Scripted Perception

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Scripted perception 05.08.2009 A Thesis by Chris Hainer Advisor, Kevin Erickson School of Architecture University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign


table of contents

Section One Impetus

Thesis Statement.......................................................................................... 1

Mind Map...................................................................................................... 2

Motivation.................................................................................................... 3

Section Two Research

The Phenomena of Water............................................................................. 4

Zumthor’s Sequence of Atmospheres......................................................... 6

Architectures of Time.................................................................................. 8

The Architecture of Image........................................................................... 10

Story and Discourse..................................................................................... 11

Section Three Analysis

Phenomena Graph........................................................................................ 12

Prototype Phenomena Analysis................................................................. 14

Graphed Phenomena Sequences................................................................. 16

Subjectivity / Objectivity............................................................................ 18

An Updated Graph....................................................................................... 20

Conveying the Senses.................................................................................. 22

Section Four Creation

Creating an Experience............................................................................... 24

Analysis of the Senses................................................................................. 26

Investigation into Sensory Design............................................................. 28

Sensory Installation 1: Stairwell................................................................ 30

Sensory Installation 2: Bridge.................................................................... 34

Scripted Perception...................................................................................... 36

Bibliography................................................................................................. 38


Impetus

How can we See How can we Convey How can we Design the senses? Throughout architecture’s history, many aspects have been investigated thoroughly, from structure to social effects to visual aesthetics. In all of this exploration there has been a distinct lack of research into the qualities of the senses as a whole. The sensuous quality of architecture is most often merely a by-product of design. This is because we lack an understanding of how to effect the senses through architectural design. The ability to measure, analyze and convey the senses as a composition would lead to a theoretical grounding as sound as that which the visual and aural aesthetics have developed. In this thesis I will attempt to find a way to investigate the sensuous composition of architecture, a way to convey it, and a way to design it. Each of these topics will be explored to a level necessary to bring up future questions and initiate methodologies. By investigating the rational understanding of sensory compositions this thesis is laying the foundations for a structured approach to perception in architecture.

1


A RESEARCHED MIND MAP To establish an area of critical study I mapped the related (and sometimes not so related) ideas and concepts which concern me in architecture. An effort was made to remain unbiased at this early stage in order to discover connections I may not have considered. Through the mapping a clarity revealed itself and a focus developed. Alterations and added layers provided definition to the initial map, and research strengthened the connection between seemingly disparate ideas. A focus developed toward the effects of sensorial events in combination and in sequence. Architects will

often create visual or spacial sequences, but what about the other senses? And what about the combination of senses? These questions felt poorly researched by architects, but other media, specifically film, seemed to have touched on them. Research in film studies and narrative creation led to the idea of mapping out the phenomenal qualities of spaces over time/space. Through this mapping, a form of narrative could be investigated in architecture in ways similar to literature, painting and cinema. With the foundation of the strong research that has been carried out in these fields, the study of architectural narration can be built up and refined.


Three statements of motivation

Impetus

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Form, function and material have long been thought to be the substance of architecture. What if these are just the means to manifest a more inherent quality of space, the phenomena? What if the phenomenal qualities of space could be objectively looked at separately from the components from which they arise? Could these qualities then be analyzed on a new level of their own and eventually used as a starting point for the creation of spaces with more refined atmospheres? Through an analysis that pulls the sensual experience of spaces into an objective realm where relationships can be studied, this project seeks to show how ideas from other arts—cinema, music, literature—can be applied to architecture in new ways. Specifically, the affective nature of architecture as a sensuous composition. • • • Architects reaching back to the Ancient Greeks have had some understanding of architecture as a perceptual endeavor. The Greek temple was optically refined for the viewer’s angle, the Roman bath combined heat and cold in a sequence, the Gothic cathedral amazed with brilliant light and scale changes. More recently architects such as Peter Zumthor and Diller and Scofidio have created deeply phenomenal spaces, but these are few and far between. Why should there be a greater focus on the sensuous in architecture? The senses gather data which the mind processes into perception and through this we understand the world. By this relation, the structure of the phenomenal has a direct influence on an understanding of the world; who we are is largely determined by where we are. If architects are designing the places which people use it is essential that they have an understanding of the sensory environments which the inhabitant will be effected and affected by. • • • Architecture is currently in a state of crisis. Anything that can be dreamt of can be built and any area of study can be a genesis of architectural form. Architecture is everything and it is nothing in particular. In this new found freedom architects are searching desperately for a reason to exist, searching for what architecture should be. The myriad theories and systems lead many to confusion; invalidating and questioning each other while offering little unification. At a deeper level, in our contemporary society the very foundations of architecture are being usurped by fields both allied and distant. If function can be solved like any other problem, it lacks the necessity of a designer and if form can be generated by a variety of nonarchitects—including by computer algorithms—what is left for the architect? Perception of space. Architecture’s true art is the production of phenomenal space; creating distinct places out of forms and functions. Moreover, because architecture consists of more than one space— at the very least inside and outside—the nature of the sequence of experience gains an added importance. It is now time to look at this characteristic of architecture as an essential quality, bringing it out of its current state as a by-product of construction. This is the territory of investigation.


