INTRODUCTION AND PEROSNAL PROFILE
We stand at the forefront of a digital frontier that is driving our us, as epxlored in the Simultaneous Realities agenda group. This culture into unknown territory. The physical and intellectual fabric
forms our subjective reality, which is for many, a hybrid between
of our civilisation is now underpinned by a digital network that the digital and physical world. connects us to the entire world. The perceived distance between localities is shrinking as we become members of an international
This portfolio documents our exploration into the notion of
community, that transcends traditional notions of culture and the simultaneous reality, and catalyses a personal study into augmented local.
reality. Augmented reality may be the event horizon of the digital revolution; it will call into question what we percieve as real, and
Yet why do so many feel detatched form the world? Perhaps the force us to reconsider what it means to live in this world. inhuman vastness of the internet isn’t offest by our personalised My project explores the architectural implications of augmented social profiles? But perhaps we no longer connect with our immediate
reality as a socio-architectural device.
context, in favour of an impossible variety of experience. Within our mind, we buil a cognitive model of the world around
Alistair Hume 11071337
CONTENTS
PAMPHLET
02 - 13
PERSONAL WORK THEORY TERITORY THEORY DETAIL/PALIMPSEST
14 15 17 21 23
THE DIGITAL WINTER THEORY PROGRAM REACTION PROGRAM PROPOSAL
25 - 34 26 - 31 32 34
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFLECTION
35
-
24 16 20 22 24
01
PAMPHLET Alistair Hume Courtney McLoughlin Cristina Manta with contributions from Auguste Juozapaviciute
SIMU L T AN E O U S R EA L I TI ES INCLUSIVE | EXLUSIVE | COEXISTING AN ANTI MANIFESTO
CONTEXTUALISING THE IDEA OF MANIFESTO Manifestoes have a history of arising in moments of social, cultural, political and economic crises and confusion, aiming for change and challenge of the “status quo”, rather than the mere representational or interpretational image of reality. Their aim is to set directions, condense ideas and intentions, fit to the purpose of collective desire, acting as catalyst for power within a society. The origins of the word (from the Latin “manifestum”, meaning clarity) indicate the simplifying, unifying purpose of a manifesto, as means of creating order out of chaos. Charles Jencks writes in the introduction of "Theories and manifestoes of contemporary architecture" (Jencks&Kropf, 1997: 7) that manifestoes “inspire fear in order to create unity and orthodoxy” and that a good manifesto mixes “terror, runaway emotion and charisma with a lot of common sense”. Thus, a manifesto is born from the imperative need for stability (which is why institutions are being constructed and reconstructed in a period of crisis in society) as a result of an “explosion of emotion” cumulated in a confusing and shifting setting, threatening with the disappearance of values and rules. Its expression lies in powerful metaphors which are “jack-hammered into our minds, like a painful experience”, the way through which awareness of certain factors is raised and actions are taken in accordance with. They are “repetitive, incantatory, responding to the imperatives of history, hoping to ward off catastrophe with magic or logic” (Jencks&Kropf, 1997: 10)
search of the new” and key “shifts in culture and development” (Jencks&Kropf, 1997: 9) of their authors. However, manifestoes suggest a singularity in perspective and indicate absolute, generic attitudes, which operate in a vacuum and ignore other potential directions. The failure of manifestoes lies in their misunderstanding of reality and how life functions. They provide solution based on the idea of change at a macro level, in a singular context, as opposed to the multiple changes acting at the micro level, given the multitude of contexts depending subjects. These subjects (people etc) create a level of unpredictability which requires more than one way of solving the arising problems. Instead, the manifesto evolves around the idea of control and interference in the natural growth of organism, which consequently produces disturbances in their balance, which in turn produces long-term unintended consequences. Thus, the manifesto promotes the idea of stability, by covering up and ignoring the tensions which accumulate underneath and which sooner or later lead to the failure of the entire system, given its centralized layout. The next manifestoes would rise as a reaction to the failure of the previous, but would provide solutions based on the same frame of thinking, which inevitably would lead to the same development pattern.
