Assignment #2: Navigable Space

In Manovich’s Navigable Space, he postulates that the new form of navigating through space is motion simulation. Since the 1990’s, video games are a dominant force in 3-D motion simulation. At their creation they held no narrative direction thus giving them no purpose or potential progress for the users experience. Over time and through an adaptation to users needs, video games began to create worlds where progress could be made according to checkpoints, achievements, rewards, and even simply leisure. The only issue facing how the users navigated the space in these games was the parameters of the world in which they played. In essence, video games have opened up endless worlds where true virtual space has been created and revolutionized the way we, as people, navigate space. People are progressively moving to understand virtual space as an alternative to reality with the same type of control over their navigation.

In reality we have total control over how we navigate space at any point in time. In contrast, Manovich proposes that the newest forms of video games are representations of the earth, so what’s to say it’s any different to navigate the virtual representation of our earth versus doing so in reality? This illuminates a key difference over the control for navigating space. In virtual space, the parameters gauging how we navigate through the space is a result of the program. However, we as people are limited in our navigation ability. For example, the program Second Life is an endless virtual world based on the earth’s architectural form. A user doesn’t have to move about space in reality but can move throughout a similar virtual world with less restriction. The user can make themselves walk, run, and even fly throughout the virtual space. Furthermore, the user has more control over how they navigate space in the virtual world compared to reality. This poses a vital difference in our relation to space, both virtual and real. So, since humans have the ability to accomplish the same type of navigation with less restriction in virtual space then this can lead to a form of an alternative reality.

A program such as Second Life seriously complicates how we relate to space. More specifically, the space in Second Life dulls the distinction between the two types of space, namely virtual and real. The human-computer interface where we perceive the ability to navigate virtual space is the link between our reality and the virtual space itself. Although the user doesn’t move at all during this bond, the mind believes that it’s navigating itself through space because the human-computer interface presents it that way. The HCI controls our ability to navigate virtual space, so there’s no distinction whether or not the program or human is really in control.

Manovich goes on to uses examples such as architectural software as virtual space to exemplify how humans are slowly navigating two types of space without distinction. Before architects build any structure, they create a virtual rendition so that they understand what it would be like to navigate the space inside before it’s built. Therefore, although there is the ability to navigate with less restriction in virtual space, it still clearly presents the argument that people are understanding virtual space as an alternative to navigating real space.