Diller+Scofidio’s Blur: The phenomena of water One travels from the land towards a ephemeral blur upon the lake via fiberglass walkway. As one approaches the cloud the air fills with water vapor carried on the breeze. The temperature drops and vision blurs. Soon the only sound is the white noise atomizers all around. One is left blind, deaf, cold and wet. Visitors travel from the walkways up stairs to the body of the cloud. From here they can then travel further up to the Angel Deck; a platform above the cloud where sight is returned and visitors can bath in the warm summer sun against the sloping ground. Beneath this level, within the cloud lies the water bar, a place where visitors can taste the substance of the building in the form of bottled waters. The product of this construction is a wholly phenomenal experience through the destruction of vision. The architects’ goal was to blur sight and sound in order to heighten the other senses. One wonders around nearly blind led by the haptic qualities of bodily orientation and the touch of the cool water vapor. One experiences the water fully, through the distinct smell of the lake, taste of the bottled waters, feel of the vapor on the skin, etc. In the end, Blur is a place where one does nothing but experience a unique sensorial world.

Research

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By creating a completely unique experience, the Blur project is far beyond most architectural works in its approach to the senses. Diller and Scofidio are creating a solely phenomenal environment where each sense is taken into account. Every aspect of the work is focused on this end and the outcome is a phenomenal success. If all architecture followed the example set by Blur, the world would have a much greater understanding of the senses. But Blur’s experience should not be the final goal of architecture. The final goal should be a series of phenomenal experiences approaching the intensity of Blur’s. Blur’s experience is a singular one, but through the combination of experiences, another level of architecture would be created. With Blur one travels from the world into one surreal space and back again. If there was a sequence of spaces, a much more interesting experience would exist and a narrative would begin to unfold.


Peter Zumthor’s Baths at Vals, Switzerland: A sequence of Atmospheres

Zumthor’s Baths at Vals is a complete sensuous experience. Composed of a set of pools, each with its own atmosphere, the building allows for a multitude of phenomenal sequences. All of the senses are treated, gaining importance at times and being dampened at others. Parts contrast and combine into a whole that is greater and gains its own meaning through the sequence. An example of one of these parts is the cold room where the water is chilled, but additionally the air is still, the light is a blue which pierces through crystal clear water, and the space is very tight and silent creating a personal confrontation with the cold. Another example is the contrast of the cold room, the hot room. Here the water is choppy and loud as it slaps into metal channels along the tall walls. The space is dark red, with light emanating from the water and the larger scale accommodates multiple users whose voices echo. In every way these two spaces are in contrast and through the juxtaposition of them a sequence is created. The phenomena of the spaces defines their use and the sequencing of them defines a narrative. Through the distribution of the pools within a larger circulation space, this narrative becomes one at times suggested by the architect, but always controlled by the user. The inhabitant writes their own story whether it’s the quick run from the cold pool to the warm or the trip from the petal fountain to the grotto and back out into the exterior pool. The individual atmospheres are arranged by the user into their own story of what the architecture is.

Research

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In terms of the sequencing of experiences, Zumthor’s Baths are a wonderful model. The multiple unique atmospheres created within the architecture are allowed to interact through the movement of the visitor and each user leaves with a distinct version of the architecture’s events. To create these atmospheres, each sense is controlled, whether it is heightened or suppressed and each works together in an orchestrated unison.

The single critique of this architecture is that each pool is so distinct from the others. One is hard pressed to find a phenomenal similarity between any of the atmospheres and they are all separated by a neutral space. One must ask themselves what would happen if elements of each space slipped into the next seamlessly, some overlapping at times and others reoccurring for moments. Would this lead to a more intricate and holistic place?


