10.06.03
Psychogeographical Markup Language
Existing at the hitherto unsuspected nexus of Situationism and the Semantic Web, the proposed Psychogeographical Markup Language seems oddly, cruelly, workable, seen alongside some of the woolier things already proposed for semantic web protocols.
Sample tagging:
Distinct (is a place distinctive, or has it distinct features)
Border (is this street a definite break with the previous in a psychogeographical sense)
Open (the node present itself as welcoming)
Close (the node present itself as not welcome to visitors)
Lively (a place seems evolving, a centre for social interaction)
Gloom (a place nobody cares for)
Crowds (there are more people than a space can handle)
Desolate (the space is designed for more people than there are present)
Hectic (a space is filled up with objects)
Empty (a space is devoid of objects)
Planned Behaviour (the node implies certain behaviour/way to cross it)
Unplanned Behaviour
peter said,
October 13, 2003 at 11:08 am
I think there is already such a language in existance. Before his time, a man of some genius called Christopher Alexander, invented a comprehensive set of place-elements and architectural descriptors which he calls “a pattern language”. There are books about this, and, even though he lives and works in California, his system seems to me sensible, workable, subtle even.
He has also devised a kind of architectural and urban catastrophe theory. If all of certain elements are out of the hands of city dwellers, we are in big trouble. I found myself counting Alexander points on a recent visit to a dear friend in the Barbican and thinking that architecturally Aldersgate suggests that we should all be behind the sofa with our fingers in our ears, or else, like you, sensible Jonathan, elsewhere.