Date of Award
Spring 6-1-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Architecture (MArch)
Department
Architecture
First Advisor
Malcolm Rio
Second Advisor
Pablo Castillo Luna
Third Advisor
Aaron Tobey
Abstract
In her book, The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to The Internet (1999) science writer/artist Margaret Wertheim posits that cosmology is fundamentally based on how humans interpret space and situate themselves within it. Today's scientific view portrays the fabric of the universe as ubiquitous and undifferentiated in its substance, effectively a single space. In contrast, the medieval perspective delineated space into discrete entities with defined properties—in the case of Christian cosmology, through Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, separate planes with distinct material and metaphysical conditions. However, in the digital age, a new spatial cosmology has emerged, replicating the medieval model of multiple realms—the physical and the digital.
Just as churches served as conduits between celestial and terrestrial realms, screens act as portals to the digital domain, omnipresent yet materialized only through technology. Dante used verse to convey these spaces, Renaissance architects used the church typology to allude to the divine, and in digital space we use code. Architectural representation, as it has evolved from perspectival drawings to VR renderings, transforms the picture plane into a dynamic window into space and time. Occupiable by the viewer, VR is a form of representation but also as the final product, the architecture itself.
However, the mythology of digital space, like that of the Church, reveals inherent complexities (pollution; e-waste) and exclusions (cost; rarified skillset), challenging our perceptions of architecture and technology's role in shaping our reality, and by extension the role of the architect within this space.
Recommended Citation
Ruggiero, Isabella, "Infinite Plane: Metaphysical Architecture + Digital Space" (2024). Masters Theses. 1226.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1226
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