Architectures of Time - Kwinter In physics, the demise of absolute time is shown to give way to a theory of the field, effectively superseding the classical notion of space as a substratum against which things occur, and consequently giving rise to a physics of the event. (Kwinter preface) Reality... is a perpetual becoming. It makes or remakes itself, but it is never something made. - Henri Bergson Each thing, it may be said, changes and arrives in time, yet the posture of externality that permits precise measure and perfect mastery can be struck and assumed only in space; one must first withdraw oneself from the profuse, organic flux in which things are given, isolate discrete instants as projected frozen sections, then interpolate abstract laws like so much mortar to rejoin these section from the new perspective. (Kwinter 4) Real time is more truly an engine, however than a procession of images—it is expressed only in the concrete, plastic medium of duration. Time always expresses itself by producing, or more precisely, by drawing matter into a process of becoming-everdifferent... (Kwinter 4) In the domain of architecture–the first to have declared its postmodern emancipation from avant-gardist modernity– this tendency to mediocrity was expressed, and only barely masked , by a decade of submission to the cult of historical styes, and subsequently to myriad, but often hollow neo- and antimodernist intellectual postures (strategies such as collage, deconstruction, and the crypto-formalist revivals of computeraided modeling.) Though the parochialism of these especially recent developments is often obscured by the virtuosity of their results, they have never managed to hide their fundamental aimlessness, the inevitable result of cultures whose intellectual activity has become severed from its foundations in social, historical, and economic life. (Kwinter 6) No object in nature—be it organic, mineral, or entirely abstract or immaterial such as an idea, a desire, or a function— escapes the perpetual onslaught of differentiation according to which objects are continually becoming different from themselves, undergoing transformation. (Kwinter 7) As design practice and thought are deflected away from the traditional and largely aesthetically constituted object and simultaneously reoriented toward a dynamic macro- and microscopic field of interaction, an entirely new field of relations opens itself to the designer, theorist, or artist. (Kwinter 21) A nondogmatic approach to this ”field” and to the politicization

of design practice today would be to consider all architectures as technical objects and all technical objects as architectures. By technical objects, I mean simply this: that around each and every object there may be associated a corresponding complex of habits, methods, gestures, or practices that are not attributes of the object but nonetheless characterize its mode of existence... (Kwinter 21) From the moment a system is understood as evolving over time, what becomes important are the transformations it undergoes, and all transformation in a system is the result of energy—or information—moving though it. (Kwinter 23) Events belong to a class known as “emergent phenomena”— the product and expression of sudden communicative coherences or ”prehensions” (Whitehead) of converging qualities inexplicably interweaving and unfolding together, even though they may originate at vastly different temporal and phenomenal scales. (Kwinter 22) ...Once an object or sign is embedded within the streaming, chaotic world of force, its so-called meaning must give way to a pure affectivity: the capacity to bear, transmit, or block and turn inward, a unit of Will to Power. In this domain there exist only dynamic metastabilities or meaning-events (accidents, convergences, subjugations); matter, form, and subject (“doers”) come only later, reintroduced at a second order level, not as ground but as produced effect. (Kwinter 40) *Describing the architecture of Sant’Elia* In this mise-en-abyme system, where every element seems in part only fortuitously there, in part already there relaying forces received form other similar elements, the earth as first principle or ground seems no longer to exist at all; rather, there is a homeostatic system of circulating currents... (Kwinter 79) The “subject”, then (like the “object” discussed in chapter 1), is but a synthetic unit falling at the midpoint or interface of two more fundamental systems of articulation: the first composed of the fluctuating microscopic relations and mixtures of which the subject is made up, the second of the macro-blocs of relations or ensembles into which it enters. The image produced at the interface of these two systems—that which replaces, yet is all too often mistaken for, subjective essence—may in its turn have its own individuality characterized with a certain rigor. (Kwinter 109)


Clearly the cinema owed its capacity simultaneously to augment and fragment reality to its penetrative function and its multiplication of perspectives. It was in cinema that it first became possible to montage vast panoramas in a sequence with tiny, otherwise imperceptible details, so that these latter, by staking the same claim to reality and having the same capacity to fill a frame, were given an ontological status equal to (if not greater than) that of the composed and totalized world that offers itself up to “natural� perception. (Kwinter 120) Architecture of Time speaks of architecture as a collection of events existing in an overlapping time frame. In this view, time is not a sequence of scenes but an ever-changing, fluctuating system. Events do not happen at one point, but over a given time and the effects of events carry on through the system. This architecture is much more complex than the one designed by most architects. In it there is a realization of the causality of changes, movement; events in general. This architecture defines the user as a component of the greater system; one which has as much effect as the walls, windows and floors. Because of this, the user must be seen as an integral part of the architecture. How the building interacts with the user is itself the architecture. Through this continual interaction the architecture can take meaning for the user. Architecture cannot be measured as a scene or even a series of scenes. The architecture promenade is an ever changing composition of events. An analysis of a moment of architecture is nearly meaningless without knowing what came before and what came after. The moment is part of a transition from one state to another and it is the transition itself that is important; more precisely, it is the effect of the transition on the user which is important. Because of this, it becomes integral to see architecture as a flowing continuum constantly altering the user’s impressions.