As no new structure can be raised as long as the previous one has not collapsed, manifestoes often consist in radical and violent breakthroughs. Manifestoes have proved to be essential for the society to Our [anti]manifesto will consider the widespread implications overcome the crisis and to move forward and to reconstruct of our perspective through the dialectic method, and aims to itself. They are essential turning points informed by the challenge the restrictions imposed by the idea of manifesto. “restless self-transformation”, “back-and-forth jumps in the
03
05
SIMULTANEOUS REALITIES AGENDA AND THE ROLE OF THE ANTI MANIFESTO
The antimanifesto defines potential solutions, posing key questions in the future development of the site, rather than setting rigid directions and restrictions, in the spirit of a manifesto. An antimanifesto exposes the flaws of the manifesto, but it does not represent a solution in itself. It suggests multiple solutions, by considering all homogenous and heterogenous components acting in specific context.
Thesis - Inclusive/Objective Realities
Our questions target and attempt to define the different realities which include (objectively)| exclude (subjectively)| and coexist in our urban fabric (such as the way technology affects our sense of place| non-place, intangible markets and the identification of pattern typology). Castlefield catalysed our interest in simultaneous realities; its role in the urban fabric has changed over time (therefore its temporal context changes, and people understand it differently as time passes). It is a collage of places and non places, the overall image of which depends on the perceiver (everyone has their own places and non places). Yet Castlefield has a wealth of history which social, economic and technological systems have begun to cling to and objectify. Our aim is thus to balance subjective and objective realities simultaneously into a coherent image of site, relevant in time and space. We will consider a multitude of realities and situations in our territory. We arrive at this via a dialectic approach as diagrammed on the right hand side.
Antithesis - Exclusive/Subjective Realitie
Synthesis - Co-Existing Realities
04
The Convergence of Reality
SIMULTANEOUS REALITIES INCLUSIVE REALITY | THESIS
' "The abolition of distance” as an essential feature of contemporary human condition and elaborating on the growing possibilities of instantaneousness and simultaneity in human experience.' (Sirowy, 2010: 152)
Drawing from strands of our individual takes on realities, (economically, culturally and technologically, dualistically) and using theoretical texts we envisage the contemporary city as a simultaneous realities existing in a compressed manner.
Further to this our realities in terms of economics technology and culture have become systems and processes due to the instant nature of the contemporary city. There has been a transition from the ‘space of place’ to the ‘space of flows’ (Castells 1996: 375). It’s due to this that localities become Realities clash and combine in the city with ‘instantaneousness’ dislocated and absorbed in an abstracted way into these (Sirowy, 2010: 152) and are inclusive of one another, resulting functional networks. in the compression of space but also the loss of place. The human experience thus becomes more chaotic yet in terms of Given this scenario, should architecture mirror these place more monotonous and one dimensional.These realities processes or react against them? operate simultaneously but sometimes incoherently with one another and can converge on spaces producing fragmented environments.
Objective realities Wherby everyone exists in the same spatial plane; each a component of an all encompasing physical world that could be called ideal ovjective reality.
05
The Divergence of Reality
SIMULTANEOUS REALITIES
EXCLUSIVE REALITIES | ANTITHESIS
'Every kind of ignorance in the world all results from not realizing that our perceptions are gambles. We believe what we see and then we believe our interpretation of it, we don't even know we are making an interpretation most of the time. We think this is reality.' (Wilson, R.- 'Real Reality')
Our antithesis elaborates on the notion of subjectivity; not all information is objective, or tangible. Emotional response to a situation or place is unique to each person and depends on many physiological and psychological factors; our inability to concretise our emotions in objective or quantitative terms means that an experience of place is not transferrable from person to person. Instead, every conscious individual (human or otherwise) constructs their own reality tunnel, based on what they know and understand, and how they feel. One could envision a city where realities diverge according to social and economic groups, and stagnancy results; non places can be understood
to exist outside of one’s reality tunnel, and may exist outside of many 'reality tunnels'(Wilson, 2009: 187). A self-perpetuating cycle of urban decay and stagnation in the non-place results. In this model of simultaneous reality, although a plethora of urban interpretations (or models) exist, they can never be empathically shared, only verbally communicated. Thus we arrive at a certain sad solitude in the urban fabric, in that we can never truly share our urban experience, or affirm that our reality is ‘real’. We live in an imagined city, that we share with countless others, all of whom live in their own simulated cities (Baudrillard 1981)
Subjective realities Whereby every conscious being constructs a model of their existence, as a response to their sensual input. It remains forever unaffirmable.
