A view from the Luminous Room

A new body of research, concerning the divergence of information systems away from today's ubiquitous notion of ‘computer’, is emerging. Though the various threads of inquiry diverge significantly in their approach, each generally seeks some intimate integration of computational resources with its user's immediate or extended environment. We introduce here a new project called theLuminous Room, which uses dynamically controlled video projection to permit information access and manipulation throughout an architectural space. A description of the working components of the system is followed by an explication of the philosophies that provide both motivation and a conceptual scaffolding for the work. Finally, we offer speculations about the way in which formal architecture and ‘environmental’ information systems like theLuminous Room might co-develop.