Research

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The Architecture of Image - Juhani Pallasmaa Cinematic architecture evokes and sustains specific mental states; the architecture of film is an architecture of terror, anguish, suspense, boredom, alienation, melancholy, happiness, or ecstasy, depending on the essence of the particular cinematic narrative and the director’s intention. Space and architectural image are the amplifiers of specific emotion. (Pallasmaa 7) Studying the poeticized architecture of cinema helps us architects to rediscover the symbolic dimensions of both life and our own artform. (Pallasmaa 10) Architecture exists, like cinema, in the dimension of time and movement. One conceives and reads a building in terms of sequence. To erect a building is to predict and seek effects of contrast and linkage through which one passes.... (Jean Nouvel, Kester Tauttenbury, ‘Echo and Narcissus,’ Architectural Design, Architecture and Film, London, 1994, p. 35) Lived space is not uniform, valueless space. One and the same event—a kiss or a murder—is an entirely different story depending on whether it takes place in a bedroom, bathroom, library, elevator, or gazebo. An event obtains its particular meaning through the time of day, illumination, weather and soundscape. In addition, every place has its history and symbolic connotations which merge into the incident. (Pallasmaa 20) Art creates images and emotions that are equally true as the actual situations of life. Many of us can never mourn our personal tragedy with the intensity we suffer the fate of the fictitious characters of literature, theatre and film, distilled through the existential experience of a great artist. (Pallasmaa 22) The mind is in the world, and the world is exists through the mind. (Pallasmaa 22) Architecture gives the cinematic episode its ambience, and the meanings of the events are projected on architecture. (Pallasmaa 23)

Research

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Architecture has many analogies in cinema. This is because both are artistic endeavors which exist in time and space together. Cinema’s reliance on architecture, or atmospheric space, is noteworthy. Architecture is the scenery of events, both in film and reality. In film, this is used to artistic advantage by making the scenery emphasize the mood in which events should be viewed. As Pallasmaa states, “One and the same event—a kiss or a murder—is an entirely different story depending on whether it takes place in a bedroom, bathroom, library, elevator, or gazebo” (Pallasmaa 20). The world around an event changes the event. In film, this relation between the event and the scene is well known and utilized. In architecture it is much less so. Rarely in architecture is the scenery of events looked at with the care and attention that exists in film. In film, the images speak to each of the senses. Through images one experiences sounds, textures, movements, spacial scales, etc. translated by the mind. In architecture the middle step can be skipped as phenomena is physically felt, yet the virtual experiences of film are often greater than the real ones of architecture. How many buildings fully set the scene for a kiss or a murder? Architecture, ironically, does not tend to give these events the drama that film does. What if a space were designed to be perfect for a kiss? Could the architectural version out due the greatest film versions? And what scenes would lead up to the kiss? In film it is the relationships between scenes that gives the whole a meaning. A climax in cinema cannot occur without the greater portion of scenes before it and there can be no conflict resolution without the conflict first occurring. Architecture should be viewed in the same light. Events in architecture interact with each other to develop a greater meaning. The height of a Gothic cathedral is awe inspiring because the inhabitant first moves through a tight, dark space and the silence is remarkable because of the din of the street. Architecture gains meaning through a realization of these links, just as in film. And just as in film, the architecture of an event sets its scene and alters the understanding of the event.


Story and Discourse - Chatman Literary critics tend to think too exclusively of the verbal medium, even though they consume stories daily through films, comic strips, paintings, sculptures, dance movements, and music. Common to these artifacts must be some substratum; otherwise we could not explain the transformation of “Sleeping Beauty” into a movie, a ballet, a mime show. (Chatman Preface) Unlike a random agglomerate of events, they [events in a true narrative] manifest a discernible organization. (Chatman 21) ...The narrative will not admit events or other kinds of phenomena that do not belong to it and preserve its laws. (Chatman 21) A medium—language, music, stone, paint and canvas, or whatever—actualizes the narrative, makes it into a real object... but the reader must unearth the virtual narrative by penetrating its medial surface. (Chatman 27) Narrative discourse consists of a connected sequence of narrative statements... (Chatman 31) Its [plot’s] function is to emphasize or de-emphasize certain story-events, to interpret some and to leave others to inference, to show or to tell, to comment or to remain silent, to focus on this or that aspect of an event or character. (Chatman 43) Events are either actions (acts) or happenings... an action is a change of state brought about by an agent... A happening entails a predication of which the character or other focused existent is narrative object: for example, ‘the storm cast Peter adrift.’ (Chatman 44) What constitutes reality or likelihood is a strictly cultural phenomenon, though authors of narrative fiction make it natural. (Chatman 49)