06
The Coexistence of Realities
SIMULTANEOUS REALITIES
COEXISTING REALITIES SYNTHESIS
'Building may respond meaningfully to a specific way of life by integrating different and sometimes heterogeneous conditions' (Sirowy 2010:158)
To begin to synthesise we must make the assumption that what we see is real and can be defined by constants; we are unified by living on the same spatial plane. We must try to find coherence not only with the objective realities which shift and change but also integrate the subjective realities and thus coexist in a both a dynamic yet constantly relevant frame of thinking to the users.
our own interpretations. This requires one to assume that what we see exists, while we aknowledge at the same time the existence of other subjective realities.
Our synthesis is trying to bridge the gap between overlapping objective and subjective realities, by creating a continuous flow between disparate fragments, which are essentially part of the same objective reality plane, while maintaining their individual Our synthesis takes both of these points of view into account characteristics. in equal measure; although we can never confirm or deny the existence of our surroundings according to our perceptions, How can architecture maintain its meaning in the context of we can find constants with what we perceive linguistically, and a transient world and thus be relevant to the simultaneous infer an objective spatiality and existence, from which we make realities, both objective and subjective?
Coexisting realities Whereby all conscious beings have their own individual reality, that can overlap and influence the realities of other beings; whilst unaffirmable, we are all unified by linguistic agreement that what we perceive justifies our existence.
07
Evolution of the Site treated as the Coexistence of Old and New Conditions
CONTEXTUALISING CASTLEFIELD TERRITORIAL ANALYSIS
08
Location
Public-Private
Routes
CIRCULATION
This summary of some of the general routes, circulation channels and land usage in terms of private and public is intended to contextualise Castlefield in its current state. These begin to look at the objective realities of our environment in terms of Castlefield, it is important to state here that not all objective realities may be coined in terms of the tangible, for example private and public is a socially constructed notion and technological and economic realities of the site are objective yet can be seemingly intangible. To further develop this analysis of the territory we should explore the site through the lens of the subjective realities of the individual. We propose to do this in a methodology borrowed from Kevin Lynch. We will ask people to draw the territory in terms of routes, nodes and edges and overlay them to gain a more nuanced understanding of the site. We realise that we can never do meaningful analysis of the territory including every single individual person’s reality and so this alludes towards a synthesis between the objective and subjective realities of the territory.
Vertcal Grain of Castlefields - Density Breakdown
Horizontal Grain of Castlefields - Density Breakdown
Circulatory Fabric of Castlefields - Combined
09
landmarks the canal routes
SUBJECTIVE MODELS OF TERRITORY
In order to get a more nuanced understanding of the territory we have asked individuals (locals or not) to mark their usual routes and their notion of a landmark and edge (according to Kevin Lynch’s definition of paths, landmarks and edges) on the map of the site. The survey confirms the status of Castlefield as a nonplace, as most of the people use the site as a transient space, in order to reach the city centre or Salford. The usual routes intersect under the viaducts, being delimited by the canal, considered an edge by most individuals. The routes have different purposes from business ownership to residential or leisure, the site also being used as a detour from the crowded city centre. The most popular landmarks consist in the Museum of Science and Industry, the canal, the viaducts, the roman ruins and Duke 92. Most of the individuals interviewed consider the viaducts a powerful characteristic of Castlefield and see it as a unifying element, rather than an edge.
10
VIADUCTS APPROPRIATION
DIVERGING SPATIAL REALITIES
Land use diagram showing how the homogenous condition of the arches has been appropriated by commerce to create diverging uses/realities.
EVOLUTION OF THE RAILWAY
AN OVERLAP OF TEMPORAL REALITIES
The evolution of the railway and its use reinforces the idea of continuity between different temporal planes, slightly taking different directions, while at the same time maintaing a common axis, one trans-temporal plane.
