The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft

Citation

Doldi, L. (2007), "The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft", Online Information Review, Vol. 31 No. 5, pp. 714-715. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520710832441

Windows as architectural openings for light and ventilation, windows as frames for theatres, movies and televisions and finally windows as computers' screen: this is actually the evolution of the windows from Alberti until our time. But through the centuries the concept of windows has basically remained the same: a frame for the world we see. And, as we spend more time in front of windows, how the world is framed may be more important than what the frame contains. That is why it becomes important to understand the evolution in meaning and structure of the window through time. This book is an analysis of this evolution, “to provide an account not of how we got to here, but of where we have come from”.

The seminal work of Leon Battista Alberti, De Pictura, is the taken as starting point for a journey through several centuries. Alberti defines the window as a frame for vision. In Alberti's philosophy and work the viewer is fixed, the perspective is a single point and the frame contains just one scene. These elements have changed through time. In particular the emergence of photography and digital imaging have changed it. Through the philosophical position of Descartes, Le Corbusier and Eisenstein we come to our day, where the dominant window is actually a virtual window: the screen, that “renders the wall permeable to light”, that dramatically changes material reality. This is a kind of window which has radically changed the main characteristics of Alberti's window: opacity instead of transparency, a frame for a virtual world rather than the real one, a light‐receiving or emitting device instead of a see‐through device.

The virtual window concludes the journey of the reader through the centuries but – so the author maintains – it will surely continue to transform our concept of architectural space. Optically, the book is a pleasure for the eye: a well‐designed layout with wonderful drawings and pictures. Black and white – the colours of the book – play harmoniously together, marking the change of chapters. The chiaroscuro effects play through the pages, giving the book an elegant but severe look. The severity of the layout reflects the severity of the expression. The language and the style are those of a treatise on philosophy, with many specific terms, obscure passages, and difficult sentences. Several citations of other works and of movies render the reading a pleasure for those readers who already have a strong knowledge of the subject. For this kind of reader the book is surely a precious compendium, a deep historical and philosophical insight into the meaning of virtual media.