Section 1: The Social Space

The development of the media space implementations drew on art installations and architectural conceptions of spatiality for initial inspiration. However, discussions of the impact of media spaces have always included social responses and implica¬tions as well. As Bly, Harrison, and Irwin (1993) noted:   The people participating in the media space have the greatest influence on the ways in which it will be used. The ways of working that people bring to a media space and create in that space can vary greatly. However, characteristics of the setting and the technology are also important in how a media space is used and what it becomes. We consider the setting to include the individuals using the technology, the relationships among these individuals, and their activities. The notion that a media space must be understood as embedded in a setting, or a technosocial situation (Ito and Okabe, 2005) that is largely socially defined is now often rendered in shorthand: “media spaces connect people.” The above passage highlights this point, and also reminds us to keep in mind each of the individual elements — individuals, relationships, and activities — that relate a media space to the people who use it.