Behavioural Patterns by Dave Loder

In this contemporary moment of pandemic, and the physical separating of bodies, there has been the mass adoption of online modes of interaction by the modern technological world. Across a plurality of working environments, from governmental to educational, face to face communication has been dis-located into the domestic setting. To some, this might be a mild nuisance, and for others a reminder of the need to get on the technological ladder, but notwithstanding the implementation of ‘social distancing’ in actuality propose a radical restructuring of the spatial conditions of modern society.

The spatial conditions of the online interaction are textured, collapsing and co-mingling spaces that were formerly distant or closed from one another. New rituals emerge in which modes of digital intimacy are tested. The domestic collides with the institutional. Hierarchies seek to reproduce themselves in the new digital landscape, where domestic and institution are deterritorialised upon each other. People become alienated from their homes as it becomes a site of work, the private space being institutionalised. Equally, the domestic is projected into institution, the projected interior becomes part of one’s digital avatar, to be analysed and mined for meaning. How do these experiences challenge or alter existing conceits of the spatial and modes of spatial sociability? What are the practices and tactics emerging to navigate these new spaces? How can the current situation contribute to a more comprehensive consideration of emerging typologies such as live-work/co-housing/co-working/that are sited at the collision of living and working, life and the institution?

By Dr .Dave Loder
Lecturer, Interior Design
The Glasgow School of Art