(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

“Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual…” (Alice 1865) C-19 a ViRal Pandemic, global in reach, and [un]discriminating in its impact and effects, forced many of us to retreat into our homes, hunkered down to endure a lock[ed]down that would last, more or less uninterrupted, for the better part 18 months. During this time our homes and our gardens became the [meta]physical and geo[graphic]al centres of our universe(s). The Garden fence defined the edge of our world, our homes transformed simultaneously dwellings, places of work and relaxation, they became host to our attempts to retain some semblance of normality. Our garden became our [looking]glass window into an outside [world], a [re]creational realm with which we rekindled our fascination. Our newly defined physical ream provided stark contrast to near limitless digital realm into which (with great rapidity) we were thrust. An invisible matrix of digital interactions permeating and penetrating the boundaries of our kingdoms. A subversive invader, playing by an entirely different set of rules (of engagement). We have been surrounded, cast adrift and drowning in an endless sea of data and with it a new spatial condition emerges- Augmented Reality. We are drawn, inexorably, into a superposition-ing of the physical and digital as these two realities compete to inform public and private narratives. No longer confined or limited by physical space, the media is becoming the medium; a pervasive soup through which sensory impressions are conveyed, the Medi(a/um) is the MassAge. This paper presents an evolving body of highly speculative design work which augments traditional architectural representation with cartographic, geographical, and artistic techniques in order to explore explores notions of multiplicity, simultaneity, whilst questioning authorship and the construction of meaning.