Bill Viola's "Will There Be Condominiums in Data Space?"

Based on Bill Viola’s experiences and knowledge about all sorts of architecture and electronic media, he believed in the ability of making non linear video presentation and from that he got his article’s title. He believes that the data space and memory idea function effectively based on the human mind and imagination. Viola states that everything is contained or needs a space to exist like our memories and the memory of a computer in order to be able to save and “record” whatever is going on. Even if this space is an empty space or just a small portion of it is used, it still “exists in its entirety” and serves a function. Viola gives a good example of how a space can be serving a purpose when he says that even if you are recording emptiness with you video camera and it’s videoing, that means it is still on and functioning, but if you turn it off it’s not serving the data space concept. From this point, he based his article on the idea of video/film recording and editing and its relation to memory and how when watching a movie, the scenes become alive at the moment and seem continuos but when ending it and getting out of the mood it becomes past, yet kept in the memory. That’s why when making a film, editing and cleaning up the boring and unwanted parts is crucial and vital to the whole process. He talks about the relation between art, video, architecture, and the computer and how all these relate to a similar context based on historical data about realism and structuralism. Viola explains how the computer emerged into structuring and arranging interactive videos and discs. These videos that take the participant into spatial navigations of different times, speeds, places, and moods. With the use of the computer and the technology we have today, Viola emphasizes on the idea that with the help of the human mind and creativity everything became possible to achieve in this computer/video world to make it seem as real and 3D as possible. the editing techniques and the non sequential, non linear storytelling appeoach of using the video and the computer is emphasizing on the idea of data space and the linkage between the memory and the computer. Although this approach of having condominiums in data space is very successful and has been kind of used in cable TV, it is still in its beginnings and it has a long way to go with the vast amount of technologies and human creativity.