11
BIBLIOGRAPHY AugÊ, M., & Howe, J. (2008). Non-places. London: verso. Baudrillard, J. (1994) [1981] Simulacra and Simulation. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press Benedikt, M. (1987). For an architecture of reality.Lumen Books. Burdett, R., &Sudjic, D. (2011). Living in the endless city.Phaidon. Castells, M. (1996), The Rise of the Network Society. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers DeSilvey, C., & Edensor, T. (2012).Reckoning with ruins. Progress in Human Geography. Jackson, F. (1986). What Mary didn't know. The Journal of Philosophy, 83(5), 291-295. Jackson, F. (2003).Mind and illusion. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 53, 251-271. Jencks, C., &Kropf, K. (Eds.).(1997). Theories and manifestoes of contemporary architecture. Bath: Academy Editions. Lo, A. W., & MacKinlay, A. C. (2011). A non-random walk down Wall Street. Princeton University Press. Mitchell, W. J. (1995). City of bits. Cambridge, MA: MIT press. Schulz, N. (1980). Genius loci. Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture. Sirowy, B. (2010). Phenomenological Concepts in Architecture: Towards a User-oriented Practice. Arkitektur-ogdesignhøgskoleni Oslo. Wilson, R. A. (2009). Everything Is Under Control. HarperCollins e-books. Wilson, Robert. "Real Reality" [Retrieved 20 October 2013]
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END OF PAMPHLET
13
PERSONAL WORK THE DIGITAL WINTER AND PROGRAM PROPOSAL
14
EXT TO
FAILURE TO CONNECT - LA RAMBLA
THEORY INTRODUCTION
STEPPING OUTSIDE OF THE REALITY TUNNRL
Subjective Reality drives the decisions we make and the spaces As previous Temporal planes are overwritten, instead of integrated, we create. In response to what we see, learn, experience and or blended, parts of the city fall outside of our reality. interpret, we manifest urban change, cause urban decay, and define the physical and cultural fates of our cities and environments Castlefields embodies this temporal contestion in the context of through our every day appropriation. We understand this to be Manchester. progress, which is both a societal imperative and an inevetability at the same time. As society moves faster, non place becomes an ever greater (non) presence in our urban fabric. The architectural and infrastructural progress can push spaces, buildings and even districts ourside of the experiential fabric of the city. Entire wards can be severed from their meaning, and the cultural bedrock of a city can be discarded and overwriten. In older cities, the notion of palimpsest - a temporal junction between zeitgeist and genius, is under constant threat from the tabula rasa.
OVERLAY AND SUBSEQUENT OVERWRITE OF TEMPORAL PLANES
15
STANDING INSIDE THE REALITY TUNNEL
STANDING OUTSIDE THE REALITY TUNNEL
FACING THE REALITY TUNNEL
THEORY THE SPREAD OF NON PLACE
REALITY TUNNEL AS A MODEL FOR NON PLACE
When we perceive spaces, we build a model of how they work inside our minds. The more strongly we experience a space, or the deeper we explore a space, will result in a more detailed (but not necessarily accurate) model of our environment. Repitional experience will clarify detail without conscious intent to do so. But it will always be incomplete and subjective; we can never objectively affirm that what we are seeing is accurate, or build a full cognitive model of the world - its vastness and complexity is beyond one mind. Parts of the urban fabric that fall outside of
WE LIVE IN A WORLD OF FACADES. THE SPACE BEHIND
our reality model are to the individual, a non
THESE FACADES ARE OFTEN TO US, NON PLACE
place. One can pass a space thousands of times without acknowledging its existence. When our many coexisting realities all fail to recognise a space, non place can lead to neglect, decay and subversive appropriation.
16
LIBRARY PLACE
THE CULTURAL EROSION OF PLACE
TEMPORAY PLACE AND NON PLACE IN THE URBAN FABRIC
LIBRARY NON PLACE
We live in a culture of fast experiences what we perceive.
construction barriers block one from
and instant gratification. We can consume, The manchester central library is an experiencing the building. Thus it falls process, and derive utility from sensual interesting example of a fast place; back out of one’s reality tunnel. input, before expending and discarding one can easily use it as a navigational The principle of this illustrates the erosion said input in seconds; we have been waypoint in the urban fabric, as from a of (semi) permanent places, in favour of desensitised to the extremes of the human
distance, and on a map, it stands out.
an urban fabric that fluctuates between
experience as the internet homogenises However, once near the building, the place and non place.
17
TERRITORY MAP 1:10000
TERRITORY CASTLEFIELDS
INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS
Castlefields has transitioned from one of the most important places in manchester to a relatively forgotten district. A victim of Manchester’s post industrial DOMINANCE OF INRASTRUCTURE
change, Castlefields can be read as a series of non places that together, form an alternative urban fabric; when one explores Castlefields, many non places reveal themselves to be heterotopias,
OBEDIENCE OF BUILDINGS
with rich experience and strong cultural and historical importance to the city. Sadly, this is neglected by Manchester’s majority, as our modern culture fails to
INFILTRATION OF WATER
sit within the genius loci of the district.
