Cyber–Bathhouse: The metaphor of the Interent
Jiayi Zhang
The project is based on the privacy crisis triggered by the Facebook data leakage incident, which leads us to think about whether there is privacy in the Internet world. In the Internet era, our privacy is constantly being stolen and exchanged for benefits, we feel that we are safe, but in fact everything is transparent. Then we hide our identity anonymously, protecting ourselves with false information, and carry out a grand stranger’s masquerade on internet. Similarly, a bathhouse in the real world is the place where privacy of a body is exposed. There are different occupations and identities in the bathhouse and they communicate with each other with naked bodies. There is wonderful similarity between the Internet and the bathhouse.
This study focuses on the similarities between the Internet and bathhouse. How to design the bathhouse and use metaphor to describe the features of the Internet? Firstly, the paper did some research about Internet features, compared with the history and culture of the bathhouse, then the author will try to find out the similarities between the bathhouse and Internet. Secondly, the article explores how to design the bathhouse and use metaphor to describe the features of the Internet. People who bathe in the bathhouse are similar to those who surf on Internet. The Internet and bathhouse are the medium to expose privacy.
Through the analysis of Internet and bathhouse, as an interior designer, I put forward a new concept of Internet metaphor. Through the bathhouse design metaphor Internet, let everyone through the space experience understand better about the current Internet characteristics such as privacy problem and transparency. It informs people that human beings are back in a transparent age. This is a critical metaphor. The bathhouse, as a metaphor, envisages the common expression of participants. The function of the bathhouse is to create and recycle private and public fantasies, and it may introduce new forms of behavior. The building will be the spotlight of the society. It provides hidden motives, desires, and impulses, as well as public action and display areas, where continuous crowds and bodies are stages between the display and the audience. Privacy is personal, but in the open space such as the Internet and the bathhouse, private and public, the Internet and bathhouse, are very interesting collisions.
The transparency of the Internet and privacy exposure will be reflected by the design of the bathhouse. The first part of the research explores the studies of typology of bathhouse and the eleven metaphors of internet. The second part of the research is supported by a book of Julian Assange’s, “Cypherpunk”, Foucault’s “Discipline and Punish”, Colin Roe’s “transparency”, and Alan Westin’s theory of privacy and logic of “Chinese painting”.
This heavy and opaque building embodies a special interpretation of the spirit of hygiene, which contrasts with the transparency of the Internet. As Aaron Betsky said, it is a mini city. Its corridors are streets, rooms, dark rooms and squares. Apart from being a place for friendship and sexual partnership, the bathroom is also an important cultural center of bathhouse.
The design of bathhouse is divided into 4 layers, the fi rst layer is exposure, the second layer is protection, the third layer is re-exposure, the fourth is the acceptance exposure, which represents the behavior of the people in the Internet. at the beginning, we relaxed, exposed ourselves, then found too much exposure, wanted to protect ourselves to go to the second fl oor, and even wanted to escape but eventually accept it. So when you go to layers, it’s your choice, but people are always curious to explore the rest of the space.So the behavior in space is up to you, But space will give you the desire to explore.when you go upstairs, you can move and control what you can see.
As an important medium of the society, the Internet has a great influence on our society. It is more or less influenced by the way of human behavior, social politics and cultural structure, but it brings a good side and a bad aspect. The project uses the critical thinking way to study the privacy and transparency of the Internet, and metaphors the Internet through the design of the bathhouse, transforming the abstract ideas into concrete ones, and providing people with real space to experience the Internet, thus deepening the understanding of the Internet. People’s influence produces reflection on the Internet age. On the one hand, the project is a metaphor. It is the perspective of the interior designer to explore and express the Internet from the angle of space. It is the continuation of the Internet metaphor work. It is a new perspective and critical design to understand the Internet. On the other hand, the project involves interdisciplinary theory. As an interdisciplinary designer, the project provides a new direction and perspective for interior design. Therefore, this project has great impact and significance to the development of interior design and the study of Internet metaphor.
