Virtual Design
There is a useful perceptual connection to be made between our minds and the computer; more specifically how we relate to the world through language and society and how the computer relates to the virtual world through programming and operating systems. The edifice of vocationalism is an important paradigm we use to successfully interface with society. This paradigm has been generated through history in the evolution of language. In an analogous level the computer uses specific applications to interface with the user and the virtual environment. It was generated by the evolution of programming language. Exemplifying this analogy would be to say Acad is Architect, Excel is accountant, Photoshop is artist, Word is author…etc. The level under these perceptual interfaces is everyday human behavior and the computers' user interface. The analogy for this concept would run like living in European culture and using Windows NT, versus living in an Asian culture and using Macintosh interface. Under this we have the operating system and machine language that supports the user interface, and respectively the philosophy and semantic rigor that support our own cultural and societal interface.
How is this model related to the design process? By comparing the way humans
interact on a vocational level and how applications interact with each other
we can see that the computer breaks down many of the barriers that exist between
idea and its realization on the physical level. For example; if one has a vision
for the design of a fountain for instance, in the computer he can jump between
many applications to get his ideas across. He can decide to model it in 3dsmax,
map it, light it, and render it from a specific camera angle. Then he can take
it to photoshop to take the rendering further, or to premier (after running
an animation in 3dsmax) and create a narrative film about the emotive experience
around this fountain. On the other hand, if this same process was going on in
the physical world, many barriers would exist between the idea and its realized
presentation component. The vocations one would have to go through (like modeler,
photographer, artist, filmmaker, etc…) would make the endeavor physically
and financially prohibitive. It's all about synergy.
We can also draw parallels from the alpha state in human consciousness and the
alpha channel in computer visualization to further elucidate this concept.