolitan and the experiencing people live in non-metropolitan areas, then growing distance may produce fantastic "imagined worlds" (Appadurai 1990).

The development of a sense of place around real places is a long-term and continous process; this is not so for instantly replaceable virtual places. The latter do not provide the physical sensing of places, nor a third dimension of depth, natural movements, air breezes and winds, or smells and sunshine. In addition, virtual places have no history and may not have an impact on a collective memory. The exposure to distant places and people may, thus, bring about the need to strengthen local identities through the fostering of local heritage. However, the involvement of the media in such processes may turn such a trend into a rather synthetic "'global' localism" (Thrift 1994; see also Massey 1994; Castells 1994).

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AHARON KELLERMAN serves as Vice-President at the University of Haifa, Israel. He is a professor of geography, and vice-chair of the Commission on Telecommunications, IGU. He is past-president of the Israeli Geographical Society. He earned his Ph.D. from Boston University, and held visiting positions at the universities of Boston, Miami and Maryland, in the U.S. as well as Bar-Ilan and Ben-Gurion universities in Israel. Among the books he authored is TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND GEOGRAPHY (Belhaven, 1993). His major areas of interest are the geography of telecommunications, and the interrelationships between society and space.