18
TERRITORY NON PLACE
SITE AS A TRANSIENT SPACE
As identified by the Simultaneous Realities agenda group, the site is to many, a transitory space. It falls outside of the reality tunnel of many Mancunians, as they fail to connect with the industrial infrastructure and unoccupied space of the area. Thus, to many of our cultural agents, the area is a non place, as opposed to a heterotopia. We therefore fail to recognise castlefields within our reality model of the city
19
POTATO WHARF NON PLACE
POTATO WHARF NON PLACE
POTATO WHARF AS A CORPORATE INTERVENTION
Potato Wharf creates an incongruous junction between temporal planes - that of the area’s industrial past, and the present development aspirations of landowners. Unfortunately, the intervention, is corporate, as opposed to arhitectural, in its intent. The open courtyard that allows connects to the apartment block is, whilst public in its boundaries, private in its expression. A lack of seating or any public function pushes us away from occupying this corporate purgatory, and reminds us of its pragmatic function. A non person, reflective of the impersonal nature of the space occupies the centre of the courtyard. Experientially, one is pushed away from Potato Wharf, and as a resut, is drawn to the conflict between temporal contexts.
20
MOVING TO A VIRTUAL REALITY
DIGITAL CULTURE AS A CATALYST FOR NON PLACE
Although printed media has formed
As a result, locality, immediate
a part of our mental reality for context, and one’s surroundings thousands of years, it is the birth
can be ignored.
of the digital world that is first to offer an expansive and pragmatic As we do this, we lose track of the alternative to the physical world, local, and consciously push the in which to mentally dwell. As real world outside of our reality an instant and five dimensional tunnel, and into non place archive of all of humanity and nature, the digital world becomes a place in its own right. EXPERIENTIAL OVERLAY
21
THEORY HETEROTOPIA
A SYNTHESIS OF PLACE AND NON PLACE
It is possible to read many heterotopias
The composition moves from water to
as pivotal moments in a cultural or solid ground, to stone walls, to trees, to historical narrative that informs the sky; it is a dialogue that needs no addition, present.
and no further context. It embodies the hierarchy of our architectural elements
The Barcelona Pavilion is such an and the structure of our world. example of this. Since its exposition, its direct influence on architecture, and It is a place within itself, but can be indirect influence on our entire civilisation placeless outside of itself. (to varying degrees), establishes a relationship between the pavilion and This near perfect heterotopia is important many other parties. Reflected in the far because it concretises us to the earth, wall, are cognitive spaces, projected and affirms our presence as a civilised outwards from people’s experiences of people from a physical world. the pavilion. Their realities are shown as near complete, due to the simple logic It is noteworthy that the internet achieves of the building, and flawless expression. the opposite effect of this using a similar strategy. The digital world connects Mies Van Der Rohe’s other works are to the entirity of our recent civilised reflected in the glass, acknowledging world without having a set location. the influence that the building had on To the physical world, the digital world his own future works.
is perhaps a heterotopia. Yet to itself, it is homogeneous and instant. It can
The water reflection infers the geometry
separate us from the physical world,
of the exposed side of the pavilion, and and leaves us questioning, rather than suggests a dichotomic relationship affirming who we are. between the elements.
BARCELONA PAVILION
22
MARKET BEFORE RENNOVATION
STUDY TOUR PALIMPSEST
STRUCTURAL EXPRESSION OF LAYERED TEMPORAL PLANES
The Merkat de Santa Caterina has a strong The
junction,
and
accompanying
historical tie to the city of Barcelona.
roof system, softens the temporal
During its rennovation, the old structure
junction
of the roof and walls was integrated and
between
gives
old
meaning
and to
new, both.
into the new structure; instead of a traditional load path however, the load
The technical model attempts to reflect a
parth is inverted, and the relationship playful and very successful treatment of between the elements subverted.
palimpsest in a strict historical setting.
1:2 DETAIL MODEL
MARKET AFTER RENNOVATION MARKET DURING RENNOVATION
23
PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT
PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT
10
260
300
PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT
PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT
21 2, 13
60
250 270
ELEVATION AT 1:8
SECTION AT 1:8 650
10
PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT
IN DETAIL PALIMPSEST
STRUCTURAL LOGIC AND TECTONICS
ORIGINAL ANGLED TRUSS BEAM
ORIGINAL VERTICAL TRUSS BEAM
NEW STEEL TENSION ARM
NEW STEEL BOLTS
ORIGINAL IRON REINFORCEMENT PLATE
ORIGINAL HORIZONTAL BEAM
EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC OF DETAIL
24
CO-EXISTING REALITIES
EXPERIENTIALLY SEPARATE REALITIES
SYNOPSIS THE DIGITAL WINTER
5 DIMENSIONAL NON PLCAE
The rapid introduction of revolutionary layer that changes how we perceive our technology will always have the potential
surroundings. Instead of responding to
to fundamentally alter our civilisation; physical input, we respond to purely we, as creators, do not always have the digital input, and thus our model of foresight to control our creations.
reaity is derived from the digital world.