Narrative is the underlying discourse within a work. Within it are a series of events which form a coherent whole in some way. The purpose of narrative is to add a dimension to a work, which gives it meaning in some way. To do this plot takes the whole of events that occur and focuses attention on certain aspects, and also on certain sequences which create links between separate events. This link can be a simple cause/effect relationship, a metaphoric relationship, or any other relationship which can give the combination added meaning. The end effect is a narrative which relates an idea or feeling to the reader. Narrative is a virtual quality of a work only made real in the reader’s mind. Until it is translated into plot by the reader, it is just a set of relationships within a work. Because narrative is a virtual quality added to a work, it can be translated into any form of art; writing, painting, architecture, etc. Additionally, this virtual quality gives it a cultural subjectivity, as different cultures read relationships differently and make separate assumptions. An example of this can be seen in paintings. In European painting relationships are often read left to right, as this is the way in which Europeans are accustomed to reading. In Asian works of art, this assumption cannot always made and paintings are read in a different manner. Asian artists must look for different systems of sequencing in order to convey narrative. The idea that narrative is a virtual component of a work that involves the relationships of events means that architecture can be given this quality just as easily as (if not more than) any other art form. The art form of architecture is one of events. Major architectural decisions are based on program (specific events to occur in the spaces) and movement (the events of transition), therefore architecture can be seen as an art of the event. By imbuing these events with relationships which can be read as an inhabitant moves through the architecture, a work can be given the same virtual narrative qualities as writing or painting. Logically, if the narrative Romeo & Juliet can somehow be translated into a play, an opera, a movie and a symphony, then it may also have an architectural form to be found.


analysis

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Phenomena Graph This investigation will include methods of analysis that help to tie architecture back to its fellow arts. Music is analyzed by creating staff notation, cinema through the story board and literature in a variety of graphic methods. In order to study anything, art or science, a reasonably objective system of analysis must exist. For this reason a graphic means of relating the sense qualities of spaces over time is the first step in the investigation. Through this graphic, which 20sec ignores the materiality, forms and functions of the spaces, the senses can be isolated from existing style or ideological types. By stripping away the non-phenomenal, seemingly disparate spaces can be compared and themes underlying multiple architectural experiences can be viewed without the preconceptions otherwise applied. Are there experiential elements that run through all holy places? Ones that can define home? With the ability to compare through analysis these questions can now be debated, if not answered.

Door

400 cd/m2 30sec

20 cd/m2 30sec

20


73ยบ

20 cd/m2 30sec

1

40sec

40sec


Graphic Phenomena analysis

Smell Intensity| Smell Type (Fresh / Musty) Haptic Texture (Soft / Roug) | Temperature Ease

| Scale of Space

Loudness

| Signal vs. Noise

Intensity

Visual Density | Visual Contrast

Brightness

Smell Intensity| Smell Type (Fresh / Musty) Haptic Texture (Soft / Roug) | Temperature Ease

| Scale of Space

Loudness

| Signal vs. Noise

| Color Tone

Visual Density | Visual Contrast

Movement (Time/Space)

Brightness

| Color Tone

Prototype phenomena analysis In this first version of the sensory graph, a pair of related qualities is represented by a horizontal colored bar whose height changes with one quality and whose saturation changes with the other. These bars are then stacked to show the relationships occurring at one instant, as well as the total sensorial intensity at that instant.

difference between hot and cool, bright and dark. This shortcoming in representation may in fact lead to a revelation in analysis. By removing the symbolic layer, the differences and similarities of disparate spaces and sequences may be seen more plainly and commonalities may begin to make themselves more apparent.

As a tool of analysis the graphic has several shortcomings. First, the elements of the environment whose cognitive, iconographic, or symbolic impact is more affective than the phenomenal qualities will not be measured. For instance, a space which has the duality of fire and water will not show, graphically, the symbolic link involved, but may show a

As this graph was developed through the study of a single path, experienced and filmed, it misses some of the elements which will be added in later versions. The key focus areas that will develop after further use are readability, the addition of symbolic markers as mentioned before, and measurements, which will ground it in objectivity.


Phenomena Sequence 1: The Lincoln Center

Smell Intensity| Smell Type (Fresh / Musty) Haptic Texture (Soft / Roug) | Temperature Ease

| Scale of Space

Loudness

| Signal vs. Noise

Visual Density | Visual Contrast

Brightness

| Color Tone

Smell Intensity| Smell Type (Fresh / Musty) Haptic Texture (Soft / Roug) | Temperature Ease

| Scale of Space

Loudness

| Signal vs. Noise

Visual Density | Visual Contrast

Brightness

| Color Tone

Smell Intensity| Smell Type (Fresh / Musty) Haptic Texture (Soft / Roug) | Temperature Ease

| Scale of Space

Loudness

| Signal vs. Noise

Visual Density | Visual Contrast

Brightness

| Color Tone

analysis

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The Set of Phenomena sequences

