Talk during the Anti Tectonics Forum Beijing Design Week 751 Art District, Beijing. September, 28th. 2013

1. From code to memes :
how the Web is rewiring space
Clément Renaud
Anti Tectonics Forum
751 Art District, Beijing.
September, 28th. 2013

2. Renaud Clément
Freelance Researcher / phD
• Data Visualization
• Media Studies
• Web Development
• Information System
• Urban Geography
2

3. Suburbian phase : cars
« Smart » Phase : ICT
“More and more, the spaces of everyday
life come loaded up with software”
(Thrift & French, 2002)

4. How does the social web influence
our practices of space?

5. Online Social networks
Image from Rian.ru

6. Online memes
:-)

7. What is a meme?
meme. An element of a culture that may be
considered to be passed on by non‐genetic means
‐‐ Oxford English Dictionary

8. Different memes spread differently
Japan Hearthquake in March 2011
US politics : Grand Old Party
Typical hot news spread
highly polarized discussion

9. Different memes spread differently
Arab Spring
strongly connected hubs
From Weng et al., 2012 in Nature

10. Structure of Social Networks
Random Network
Free-scale Network
Small World Network

11. Social Networks are « small worlds »
Facebook Friendship Map by Facebook Data team

12. The web is rewiring us, but how?
Urban renewal has built
unnatural urban spaces that
destroyed communities
(Jacobs, 1961)
The engineered serendipity of
the Web also tends to enclose
our “digital surroundings”.
(Zuckerman, 2013)

13. Online Extensibility
The bubble of the Web (Pariser, 2011)

14. The « guidebook effect »
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Google
Maps
View by 63
people
9/10
POST
Bookmark
I am moving
to XXX!
Place B looks
strangely
familiar…

15. With social engineering,
serendipity and extensibility are decreasing rapidly.
The interface lead us through code, data
to find desirable friends , objects and places.
But even by going places online,
maybe we are just travelling
through our small worlds.

16. Thanks for your attention
Clément Renaud
clement.renaud@gmail.com