An example is nuclear fusion and fission;
Through this, we can sever our ties to
a technological discovery on which the
a locality, and even to a culture. Other
course of modern history pivots. At people become characters in a personally one extreme, it gives us clean, virtually
controlled narrative - non people that
unlimited energy; on the other, it gives
exist on a separate experiential plane.
us nuclear war. If we were to abuse our History loses its meaning, when it pertains power as creators, we could destroy to a world in which we no longer live. our cities, culture, and relationship to our own history, and also to the natural The notion of cultural progress is world. A nuclear winter would enshroud overturned by instant trends, and although the world.
our lives speed up, time stands still.
The Digital Winter suggests the same We live in a separate temporal plane to scenario with augmented reality - a the physical world. We live in a separate technological event horizon towards experiential planen to the physical world. which we are fast approaching.
We live inside the Digital Winter. A five dimensional reality that allows one acces
This project hypothesises a world in which
to everywhere, everything and everywhen.
augmented technology has fundamentally
Yet everything is devoid of meaning,
rewritten our relationship to the physical
when taken this far out of context.
world by overwriting our experiential reality. All sensual input to our brains We live inside the Digital Winter. Non is mediated through a digitally overlaid Place is our medium.
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DEVELOPMENT STAGE 01
OVERLAY OF BASIC INFORMATION
TEXTURE
A basic form of augmented reality that allows one to overlay basic digital functinality. It crudely overlays a digital world on top of the physical world, and acts as a flat plane, that is separate to
SOUND
the locality of one’s surroundings
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DEVELOPMENT STAGE 02
OVERLAY OF META INFORMATION
TEXTURE
This is the first stage to spatially recognise one’s surroundings, and react with meta PEOPLE
information about one’s locality. This is also the first stage to spatially affect one’s surroundings, and juxtaposes what is physical and what is digital through functional differences. It serves to enhance
SOUND
one’s movement through the physical and digital planes in a seamless and organic platform.
META DATA
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DEVELOPMENT STAGE 03
INTRUSION OF THIRD PARTY INTO AUGMENTED REALITY
TEXTURE
One may have to question who controls PEOPLE
augmented reality, and for what purpose. This stage visualises the intrusion of third parties into one’s hybrid environment with a corporate agenda. Perhaps the digital services are paid, and according
SOUND
to means and payment, one can add or remove layers of marketing, or other spatial additions. The political implications of a third party directly controling or influencing one’s sensual input to this level are both controvertial and important.
META DATA
The augmented realm is also beginning to detract from physical space.
THIRD PARTY
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DEVELOPMENT STAGE 04 GEOMETRY
COMPLETE SPATIAL AND EXPERIENTIAL OVERWRITE A complete spatial overlay suggests the
TEXTURE
possibility for one to overwrite one’s experiential surroundings completely.To them, their locality becomes non place, and they sever their connection to it. From this point on, locality and culture
PEOPLE
become separate to subjective reality. One cound instead draw from any place, culture and time period on earth, overlaying texure, geometry and light to create their
LIGHT
digital environment. However, the transgeographic import of culture or space drains the resulting environment of any original meaning or logic, and renders it a representative aesthetic.
SOUND
The physical world below their environnemt has these textures mapped onto it, so that obstacles are still visualised and avoidable. It is noteworthy that the last tie to the physical world will be transitory
META DATA
and infrastructural pragmatism.
THIRD PARTY
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DEVELOPMENT STAGE 05 GEOMETRY
DIGITAL SPACE THAT REFERS TO NO PHYSICAL PLACE
TEXTURE As time passes, and humans live in the digital world more and more, environments may not be modeled on previous physica spaces any more, but reflect a digitally PEOPLE
derived aesthetic or pragmatism. At this stage, humanity (assuming the digital winter spans the entire world) accidentally reaches an apex in its
LIGHT
progress; the need to explore the physical world, or understand physical proceses is replaced by a desire for more computing power; the idea of cultural progression is replaced by fast moving homogeneous trends.
