Digital Technology, Urban Aesthetics, and Phenomenology

Abstract

The process of total digitization of Being, generally referred to as digital convergence, has now entered a new phase, and this new aspect of digital convergence is being implemented through Ubiquitous Computing (UC). And such UC has emerged as a concrete life world that penetrates into cities and emerges new cities. The emerging urban reality, so-called Ubiquitous City, will have a tremendous influence in determining the future space of human beings. However, philosophical reflection is necessary to determine whether it is the right direction for the human to ride on this journey toward the future. For this reason, this paper philosophically traces the technological situation in which ubiquitous computing emerges as a third-generation HCI, and reveals its philosophical basis as Heidegger’s phenomenology. In this process, the article makes clear that the purpose of UC is to return the current direction of IT development especially back to the existential space of human beings. This develops into a discussion that crosses the discussion of UC with Heidegger’s spatial theory and Schulz’s phenomenology of architecture based on it.