20 cd/m2 30sec

20

Law School Brightness / Visual Contrast

Vsual Density / Visual Pattern

Smell Intensity / Quality

Loudness / Signal vs. Noise

Haptic Texture / Temperature

Spacial Scale / Ease of Movement

63º 73º

860 cd/m

Door

650 cd/m

750 cd/m

Portal

500 cd/m

Stairs

Church entry Brightness / Visual Contrast

Vsual Density / Visual Pattern

Smell Intensity / Quality

Loudness / Signal vs. Noise

Haptic Texture / Temperature

Spacial Scale / Ease of Movement

84º

73º

980 cd/m

Door

Roof

Isolation

20 cd/m

Door

Church entry 2 Brightness / Visual Contrast

Vsual Density / Visual Pattern

Smell Intensity / Quality

Loudness / Signal vs. Noise

Haptic Texture / Temperature

Spacial Scale / Ease of Movement

78º 74º

950 cd/m

Door

500 cd/m

Water

Portal

50 cd/m

400 cd/m

Wal-mart Brightness / Visual Contrast

Vsual Density / Visual Pattern

Smell Intensity / Quality

Loudness / Signal vs. Noise

Haptic Texture / Temperature

Spacial Scale / Ease of Movement

71º

700 cd/m

20 cd/m

Path in Mall Brightness / Visual Contrast

Vsual Density / Visual Pattern

Smell Intensity / Quality

Loudness / Signal vs. Noise

Haptic Texture / Temperature

Spacial Scale / Ease of Movement

73º 55 dB

65 dB

63 dB

600 cd/m

Traffic

720 cd/m

Portal

Product

Traffic

550 cd/m


40sec

Viewport

570 cd/m

Above Viewport

450 cd/m

Viewport

Isolation

Viewport

Portal

Sit

600 cd/m

Portal

Roof

Portal

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Sit

Sit

Sit

analysis

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Subjectivity

Contextual Givens Sensory experiences are always below danger threshold Gravity’s pull is a constant 9.8 meters/second2 72º Fahrenheit is considered an achievable and comfortable temperature Humidity is moderate and never reaches extremes Personal Givens Comfortable shoes and clothing are being worn All senses are considered equal I belong in the space being recorded I have a motive for being in the space—I’m not just wandering I do not face accessibility issues I am moderately physically fit I am about 5’ 10” tall I am moving through spaces unaccompanied Mood is not considered I am in my 20s I am from the Midwest It is realized that any investigation is limited by context and personal subjectivity. As much as possible the reading is considered an average experience, not a specific one. By acknowledging the givens that go into a reading of a spacial sequence the designer gains an understanding of themselves, the context and those that do not fit the givens.

Scope of project

Phenomena Loudness

Sensory Elements Ears

Signal vs. Noise

Order

Phenomena INVESTIGATION Memory

INVESTIGATION Eyes

Iconography

NOT UNDER INVESTIGATION

Complexity Texture intensity Temperature

NOT UNDER Non-Sensory

NOT UNDER

Brightness Contrast

Perception

Body

NOT UNDER

Mood Experience INVESTIGATION

Ease of movement Scale Humidity Smell intensity

NOT UNDER Nose

NOT UNDER

Smell quality

INVESTIGATION

Taste intensity

analysis

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Taste quality Commonly Discussed

INVESTIGATION Aesthetics

Tongue

Purpose

NOT UNDER INVESTIGATION


Zero Complexity tiff: 2,113,084 bits jpg: 602,514 bits

High Complexity tiff: 2,113,084 bits jpg: 1,095,873 bits

Mid Complexity tiff: 2,113,084 bits jpg: 619,952 bits

Low Complexity 18,665 bits Scale: 0

High Complexity 109,408 bits Scale: 10

Mid Complexity 51,540 bits Scale: 5.5

Deriving a 0-10 scale for visual density To derive an objective visual complexity scale I used the principle that the jpeg file format compresses the data in an image based on the relationships of pixels within the image. The jpeg compression for a complex image where each pixel is independent from the others (static) will produce a larger file size than the compression for an image where each pixel is similar (single color). The format attempts to find the pattern in an image to save space. The more complex the image, the less pattern exists and the more data the file has to hold. By pooling together the 270 frames of video used so far (each saved from the same source at the same dimensions and compression rate) and selecting the largest file size as my 10 and the smallest as my 0 I can derive a formula to scale every image in between. Assuming that no image can get very much more complex or simple, this formula can also be used for future comparison as well with only negligible error.

The Math: Smallest file = 18665 bits Largest File = 109408 bits (0 , 18665) (10 , 109408) Formula: y = ax + b Scale value = x bit value = y 18665 = a(0) + b -18665 = b 109408 = a(10) - 18665 a = 12807.3 Scale Formula: Scale Value = (Bit Value + 18665)/12807.3


mell Intensity / Quality

Loudness / Signal vs. Noise Updated phenomena Graph

Haptic Texture / Temperature

Further analysis led to improvements in the graphing system and a larger set of data to compare. Additions include systems for mapping important features of a space (such as a portal) which may not make it into the graph and measurements of the senses where possible. Most importantly, the graph now is not mapped relative to itself (with 0 as the sequence low and 71ยบ 71ยบthe sequence high), but to an overall system, meaning 1071ยบ as 10 that each graph can now be compared down to the values and 10 10 8 not just in its changes. 8 8

re / Temperature 6

6 6 4 4 4 2 2 2 700 cd/m22

700 700 cd/m cd/m2

Time Scale Time Time Scale Scale

Despite the effort taken to objectify the sequences as much as possible, a certain level of inherent subjectivity is acknowledged and must be remembered when working with the system. This is not in the measuring of data, but in the differences between people in they way they perceive this sense data. Further research into the effect this will have on the accuracy of the graph to a large population would be worthwhile but outside of the scope of this thesis.

