Envisioning Cyberspace: Designing 3D Electronic Spaces (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Cyberspace presents us with beings, objects, volumes and forces..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, World Wide Web, Alpha World (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Free of the constraints of physical form and limited only by imagination, new environments spring to life daily in a fantastic realm called cyberspace. The creators of this new virtual world may be programmers, designers, architects, even children. In this invigorating exploration of the juncture between cyberspace and the physical world, architect Peter Anders brings together leading-edge cyberspace art and architecture ... inspiring new techniques and technologies ... unexpected unions of reality and virtuality ... and visions of challenges and opportunities as yet unexplored. More than an invitation to tour fantastic realms and examine powerful tools, this book is a hard-eyed look at cyberspace's impact on physical, cultural, and social reality, and the human-centered principles of its design. This is a book that will set designers and architects thinkingNand a work of importance to anyone fascinated with the fast-closing space between the real and the virtual.

From the Back Cover

Unfettered Excerpt by the Limits of the Imagination. Free of constraints of physical form and limited only by imagination, new environments spring to life daily in the fantastic realm of cyberspace. Fabulous structures welcome throngs of people, new communities bond across borders, fallen kingdoms thrive once more while futuristic cities rise majestically amid fields of electrons. The creators of this new virtual world may be programmers, designers, architects, even children. Unexpected Unions of Reality and Virtuality: In this this invigorating exploration of the juncture between cyberspace and the physical world, and reality and virtuality, architect Peter Anders brings together leading-edge cyberspace art and architecture...inspiring new techniques and technologies...unexpected unions of reality and virtuality...and visions of challenges and opportunities as yet unexplored. More Than Fantastic Realms and Powerful Tools: More than an invitation to tour fantastic realms and examine powerful tools, this book is a hard-eyed look at cyberspace's impact on physical, cultural, and social reality, and the human-centered principles of its design. From analyses of the implications of multi-user domains on the physical form of libraries, banks, and schools to new ways to regard virtual villages, this work

rockets architects to the epicenter of cyber-creation. This is a book

that will set designers and architects thinking--and a work of

importance to anyone fascinated with the fast-closing space between the

real and the virtual.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional; 1 edition (October 30, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0070016321
• ISBN-13: 978-0070016323
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,785,132 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Envisioning Cyberspace Optimistically, December 29, 1999

By	Mike Mosher ((in transit)) - See all my reviews

Something that makes Peter Anders' _Envisioning Cyberspace_ especially interesting is that it's the work of an architect and designer, for whom the issues of designing workable, user-centered cyberenvironments are comprehensible. He's gathered and comments upon a wide-ranging collection of work that he finds interesting, efforts that approach and address the big issues if not always fully realizing them. It often reminds me of the 1991 anthology _Cyberspace: First Steps_ edited by Michael Benedikt (another architect), or some of the hot early-'90s books on Virtual Reality, in that it's full of enthusiasm and enjoyment at the elegance of possible solutions. In this hard-nosed commercially-driven era that's a breath of fresh air; the real kind, not the virtual.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best overview and analysis of cyberspace in the 90s., March 12, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Palo Alto, CA) - See all my reviews

The accelerating growth of personal computing over the past two decades and the unprecedented rise of the Internet in the 1990s has led to a countless number of books. Many deal with particular aspects of this revolution - linear historical accounts, analysis of emergent psycho-social phenomena, how-to manuals on the latest program or technology, etc.. Very few however, manage to capture a broad overview and comprehensive analysis of this explosion. Fewer still have documented the wide array of less common technologies and research efforts that have accompanied and in many cases, presaged, the more familiar aspects of today's cyberspace.

It's not surprising then, that a uniquely comprehensive view should come from a member of the original generalist profession - architecture. In "ENVISIONING CYBERSPACE: Designing 3D Electronic Spaces," architect and media theorist, Peter Anders has succeeded in delivering one of the best and rarest overviews of the beginnings of the Information Age.

Integrity demands that I disclose that some of my own work is featured in this book, but what I discovered to my great surprise and delight, is that it's also filled with many incredible technologies and ideas that I was unaware of. Such is the difficulty in being aware of everything that's going on in our rapidly evolving era.

Anyone interested or involved in the design and development of information technologies would do well to read this book. The future is not limited to just a simple extrapolation of what's most commonly known today. The real Information Age is a vast, barely explored region of possibility around us and ahead. We're lucky to have Peter Anders serving as both Lewis and Clark.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thorough introduction to cyberspaces, December 13, 1999

By	Tim McFadden (San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA.) - See all my reviews

This is an extremely thorough introduction to cyberspaces and has many beautiful illustrations. This is an intellectually sophisticated book for non-computer scientists. It begins with a rigorous intellectual picture and then continues to survey existing cyberspaces with many insights along the way, that will please even techno-nerds.

The book fills in many details in the history of building cyberspaces.

Next year in cyberspace!