intelligent environments
Special Session on Crisis, Modernity and Information Technology
Special Session Organiser: Prof. Antonino Saggio, La Sapienza University, Italy
One possible definition of Modernity relates it to the concept of Crisis. Thinking along these lines, “Modernity is the effort to answer to crisis and in so doing urges and promotes the necessity of new Aesthetics”
I am putting in words a way of thinking that has different master thinkers, but that motivated the theoretical effort that is behind “IT Revolution in Architecture”. For Crisis, I intend the historical process of transformation from the Industrial Paradigm to an Informational one; for Modernity I intend the positive effort to address the crisis in front of us putting at the center Information Technological, not because we like it but because IT is the propellant of our times. The results bring “Revolutionary” aspects in considering the historical magnitude of the shifts in front of us.
Now, this special session of the conference on Intelligent Environments called “Crisis Modernity and Information Technology” is looking specifically for contributions that address the just described crucial relationships.
In other words, the stress of the papers should be put (a) “In a situation of crisis” (pollution, poverty, emergence for disasters, risks of different nature and sorts, atmospheric or land situation etceteras) and (b) in addressing the crisis situation with an intelligent and creative use of Information Technology.
The case studies and projects can be at a very large territorial scale or at minimum scale of object design. The issue to establish in the paper is how Information Technology is crucial in addressing and solving the issue.
IT has not to be only a toy for the houses of the richest but a crucial tool in the growth of humanity. Right?
2nd International Conference on INTELLIGENT ENVIRONMENTS 2006
concept
spiritual crisis and information technology
With the spreading of the illuminist thoughts, through the development of the western philosophical body to Friedrich Nietzsche's (mostly misunderstood) declaration “Gott ist tot”, we're witnessing a spreading of atheistic and agnostic idea throughout the XX century. But this modern world, which strongly states its laicism, is still deeply influenced by religion, and ignoring the fact that human nature requires some sort of confrontation with the spiritual and divine sphere seems to be leading to an increasing amount of confusion, misunderstanding and conflict.
Modern technology aided the spreading of information, knowledge, and the possibility of contact and confrontation between peoples of different nationalities and beliefs, but it has also recently led to the topic of clash of civilizations and religious beliefs, and its use, mostly through the Mass Media establishments, for commercial and sensational purposes, instead of confrontation, knowledge and acceptance of different ideologies, is leading in communities to a stop to dialogue and a closure on one's own (or imposed) beliefs. This scenario seems more suitable to the Middle Ages than to the Age of Information. And even in the Dark Age we could see examples of how confrontation with diversity and ideological contamination could lead to great cultural achievements, of which we can see an example in the Mozarabic Architecture in Spain and even in the Norman Palermo.
So, why not try to exploit this crisis of beliefs and confrontation to take a leap forward? From this point of view I think that an interesting experiment would be the study of an a-confessional cult building which would work, through the implementation of Information Technology, as a gateway to knowing and accepting different ideologies, emphasizing the unifying traits and putting an accent on differences as a cultural wealth rather than a reason for conflict, and as a way to confront different points of view on the unfathomable spiritual sphere.
Italian Text
Con la diffusione del pensiero intellettuale illuminista, attraverso lo sviluppo del corpus filosofico occidentale, fino al tema Nietzsche-ano della morte di Dio ad opera dell'uomo, assistiamo nel secolo scorso a una diffusione dell'ateismo e dell'agnosticismo. Ma laddove il nostro mondo si dichiara fondamentalmente laico, esso è ancora fortemente permeato della realtà religiosa, dato che la natura umana necessita dagli albori di un confronto con la sfera spirituale e divina.
