In September 2008 I submitted a book proposal to Routledge entitled "The Architecture of Information". The proposal extends the work of my PhD. by asking the question "Where is the Architecture in Information Architecture?". The book outline is, as follows:
Historically, from the development of Memory Palaces to the modern museum and library, buildings have acted as classification devices by inexorably associating the arrangement of ideas with the organisation of physical objects. However, this tradition of knowledge made manifest through the articulation of architectural space, has been challenged by the development of digital technology which, it was hoped, could free information from the "ballast of materiality‟ [Benedikt 1991: 4]. The development of systems such as hypertexts has allowed for the separation of data information and form‟ [Novak 1991: 226] by allowing for the possibility of multidimensional associations between virtual information objects. More recently, the complexity of large databases and the vastness of the World Wide Web have led to the emergence of agent based systems which automatically structure information which can subsequently be retrieved using search and query. Despite its potential to break the mould, however, digital information has been characterised by its reliance on metaphors from a pre-digital era. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the prevalence of architectural ideas which have pervaded discussions of digital information, from the urbanisation of cyberspace in science fiction, through to the adoption of spatial visualisations in the design of graphical user interfaces and the emergence of the profession of Information Architecture. Are these metaphors, for digital information, the equivalent of the car’s “horseless carriage phase” or are they a pointer to a more fundamental relationship between human beings and their representations of information?
This book will suggest significant historical relationships between the organisation of physical objects in architectural spaces and the organisation of ideas. These relationships are manifest, not only in a range of architectural typologies but also through language; for example the word “topic” originated as the Greek word topos meaning place [Sorabji 1972: 32]. There are also modern theories in cognitive science which help explain the mechanism by which this topos and topic relationship is realised; in particular, the concept of cognitive mapping [see for example Lynch 1960], embodiment and the image schema [see for example Johnson 1990].
These modern theories act as a bridge to understanding architecture as a semantic medium through the development of the concept of 'semantic space' where physical organisations also communicate semantic associations. This book thus unites historical, philosophical, psychological and architectural knowledge to develop a framework for understanding the relationship between information and its representation in a post digital era. This analysis suggests that, despite the opportunity to separate information from its material means, the object and physical space based metaphors associated with the storage of digital information are characteristics of a deeper relationship between inhabiting the world of physical objects and inhabiting the world of ideas.
This book stands against a tide of accounts of digital media which, uncritically and with revolutionary zeal, celebrate the separation of information from its material means and, in the tradition of Remediation (Bolter et al. 2000) and Understanding Media (Manovich 2001), it seeks to place Digital Media into its appropriate historical context. This book will provide the foundation for the architecture of information by significantly extending its discussion beyond the pragmatics of organising and presenting digital information and into semantic space which will be defined as a fundamental type of representation which is media independent but which has a particular place in the design of the digital world.
