The Mediascapes Symposium begins with an introduction by organizers Jean-Michel Crettaz and Ed Keller, addressing new technologies and methods for representing the complexities of the physical world. The first speaker, Benjamin Bratton presents an argument regarding the state of the urban environment and the possibilities for computation within the city. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin presents her work at UC Santa Barbara involving the development and applications of a large-scale virtual reality environment. Marcos Novak documents a selection of his installation work, including a piece at the Venice Biennale. Manuel De Landa documents the application of evolutionary algorithms in the field of computing.