Week 4: Code/Space

When reading this case study, it seems there are many similarities between the characteristics of shipping containers and their uses, and software / computational code.

Shipping containers Code
Mid-century technology, originally used for military purposes, re-purposed to expand globalisation, commerce, and convenience Mid-century technology, originally used for military purposes, re-purposed to expand globalisation, commerce, and convenience
Changes the landscape of the towns and cities which use them for businesses e.g. Oakland, California Changes the landscape of the towns and cities which use them for businesses e.g. Silicon Valley, California
“Scalable solutions” for modern problems “Scalable” as one of Manovich’s five key characteristics of digital media
Used across multiple public services including, but not limited to, military, government, energy, healthcare, sanitation, food production, internet access Used across multiple public services including, but not limited to, military, government, energy, healthcare, sanitation, food production, internet access
Also used to cater for expanding social landscape which has emerged from our relationship with the space around us e.g. pop-up retail and bars Also used to cater for expanding social landscape which has emerged from our relationship with the space around us e.g. location-based dating apps
Cheap, accessible infrastructure for growing economies e.g. mobile internet cafes Cheap, accessible infrastructure for growing economies e.g. cheap smart phones enabling citizens to organise protests

 

Both have them have made lasting, measurable impacts to how people experience the space around them. They have brought the global to our doorstep, made it cheap and accessible. (Kitchin, Dodge, 2011:8) Their presence in our everyday lives has become ubiquitous, as when discussing code, known as everyware. (2011:9) Kitchin and Dodge explore how close the relationship is between code and space: “[they are] produced through one another” (2011:17) to the extent that once cannot be experienced without the other. (2011:16) It would not be too much to come to similar conclusions about shipping containers. So much of what we see, touch, smell, own, taste, and by extension how we experience the space around us, has come from a shipping container, to the extent that our societies would be unrecognisable were it not for the technologies that shaped it.

 

Berry, C., Harbord, J. & Moore, R. 2013. ‘Introduction’ Public space, media space. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan pp 1-15.

Kitchin, R., Dodge, M. 2011. Code/space: Software in everyday life. Cambridge, MIT Press.

Morgan, S. ‘The plug and play city: how shipping containers are changing infrastructure’ The Conversation, 29th August 2016 < https://theconversation.com/the-plug-and-play-city-how-shipping-containers-are-changing-infrastructure-63125> accessed 24/02/2020.

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