Il superamento della distanze fisiche tramite le telecomunicazioni ha portato la possibilità di un confronto e di un dialogo tra le diverse popolazioni del pianeta, portando però recentemente alla ribalta il tema dello scontro di civiltà e religioni. Ci si arrocca sui propri dogmi chiudendosi ad ogni possibilità di confronto con il diverso, spesso con risultati tragici: uno scenario sicuramente più adatto al Medioevo che all'era dell'Informazione, per quanto proprio nei "secoli bui" abbiamo potuto ammirare il plus-valore ottenibile dalla contaminazione ideologica, tramite esempi come la Palermo normanna o la Mezquita di Cordoba.
Perchè non sfruttare invece questa crisi per compiere uno scarto in avanti? In quest'ottica un esperimento a mio avviso interessante sarebbe lo studio di un luogo di culto aconfessionale, in grado di accogliere diverse realtà religiose e permettere loro di confrontarsi, anche tramite l'applicazione dell'Information Technology come mezzo per la comunicazione, lo scambio e il confronto di informazioni e punti di vista.
spiritual crisis
When confronting with other people about the issue of spirituality and religion what catches the eye is the fact that most people are completely sure of the righteousness of one's beliefs and the perception of other's beliefs as wrong or incorrect. Yet every religion is based on dogmata, often in open contrast with one another, and disputed even inside the (apparently) same set of beliefs. This means that from a dispute point of view every dogma is right and have the same value. On the other hand the atheist perceive religion as a philosophy (or even a fairy-tale) that should be countered by the infallibility of science (mirror of our times), hence often seen in a very unscientific, superficial and even dogmatic way – in other words, as the religion which they condemn. In other words, what changes in this matter is just the “superior being” or “oracle” that we decide to follow just to quiet our conscience.
Spiritual strive.
Throughout the ages we have witnessed the need the people to confront itself with its spiritual sphere, being it through the worship of a superior being or the creation of a moral code of laws. This has been true since the dawn of man, and it is still true nowadays. It is interesting to notice that in our era – which theoretically is the extreme consequence of the Age of Reason – we're witnessing the birth of an incredible numer of religious movements that try to answer (often in a superficial way) to the Questions that man asks himself - and that for a cultural skepticism thinks he won't find answered by traditional/official religions. The affirmation of Ron Hubbard's Scientology, and recently of Kabalah, are examples of this tendency to exploit the spiritual needs of people through the aid of psychology and marketing.
The need for Conflict.
What emerges from this confrontation is a general superficial approach to a complex topic such as spirituality, and part of the reason for this can be traced in the enormous influence of Mass Media. Although in fact the most influential leaders of the major world religions have stated their positions to be that of dialogue and acceptance (although with the usual contradictions where, quoting George Orwell, “every religion is equal, but ours is more equal than the others” emerges as a rule), there messages, filtered through television and papers are generally spread with little emphasis, while we can see a violent emphasis on extremism and fundamentalism, that have a much stronger impact and influence on the public. This passive use Mass Communication and Information Technology as an aid for the diffusion of hate and conflict surely helps to sell papers, but it is exactly what leads to this crisis and continuous misunderstanding. What I propose instead is the use of modern, active and interactive Information Technology as a way to contrast this behavior and transform this crisis into a way to broaden our intellectual and social horizons.
Open Mind.
When dealing and confronting with religions it is always very important to keep an open mind, and to be respectful of the ideologies that drive a large part of humanity. It would be extremely risky to deal with these matters from an atheistic, skeptical o irreligious point of view. An agnostic approach would guarantee a respectful and rich confrontation with diversity without the risk of offending other beliefs, whereas a different approach would fall under the reasons underlying the crisis, namely the struggle to impose one's belief or point of view on the other.
addressing the crisis
A way of addressing this crisis could be the study and development of an environment in which to confront with the differences between beliefs in a multi-layer structure. A starting point could be that of and a-confessional chapel in which for example people from the different monotheistic religions could meditate and pray together, since though throught different names they're addressing the same God.
But that is just one part of the issue.
A Journey of Knowledge.
