Digital Ground: Architecture, Pervasive Computing, and Environmental Knowing

by Malcolm McCullough
The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2004
296 pp., illus. 42 b/w. Trade, $37.95
ISBN: 0-262-13435-7.

Reviewed by Rob Harle
Australia

recluse@lis.net.au

This is an important book. Not so much for what it achieves for architecture specifically, but for its detailed scholarly critique of the present level of ubiquitous, embedded computing devices generally. The investigation is far reaching and includes not only such obvious digital devices such as personal computers, but chips and electronic controllers that are embedded in almost everything we encounter in our modern Western lives.

McCullough’s main thesis, simply stated, is that we must move our design focus from "things to experiences" (p.158). That is, designers must get out in the field and find out what humans want to do with their devices, how they work (interact with them) and concentrate on improving the interactive experience for the human being not the machine/designer! There is no space here to discuss the various methods McCullough suggests to achieve this goal. However, one important aspect of the new interaction design theory worth mentioning is that the function and maintenance of digital devices should be peripheral, accessible if necessary, but normally out of site and out of mind. Try to imagine a personal computer (home or office) that worked as seamlessly as the thermostat in your refrigerator.

The book is arranged in four parts: Part One––Expectations––looks at how past technologies have given rise to expected interactive futures and the nature of embodiment, especially regarding space and place. Part Two––Technologies––discusses the various types of Embedded Gear, Situated Types, and Location Models we have been inundated with. Part Three––Practices––looks in detail at how we use technology, how we should use it, and the interactive experience concept, especially from a cultural and social perspective. Part Four––Epilogue––is very brief section that argues that technology is as natural to humans as the naturally occurring physical world (p.211). Further, that we should learn from complex natural systems and design technologies that enhance our human-ness not degrade us by enslavement. Finally, there is an extensive and informative Endnote and Reference section together with a hopelessly inadequate Index.

The content of the book is not especially technical, though it is not a ‘breezy’ read either. McCullough tackles many of the perennial philosophical problems associated with being human. Especially the nature of embodiment, methods of social control, how our inventions bring about cultural change, and how our adaptation to these changes effects survival. Capitalism and economic theory are discussed as these are directly related to the manufacture and design of all the devices under consideration; many are designed (or non-designed) because profit, not human wellbeing, is the only motive of production.

Much of McCullough’s discussion concerns ‘sense of place’. Embedded digital technologies, globalisation, the Internet (cyberspace), satellite positioning systems, video surveillance systems, and mobile communication devices have all altered the traditional concept of belonging to a specific place. This High-Tech nomadism has particular consequences for architecture and the design of the physical spaces humans occupy. McCullough uses the term "Digital Ground" to refer to the complex proposition that: "Interaction design must serve the basic human need for getting into place. Like architecture, and increasingly as a part of architecture, interaction design affects how each of us inhabits the physical world" (p.172).

Recent surveys suggest that the "phenomenology of engagement" is at the root of interactivity, this results in a shift of design values from, "objects to experiences, from performances to appropriateness, from procedure to situation, and from behaviour to intent" (p.50).

Unfortunately the enthusiasm of corporations and their designers for pervasive embedded computing, with little or no consideration for human social and cultural design parameters, still constitutes the status quo and as McCullough suggests, we are heading for huge design failures, "Expect Wrecks!" (p.118). This should alert the reader to the fact that McCullough’s thesis is highly controversial, not yet the dominant or accepted design paradigm and will take some time before it does become accepted as such. Just as the " Y2K Millennium Bug" could have caused a global disaster if its underlying causes had not been addressed early enough, perhaps other, as yet unrecognised problems resulting from unrestrained, badly designed embedded computing devices may cause serious large scale problems. Hopefully, we will realise the sense in McCullough’s argument for human centred design before any of these occur.