SOUND Individuals that are born into this stage, or inhabit this stage for long periods of time will have no personal relationship to the physicla world at all. META DATA
THIRD PARTY
EXPERIENTIAL OVERWRITE
31
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REACTION PROGRAM DIRECTION SITUATION | REVOLUTION | RESOLUTION The Digital Winter extrapolates the positive
physical; to negate the digital in favour of This project will be arranged in a dialectical
and negative elements of augmented reality
our routes as natural beings.
structure, in which the thesis is the situation,
to their furthest extreme.
the antithesis is the revolution, and the The image to the right illustrates the initial synthesis is a resolution.
The immediate antithetical reaction to this
rupture of the digital veil, and suggests a
is to break through the experiential veil of shocking and brilliant world beyond. the digital world, and reintroduce one to the
THESIS
ANTITHESIS
We live in the Digital Winter.
We must break free of the
We
Non Place is our medium.
digital world
relationship between the
situation
SYNTHESIS
revolution
resolution
must
resolve
the
physical and digital worlds.
PROGRAM NARRATIVE
We must recognise the importance of augmented reality as an experiential world, but must RESOLVE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE DIGITAL AND PHYSICAL WORLD
BREAKING THROUGH THE DIGITAL VEIL
HETEROTOPIA CONCEPT DIGITAL PAINTING`
PROGRAM A WORLD APART
PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT
USING HETEROTOPIA TO REINFORCE LOCALITY
Part of the intervention must use the viaducts as an introduction into the physical world - its unique and complete dialogue with the sky, machester’s urban fabric, and its structural concretises it as an entity of the physical world, and of Castlefield’s locality.
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PROGRAM PROPOSAL
TO DESIGN A REHABILITATION CENTRE FOR THOSE THAT LIVE INSIDE THE DIGITAL WINTER I propose to design a rehabilitation entities. centre for those that are trapped in their digital reality, and are unable to Therefore, the building must employ a develop a relationship with the physical strong sense of materiality and physical world themselves.
texture; harness metaphysics as a means to recognise the beauty of our world;
The intervention will draw people from allow people to drift through the facility, the well traveled routes of Manchester’s as an experiential journey through the urban fabric, into Castlefields, and to physical; be pensive and calm in parts the viaducts. The scheme must be able and pensive in other parts; attempt to to overwrite their augmented worlds be heterotopia both for Castlefields (by interfering with their augmented and for the physical world; allow for an reality devices), and shock them back experimental overlay of augmented reality, into the physical world. From there, such that both worlds are enhanced; they are free to choose whether to allow for people to return to the wider reintegrate or resubmerge themselves city and live independent of the digital in the digital winter. Other methods of winter; allow for varying numbers of invasive propaganda will be explored patients. to draw people to the site. The second function of the intervention The scheme will serve to rehabilitate to attract and communicate with those people back into the physical world, by that live inside the digital drift. This allowing them to generate their own could be expressed as a piazza that sits relationsips with physical and natural on both the digital and physical plane.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Books:
_Emergina Technologies of Augmented Reality
_Designing Digital Space
_Virtual Reality and the Built Environment
_Introducing Architectural Theory
_Cosmic Communist Constructions
_Less is More
Film:
_Dark City
_The Matrix
_Cypher _Alphaville
_Meglomania - Factory Fifteen
_Somewhere - Factory Fifteen
_Robots of Brixton - Factory Fifteen
_Jonah - Factory Fifteen
_Tron 1 &2
Buildings:
_Barcelona Pavilion
_Barcelonetta District, Barcelona
Other:
Please refer to Agenda Group Pamphlet
REFLECTION
Technology, and its endless web of Thus far, third year has been both influence has always fascinated me, challenging and hugely enjoyable. The and I believe that one must examine depth with which we are encouraged both sides of a coin to understand the to explore ideas and concepts gives whole; we must examine the positive a freedom and a rigour that forces me and negative elements of augmented to both consider and enjoy my work in reality to better understand how to use it. new ways. The following weeks will see a development in program, as the project grows in detail. I also wish to further develop the world of the Digital Winter, both for theoretical and rhetorical clarity. I look forward to continuing with this project, and exploring a future that I believe could happen, if we misuse our power over this technology.
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