Building a Culture of Ubiquity By Patrick Lichty

Building a culture of ubiquity Patrick Lichty
	For some time now, my personal interest in artistic practice is that which looks to capitalize on what I call the "cracks" in our culture. In this I relate to those interstitial parts of society which offers possibilities to the practitioner for delivery of cultural content. These include screensavers, Personal Digital Assistants, intelligent agents and microcontrollers to name a few, and I gave a talk called "the next little thing"[1] in 1999 at the Invencao symposium in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In that presentation, I looked at these cultural gaps and how art that utilizes them challenge monumental and novel forms of technological art through utilizing 'small systems initiatives'. By this, I mean the use of small, inexpensive, or transparent technologies to communicate a cultural or aesthetic experience through a sense of personal engagement. My practical inquiry since that time has broadened to include information appliances, responsive environments and cybrids [2]. Such a practical turn makes visible that the inquiry into "small systems initiatives" is actually a journey into the exploration of a culture of computational ubiquity. In my body of research vis-à-vis the shift in praxis from the screen to the palm to the body to the space, there are issues of representation that are revealed through the way that aesthetic content is embodied through the interface. This interface may be a screen, dataglove, head-mounted display or responsive space, but each mode of representation illustrated by each display or input device indicates a unique space of interaction and expression, whether on the screen body, or reinscribed in space itself. As we consider the arc of praxis from screen to body to space, perhaps this may create some insight into how a culture of technological ubiquity will be constructed, and what modes of expression may emerge from such cultural forms and technological developments.
the proliferation of personal information devices, personal computers ... is creating the environment for the establishment of a culture of the digital	From a cultural perspective, the proliferation of personal information devices, personal computers, and explorations into technologies like Augmented Reality is creating the environment for the establishment of a culture of the digital. To add these devices together under the proposition that the presence of any technological agency will create its own cultural milieu is ill-founded, as the widespread attention to technological art forms has not been evident until recently [3]. The catalyst for the rapid expansion of a technological aesthetic has undoubtedly been the Internet, with its predilection for community building. This is evident from the Walker Art Center's Gallery 9, with its extensive online archives and exhibitions, reflecting the move of art in the digital age to exploit a communicative mode of expression. In fact, Steve Dietz of the Walker in an introduction voiced his awareness of the emergence of such a culture, and voiced his desires to support it, [4] "If we are at the formation of a next phase of technological society, then let us partner with developers and scientists as practitioners of the arts to create a cultural content which is thoughtful and incisive to conditions of the society."
	My reflection on these words is that a portion of the world is moving toward a society in which information technology is saturating us to the point where there is a threshold for the creation of a culture or set of cultures, niche to mass, which are unique to the electronic milieu. This saturation is in the form of personal information devices, PDA's, and the proliferation of embedded controllers like so many nanomites circulating in the air in Stephenson's The Diamond Age[5], As I alluded to before. The catalyzing forces behind this cultural shift are connectivity between individuals and decentralized distribution of communication and content. These factors underlie the creation of the electronic culture, and are essential to the work described here. But, as this portion of humanity moves towards a culture of ubiquity, there are a series of localities that may serve as points of analysis for the communications of cultural codes. Each (the screen, palm/pocket, body, and public space) has unique modes of representation that allude to Hayles' linkage of the subject between its signification and the embodiment of experience [6]. All of these localities make visible systems of production, consumption, and representation that illustrate a possible ecology of signs within a culture of ubiquity.
	The Screen ->