Post-Zoom: Screen Environments and the Human/Machine Interface

Abstract

Digital technologies like Zoom have become one of the hallmarks of the Covid-19 pandemic, ensuring that architects and scholars stay connected to each other while reconstructing old and new ways of engaging with media. This article explores the conferencing platform of Zoom as a universe of screen environments that has transformed how we communicate and collaborate — a “warm” medium that has squeezed work conversations into messaging and compressed lectures into televised theatrical performances. Beyond the limited lifespan of computer screens, the future of international collaboration, however, will rely upon neural machines and artificial intelligence.