Spacial Scale / Ease of Movement

1sec 1sec 1sec

or | Indoor door or | Indoor | Indoor l | Artificial ural l | Artificial | Artificial Population Population Population

port

Spacial Scale / Ease of Movement

2sec 2sec 2sec

Viewport Viewport Viewport

3sec 3sec 3sec

B

8 8 8

All values graphed as aa 1-10 scale with absolute measurements given when possible. AllAll values values graphed graphed asas 1-10 a 1-10 scale scale with with absolute absolute measurements measurements given given when when possible. possible.

Brightness measured as an Brightness Brightness measured measured asas anan average amount of light average average amount amount ofof light light hitting the eye. hitting hitting the the eye. eye.

Visual Density // Visual Pattern Visual Visual Density Density Visual / Visual Pattern Pattern

Visual Density is Visual Visual Density Density is aais measurement measurement a measurement of the amount of information ofof the the amount amount ofof information information within the scene. within within the the scene. scene.

Images @ / Sig Loudness Loudness Loudness /S 1 frame/second / Sig A subjective measurement of The decibal le A subjective A subjective measurement measurement ofof The The decibal decibal le the amount of smell within aa a the the amount amount ofof smell smell within within space. space. space.

Contrast is amount of Contrast Contrast is the the is the amount amount ofof difference between areas of difference difference between between areas areas ofof the scene. the the scene. scene.

Visual pattern is Visual Visual pattern pattern is aais measurement measurement a measurement of the randomness vs. order of ofof the the randomness randomness vs.vs. order order ofof the scene. the the scene. scene.

A measurement of A subjective subjective A subjective measurement measurement ofof the smell type based on a range the the smell smell type type based based onon a range a range from fresh to musty. from from fresh fresh toto musty. musty.

Brightness // Visual Contrast Brightness Brightness Visual / Visual Contrast Contrast

3sec

Smell Intensity // Quality Smell Smell Intensity Intensity Quality / Quality

Is audio w Is the the Is the audio audio w clear signal or clear clear signal signal or noise. noise. noise.

s given when possible. Smell Intensity / Quality

Loudness / Signal vs. Noise

Haptic Texture / Temperature

Spacial Scal

ent n

A subjective measurement of the amount of smell within a space.

The decibal level of the scene.

A measurement of the amount of texture, whether skin contact or variation in the ground plane.

Scale of a s at 1 and op

ent of

A subjective measurement of the smell type based on a range from fresh to musty.

Is the audio within the space a clear signal or background noise.

Temperature using 72ยบF as the comfortable baseline.

Haptic Texture / Temperature

Spacial Scale / Ease of Movement

A measurement of the amount of texture, whether skin contact or variation in the ground plane.

Scale of a space with from coffin at 1 and open field at 10.

Temperature using 72ยบF as the comfortable baseline.

Ease of movement from going down a slide at 1 to climbing a mountain at 10.

e.

a

10sec

Descriptors

Viewport Depth Above Isolation Out of place Sit Water Portal Door Press Push Pull

Ease of mo down a slid Scale mountain a

Out Light: Natu


analysis

Graphic Phenomena analysis Vsual Density / Visual Pattern Brightness / Visual Contrast

21

Smell Intensity / Quality

Lou

Images @ 1 frame/second

71ยบ

Scale

Viewport Depth Above Isolation Out of place Sit Water Portal Door Press Push Pull

10 8 6 4 2

700 cd/m2

Time Scale Outdoor | Indoor Light: Natural | Artificial Population

1sec

2sec

Viewport

3sec

8

All values graphed as a 1-10 scale with absolute measurements given when possible. Brightness / Visual Contrast

Visual Density / Visual Pattern

Smell Intensity / Quality

Brightness measured as an average amount of light hitting the eye.

Visual Density is a measurement of the amount of information within the scene.

A subjective measurem the amount of smell wit space.

Contrast is the amount of difference between areas of the scene.

Visual pattern is a measurement of the randomness vs. order of the scene.

A subjective measurem the smell type based on from fresh to musty.


Conveying the Senses

THE SENSES

ands years mankind pective drawing as a he visual sense of e in large part to a ye in the act of Western thinking. who believed sight hat could reveal the n order to know one nt Greek idea was fact that the visual ly easy to transmit the other senses. A opied without too and, but the other meral events without unication. is preferred or not, sual image has been can translate a sight at image anywhere unicate the original fidelity. ntly that Western ackowledge the full egral component of philosophies such as xistentialism put a as a whole and it is that architects have senses in a holistic tention has been the inability to ough the dominant y them in any other What is needed is a r all of the senses nce those senses. of the senses would The first stage is the ses into a graphic f this allows for the senses to be is transmission, in he various senses nto their original key to making this the translations. A involved in the first ation into a visual nd translation takes s decompressed. The eme is reliant upon ranslations. If too lost in the first aph loses value as a too much is lost in n then the sense t bare enough original and will y.

