Digital City as a Metaphor for New Experiences of Reality

Abstract

Abstract In the era of already spent utopias and ideas about the city the experience of the city is transformed into a new perceptual grammar that is a consequence of the new virtual reality. With the revolutionary computerization of architecture a new architectural discourse was created that enabled virtual one – cyberspace, producing a new experience of transposed reality. The concept of a digital city does not exist without a virtual community, which on the other hand problematizes the issue of digital city ethics, bearing in mind that its use is conditioned by technical and technological possibilities, which are still not available to everyone. Digitalization of space communicates the newly created virtual dialogue between the user and space, outside of his physical and sensory experience and interaction with space, thus agreeing to the digitalization of the experience of space. By creating a new reality and a new era of the utopia of virtual architecture and virtual city, a new, cyberidentity of city was produced. Identity digitization policies in this regard will consciously use methods to promote virtual values, digitizing all aspects of identity, heritage, and even memory, and memory values of the city, producing a new, virtual identity, which largely leads to mutation of its original – existing – built identity. In this way, cities are positioned and valued in relation to the degree of their digitized representation, i.e., the extent to which their digitized identity is present and visible in cyberspace. The digital transition is one of the priorities of the “smart city” concept, which indicates that the future of cities is directed towards their digital transformation.