Spatiality Map
The initial map.
This is initial map from which the cluster proposed to explore the topography of design from the spatiality perspective (click on the thumbnail image to see it full size). The map is constructed by taking six ‘zones’ of spatiality (academic discipline, design sector, external partner, activity, spatial quality, spatial dichotomy) and selecting within each zone specific foci based on the cluster participants and the potential for creative outcomes. One particular trail through the topography is on the map as an example.
Further development of a version of this map was envisaged for the second phase of the website. Evidently, this also had to be taken into account as an important parameter even in the planing of the initial proposal for the website. In fact, the decision to go by way of a wiki has everything to do with it, as described below:
Visual Thesaurus.
A very early intuition was that a map like this should not in fact be drawn, but should emerge out of the genuine interactions between concepts, individuals, and research groups of the relevant knowledge network. As an example of a similar approach, consider one of the most charming new gadgets on the Internet: The Visual Thesaurus generated using Thinkmap technology (click on the thumbnail on the right to see a creen snapshot, or better still go to http://www.visualthesaurus.com/ to try it out). The spider-like network of lexical relations is generated on the fly from the database of dictionary entries. The developers of the dictionary need only think of their primary work, which is to continually update the core database — technology does the rest... Whether a dictionary reflects or prescribes a language is a very big issue in linguistics, hence this approach to visualisation of complex information fits perfectly modern linguists' sensibilities.
Thinkmap example.
This, then, represents an opportunity to develop a mechanism for the Spatiality in Design research cluster whereby the authors/members will only ever need worry about the content of their wiki pages while the Spatiality Map is set to automatically reflect the links between all the pages of the wiki (and potentially beyond). In effect, this would be a very powerful navigation tool that may often be preferred to the standard SideBar of links.
Also, by taking the designated designer out of the equation, and by allowing the website to adapt to the Cluster by way of the wiki principles, the web of the actual relations within the knowledge network (between people, physical solutions and needs, etc.) will almost inevitably be reflected in the eventual number and content of wiki pages and the links between them. In effect, the map of spatiality would always already be mapped out in the emergent structure of the website, i.e. (and crucially) performed/enacted by the contributors rather than designed by anyone in particular...
Here is another Thinkmap example (click on the thumbnail above to see it full size). You can similarly imagine the spatiality map where each node would represent a wiki page (or a specially designated group of wiki pages) and the connections between them representing the actual links between the pages (the nodes working as links to the respective pages, of course).
