Title: Reconfiguring space: the collective autonomy of digital technology

Authors: Linda Matthews; Gavin Perin

Addresses: School of Architecture, University of Technology, P.O. Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Sydney, Australia ' School of Architecture, University of Technology, P.O. Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Sydney, Australia

Abstract: The continued survival of political systems is contingent upon strategies that generate an image reinforcing the position of those in power. The associated conversion of the built environment into an agent of political propaganda operates either by underscoring this position, or by generating the representation of formal interventions that validate and promote the same. The emergence of information technologies demands a new approach to the generation of urban form. The global transmission of the city image by webcam networks means that their surveillant intent is overridden in favour of an operational space where the image's instrumentality is now contingent upon the interactive operation of video technology. This paper will discuss not only how these digital technologies can disrupt the exertion of political control by urban powerbrokers but, more importantly, it will reveal how they open a new collective, productive space for the individual that contests this hegemony of vision.

Keywords: collective autonomy; webcam networks; interactive operation; video technology; digital technology; urban form; city images; political control; collective space.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWBC.2014.060353

International Journal of Web Based Communities, 2014 Vol.10 No.2, pp.158 - 175

Published online: 17 May 2014 *

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