Exchanges In Real Spaces And Virtual Spaces

First and foremost, a real space is somewhere that exists physically and that can be placed geographically as opposed to a virtual space that represents a special type of environment facilitated by technology and that allows us to do most of the things we can do in real life but on a wider, more global, range such as communicating, listening to music, transferring and many more things. But how far is the boundary between real and virtual spaces becoming increasingly blurred nowadays? We will answer this by analysing two cartoons:

This first cartoon is called Ace Computers and was created by Harvey Schwadron. Above all we can see a shop selling computers named "ace computers" placed on the corner of the street. This is due to the fact that the cartoonist has added small details to enphasise the street's illustration, such as a rubbish can and a car.  What is more, we can see a passerby, dressed smartly and holding a briefcase, peeping inside the shop's window. In fact, he is reading a giant poster stuck to the glass window and that reveals the meaning of the cartoon. It says : "Welcome, eco-tourists! Why travel and add pollution? Stay home and visit exotic travel web sites!".

As revealed by the poster, eco-tourists are people who travel in an eco-friendly way so instead of driving to a destination or going on a plane they might travel by bike and instead of staying in a hotel that has heating and light they might camp. The marketing strategy of the shop wants to point out that even travelling ecologically pollutes and that technology allows you to stay at home and visit all sorts of destinations from your sofa whilst cutting pollution, travel expenses and planning.

This can be related to the notion Spaces and Exchanges as it shows that a person can be in two spaces at once. They can be in the real space of their home but also in the virtual space of Marrakech. 

Subsequently, this second cartoon by Mark Dubovsky called Working From Home shows another aspect of the virtual space communicating with the real space. Firstly we can observe two computers showing a face each on a desk. There are two chairs but both are empty. Underneath the drawing there is a small dialogue between the people shown on the screen. One says: "Hey Greg, you gonna be at work today?" and the other answers: "No man. Workin' from home. You?"

It must be said that teleworking is often used in companies as office jobs can be done from home thanks to computers. People can communicate by skype or email which makes working from home more comfortable.

This can be related with the notion Spaces and Exchanges as the two men are working from a virtual space that works exactly the same as their office space but they are actually in the real space of their homes. They still can exchange with each other as they are in constant communication. This is shown with the dialogue between the man and Greg.

We an conclude by saying that the line between real spaces and virtual spaces are blurred and getting more and more non existant. We must say that this phenomenon allows people to be in two spaces at the same time which enhances the commodity of people but makes them lazier as they can't even travel to a destination or to work. This can also be seen as positive as someone who is in India can work in the UK or someone who is in the UK can travel to India without actually going there, this helps save money and the earth as it is less polluting.