The Rise of Network Culture – Kazys Varnelis

1 – Varnelis talked about the growth of non-market production and open source software, and the pushback from large corporations such as Google or Amazon extending the scope of their copyrights. However, how does this apply to education? As the network grows, how does this challenge or change our relationship to institutional education? As more colleges offer online classes, and even homeschooling does not require a parent to have an education background, will there be pushback from major institutions which want to preserve their educational settings as large campuses, or will the network of experts and ameteurs change how we learn? for example, the mass youtube culture of makers who “teach” methods of fabrication, casting, software use, etc.

Network Fever – Mark Wigley

1 – On page 88 they discuss the city as a network, and buildings as shells in that network. Architecture of networking becomes about pure function, since networks are pure use. How does architecture as shell adapt to pure use? Is this the catalyst for the division of the design of the “skin” of a building from the design of the interior?

2 – On pages 104-106 they discuss the “Nerve Design” ideas of bio technical research with the emphasis of the biological. How does architecture scale up something like a nervous system and use it for design? Do projects of the “walking city” which emphasize the diagonal connections between nodes and focuses on circulation have enough information about the activities of inhabitants when they are not moving? Do those “nodes” have enough importance or are they much lower on the hierarchy?