form follows behavior

It is almost cliché these days to state that the database is the form of expression of our age. Many have written on this topic, from computer scientists to media theorists, from philosophers to artists. They have examined networks as the means for connecting and accessing related objects from databases, as well as protocol in the structure of the database as undermining the assumed autonomy of the object. In the art world, the separation between content and expression no longer seems controversial—along with protocol, it has become a topic of critique. Yet, despite the growing familiarity with the database, it is perhaps given too much credit as a form of expression. The largest misconception seems to be that the database supplants an author-driven narrative. It is often seen as anti-narrative, anti-hierarchical, when in fact the database itself has inherent narrative qualities.

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Curtis Wong of Microsoft’s Next Media Research group describes the architecture of information in three layers of what he calls a contextual pyramid: Engagement, context, and reference. Engagement draws the recipient in, context offers an explanation of the information source, and reference gives the ability to draw conclusions and connects to related resources. Metaphors and analogies are rhetorical devices which are used most often at the level of engagement, and can apply to concepts expressed through any form or medium.

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Following the train of thought from Browsing informal hierarchies, this post investigates visualization as navigation. When can navigation double as visualization and provide the user with visual cues reflecting the organization of content on a web site or another digital media device? Already in use on many web sites, informal hierarchies have the potential to replace the widely used static, tabular navigation and its often arbitrarily determined categories with a more flexible and adaptive device, one which not only is more effective in orienting users within a particular hierarchy, but is also an iconic representation of the web site itself, providing a distinct visual identity which people will recognize.

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Information architecture is the process of structuring information, typically based on specific interaction objectives. Yet as interaction design is increasingly seen as the extension of a brand experience, interactions themselves can become identity driven. This has implications for any content segmentation, which itself becomes an integral aspect of an identity program. The brand strategy can determine where, when and how to surface any type of information.

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The urban environment is a container of information. Anything can be treated as information, in as far as it is quantifiable.

As Aldo Rossi points out in The Architecture of the City, the city consists of Urban Artifacts, the constants in the changing urban fabric. As an adaptive construct, the city contains both constants and variables. The constants, however large or small, tangible or intangible, provide a parametric framework through which the city defines itself.
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