Augmented Space – A Scenographical Observation

The research project springs from the assumption that knowledge and its production in digital cultures is spatially organized, structured, formed, and received. It is inquired, how the the visibility and legibility of a place is changed and reconfigured by the use of interactive and locative media technologies. Center to the inquiry are the design practice and the end-user: How does the user orients in these hybrid spaces and what are the effects of this kind of knowledge production on the spatial navigation and reception?

These questions are pursued by the example of the former warehouse and open depot at the Dreispitz area in Basel. The Dreispitz is currently one of the largest urban development areas of Switzerland. The establishment of the new Campus of the Arts together with the settlement of Academy of Art and Design FHNW is paradigmatic for the transition from an industrial to an information society. The transformation of the are becomes a metaphor for the structural changes of a material world based on physical goods to a data-based, virtual, fluid, networked and digital society. Based on this diagnosis, the project assumes the form of an on-site research laboratory to explore production of space by digital media.