The collaborative dimension of the imagined city: Cyberspace and Drawing

Abstract

The concepts of cyberspace and cybertext are of pivotal importance in the understanding of urban environments and their representation. In the context of cyberspace, data and information are represented and manipulated in a virtual space, thereby creating new dimensions of interaction and perception. In these domains, drawing is the preferred medium for integrating disparate thematic worlds and facilitating interaction between individuals with different backgrounds, experiences and goals. The capacity to co-create these spaces, whether through adaptation or emulation of the model of the tangible world, or through the exploration of geometric and emotional liminalities disengaged from natural laws such as gravity, time, spatial and environmental geography, is the focus of this discussion, which takes its cue from the famous dialogue between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan in Italo Calvino's The Invisible Cities. The attitudes of the two are symmetrical: Marco's descriptions are characterised by wonder and curiosity, whereas Kublai's interpretations attempt to categorise them into a precise form through abstraction and generalisation. Marco is a professional traveller and an explorer of new concepts, whereas Kublai is sedentary and has the task of managing power and maintaining order. The objective of this contribution is to undertake a critical reflection on the systems of data, information and knowledge interchange that employ the design media as a site of interaction and integration of skills and visions, like the paradigmatic ones of Marco and Kublai, thereby participating in the structuring of complex virtual urban systems.