I intend to put an accent on the propositive way we could use Information Technology to propel confrontation between different religions and cultures, through an informational and interactive journey from various approaches. This could be a historic approach in which emphasize the different links and relations existing between the various religions and philosophies. For example starting from the Spiritic and Naturalistic prehistoric religions to the polytheistic religions (Greek paganism or Japanese Shinto) to the advent of the first monotheistic religion, Zoroastrism, which influenced the development of the Abramitic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) in the western world as well as the Dharmic religions (Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism) in the East, and in the end addressing the most recent religions and philosophies from New Age, Rastafarianism, Neopaganism to the “Hollywood religions” – literally the religions of the crisis in our time.
Confrontation.
Through this historic journey there should be particular emphasis on some themes of confrontation – which we could describe as the Big Questions that religion historically tries to address, like for example the Afterlife. Some studies have pointed out that religions that have developed in desert/arid regions develop the concept of a paradise in which our soul would go after the demise of the mortal body, while in tropical/forest regions – that could be considered a paradise on earth – the prominent conception is that of transmigration and reincarnation.
A New Mindscape.
The implementation of Information Technology is this project is crucial to the creation of an interactive and intelligent environment in which confront different views and concepts on philosophical, religious and spiritual topics, and is seen as the only way to confront with this crisis in a modern and propulsive way. The idea is that of aiding the creation of a new mindscape that would be truly a mirror of the complex, multicultural and multilayered world we live in, where differences would lead to enrichment rather than conflict.
shattered mirror
proposta metaprogettule
We all carry shards of the whole...
(Daniel Gildenlow, Pain of Salvation)
Crisi della Spiritualita'
nell'era dell'Informazione
La necessità dell'uomo di relazionarsi con una realtà superiore l'ha sempre accompagnato, fin dagli albori della preistoria. E tutt'ora, nell'Era dell'Informazione, il problema della Spiritualità e dello spazio in cui viverla resta attuale, soprattutto visto il clima internazionale e mediatico che pare privilegiare la strada della diversità come motivo di conflitto piuttosto che come mezzo per l'arricchimento culturale. Viviamo in una società multietnica, multiculturale ed estremamente complessa e stratificata, e quindi anche i luoghi di culto debbono riflettere queste differenze, valorizzandole invece di demonizzarle. Non è più l'uomo a doversi adattare al luogo di culto predefinito, ma il luogo di culto stesso ad adattarsi a riflettere la spiritualità interiore dell'uomo per permettergli di viverla al meglio.
Shattered Mirror
Il complesso, localizzato nei Giardini di Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, al centro del quartiere Esquilino, crogiolo multietnico all'interno della Capitale, si sviluppa attorno ad un'ideale centro, cui tende ma che è impossibile da raggiungere, e che irradia la sua luce tutto attorno. L'immagine che si vuole veicolare è quella della frammentazione di un qualcosa che in realtà non è altro che il riflesso di una realtà superiore attraverso le nostre menti limitate. La nostra mente agisce da filtro tra il nostro io e l'idea cui aspiriamo, e riesce a cogliere aspetti sempre diversi, da qui la molteplicità delle religioni che si vuole rappresentare ai fini di una reciproca accettazione e conoscenza.
Personal Vision
All'interno degli spazi di preghiera e meditazione un terminale informatico permetterebbe di controllare vari aspetti dell'ambiente, personalizzandoli in base alla confessione religiosa e alle specifiche esigenze del singolo fedele, con la possibilità di memorizzare queste informazioni per riutilizzarle ad una nuova visita. Dalla regolazione dell'illuminazione interna si passerebbe per la proiezione sulle pareti di arredi sacri, simboli ed immagini relative alla confessione o alla pratica di meditazione, un accompagnamento sonoro in grado di espandere l'esperienza mistica e l'emanazione di profumi tipici dei riti devozionali. Il supporto informatico inoltre permetterà la consultazione all'occorrenza di testi sacri delle varie confessioni, come anche la comunicazione con altri fedeli.
