The evolving theorisation of space, from its classical geometric and Cartesian formulations to its modern social and digital conceptions, provides the essential conceptual scaffold for understanding the nature of digital environments. These theoretical foundations, however, only become operational through the interface. As posited earlier in this thesis, the interface is not a neutral window but the constitutive, multi-layered architecture of digital space itself. Its code, algorithms, and graphical elements form the environment through which spatial experience is produced, navigated, and understood. Therefore, this chapter employs historical theories of space and later, cyberspace, not merely as abstract references but as a critical framework to examine the spatial properties of the interface. The development of digital space is inextricably linked to the development of its interfaces; one cannot be analysed without the other.

The 20th century catalysed a profound rethinking of spatial definition and function. In 1972, Karl Popper proposed his concept of three interacting worlds, and shortly thereafter, in 1974, Henri Lefebvre published The Production of Space, arguing that space is socially produced through administrative policies, social conventions, and technological systems (Lefebvre, 1991). While these theorists examined space through the lenses of philosophy, geometry, and sociology, the advent of cybernetics at the century’s end introduced a new, decisive paradigm: the digital. This shift set the stage for the conceptualisation of cyberspace.

These earlier theories prepared the ground for discussions around cyberspace. One of the first extensive works on the subject, Michael Benedikt’s Cyberspace: First Steps (1992), employed Euclidean geometry and Popper’s three worlds to define the properties of this new domain in relation to physical space. The nascent state of computing technology dictated this reliance on physical and mathematical models as reference points. By 2006, with the web firmly in its social ‘2.0’ phase, Mark Nunes’s Cyberspaces of Everyday Life reframed the analysis around human–computer interaction, placing communication at its centre. Applying Lefebvre’s framework, Nunes described cyberspace as an idealised realm that holds "more of a mental than a physical aspect to it" (Nunes, 2006, p. 8). 2 This characterisation directly informs the present study’s focus on the interface as the material and perceptual site where this mental space is rendered experientially concrete.