DESIGN:

SYNCHRONOUS/ASYNCHRONOUS

One of the advantages of the Panopticon is that it focuses the organisation of a ÔcourseÕ on issues of time rather than space. The space itself is virtual and accessible from multiple distributed and remote locations. The Panopticon incorporates and applies synchronous and asynchronous multi-location interactivity within an architectural framework. The allocation of studio space is less of a priority and the organisation of contact time becomes of prime importance. MUSE (Multi User Simulation Environment), Multi-user (shared, collaborative) VR is a 3D computer generated environment on the Internet where participants (represented as "avatars") can meet each other, walk around together and communicate using text, gesture, voice or preprogrammed "emotions" (e.g. "happy" or "sad") (Roehl, 1999).

As with the composite sessions incorporated into the CAiiA-STAR research programme, access to the Panopticon is supplemented by onsite sessions that frame and contextualise the processes of learning within the vrml structure. At the point of convergence of the ICT forms incorporated into the Panopticon lies a new space/place that defines both the vehicle for the message and the mode of consumption by the participants. The ÔtimesÕ (synchronous and asynchronous) of social interaction within the Panopticon structure create their own architectural form that links participants within a network of interactivity.

One of the key aspects of the Panopticon Project is the recognition of the different kinds of 'space' and 'place' that evolve during telematic exchange. Within any telematic exchange, other spaces and places than the location of the participants emerge, these include the psychological social and imagined spaces/places that separate them. This Panopticon explores the spaces and places generated within a multiuser telematic exchange and attempts to locate them within an appropriate context in order that they may be better articulated and understood. The construction of the Panopticons spaces/places creates stress on the traditional framing and articulation of broadcasting and publishing activities. Neither of these practices adequately explains, incorporates or applies synchronous and asynchronous multi-location interactivity within a single framework. The Panopticon sugests that the broad framework and discourse of architecture effectively incorporates and articulates these telematic practices. By envisioning these interactive synchronous and asynchronous telematic spaces/places within an architectural framework, the potential for effectively harnessing these new media forms, for human understanding and learning, can be significantly increased.

'The hybrid or the meeting of two media is a moment of truth and revelation from which new form is born. For the parallel between two media holds us on the frontiers between forms that snap us out of the Narcissus-narcosis. The moment of the meeting of media is a moment of freedom and release from the ordinary trance and numbness imposed by them on our senses.'
(McLuhan M, 1964)

At the point of convergence of the ICT forms incorporated into the Panopticon lies a new space/place that defines both the vehicle for the message and the mode of consumption by the audience/participants. At the interstices of these forms lies a rich seam of unexplored potential, the co-ordinates for a telematic landscape of interactivity.

Von Wodtke defines Media Space as 'The information environment connecting real and imaginary places, objects, and the people within them. The context in which people can use representations to work with artificial reality'
(von Wodtke M,1993).

The intent of the Panopticon Project is to use these 'information environments', and the variety of space and place generated (real, metaphorical, simulated, psychological, and imaginary), to discuss and explore the implications of new media forms, and emergent fields of digital practice. It is at the interstices of these interactions between the participants of Panopticon that the new space and place emerge. This place, like the inhabitants that construct it, needs a new nomenclature. They are both audience and performers, and the place they occupy has form, time and simultaneous location. It lacks volume, and is constructed in synchronous and asynchronous time by the passage of its inhabitants. The sensation of space and time is compressed and fused by this new place, which defines a generative ÔarchitectureÕ of distributed simultaneous space and time - a media 'place'.