For over a thousands years mankind has been using the perspective drawing as a means of conveying the visual sense of architecture. This is due in large part to a dominance of the eye in the act of understanding in Western thinking. Reaching back to Plato, who believed sight to be the only sense that could reveal the deeper truth of world, in order to know one must see.

Sensorial Experience Translation / Compression

500 cd/m2 40sec

Whether the eye is preferred or not, the true power of the visual image has been its transferability. One can translate a sight into an image, take that image anywhere and it will still communicate the original sight with little loss of fidelity. Attention to the other senses has been limited, however, by the inability to represent them through the dominant visual image or to convey them in any other form for that matter. What is needed is a perspective drawing for all of the senses and a way to re-experience them. This conveyance Viewport of the senses would involve Above Viewport several stages. The first stage is the translation of the senses into a graphic form. The product of this allows for information on all of the senses to be transmittable. After this transmission, in order to experience the various senses another translation into their original states is required. The key to making this system effective is in the translations. A level of compression is involved in the first step due to the translation into a visual format. When the second translation takes place, the information is decompressed. The effectiveness of this scheme is reliant upon the fidelity of these translations. If too much information is lost in the first translation, then the graph loses value as a communication scheme; if too much is lost in the second translation then the sense experience will not bare enough resemblance to the original and will communicate incorrectly. 570 cd/m2

50sec

4

Graphic Form

Transfer

Translation / Decompression

2

Sensorial Experience

Analysis

22


Panel

Each panel has a unique sense quality, from a level of brightness to a quality of smell.

Space

Combining multiple sense panels together creates an enclosed sense space. This space houses a distinct atmosphere.

Sequence

By continuing to chain sense panels together, multiple sense spaces are created in a sequence.

Viewport Spacer

Vision Smell Brightness Texture Sound

The ability to selectively link together different senses into one atmosphere is facilitated through the creation of separate Sense Panels for each of the senses. A set of these panels encloses a Sense Space and a series of these spaces can be sequenced together. To allow for senses to overlap between Sense Spaces, spacers of a smaller size can be inserted, moving a Sense Panel in between two boxes.


Creating An Experience How can a space be designed around a desired sensory sequence? Here the thesis shifts focus from analysis of existing spaces to the creation of new ones. This question will lead to investigations into the way in which the senses can be controlled and how to use them as the basis of design. The first steps will form the groundwork of how the senses work and the simplest compositions that can be created. Next, a site is chosen and the process of designing a sensory installation begins. Taking the installation through three versions develops a usable design process and a final built project which integrates the concepts of the thesis.

Creation

24


Animation through Stair installation 1


The Senses

A Basic Understanding

SEQUENCE COMPOSITION: _TRANSITION _PATTERN (ORDER) _FORM

MODULATIONS OF PATTERN: _AMPLITUDE _FREQUENCY

We understand sense experiences through contrasts. We feel hot versus cold, rough versus smooth, loud versus quiet. Without contrast our perception adjusts to the current environment. Only through differing are the senses fully used. If we understand our world and ourselves through the use of the senses, it stands to reason that with greater use will come greater understanding.

SIGHT

SOUND

Sight is by far the most studied of the senses. The product of light reflecting off of objects and entering the eyes, sight has the ability to read a large surface or set of surfaces at once. With a combination of clarity and scale that is unmatched by the other senses, vision gives a very quick understanding of the world. This understanding is weighted by the mechanisms of the eye towards finding patterns and recognizing movement and depth in space. This leads to compositions that are manipulations of these three qualities primarily. Using these qualities, visual compositions create patterns, transitions and forms in order to define the places that are seen. Because of the overview the eye gives, compositions of extreme complexity can be understood and incredibly small differences in brightness, color, position etc. can be pinpointed.

Sound is a product of the ears sensing the pressure waves caused by vibrations in the environment. The ears are incredibly sensitive to changes in time, intensity and pitch. Pitch and intensity have provided the basis for musical composition since music existed. In this, the modulation into pattern and form is what is used to create composition ranging from simple rhythms to complex symphonies. Next to sight, no other sense has had as much study into its composition as hearing, so that much is known about what works and doesn’t work. Besides its modulation, sound has another important architectural quality. Hearing is second only to sight in its ability to understand a three dimensional space. Through the quality of sound alone the scale and materiality of a space can be narrowed down, and the locating quality of sound helps a person determine where objects are around them as well as how those objects are moving. Sound sources can be divided into two categories, the first of which are sounds from the environment. These can be anything from HVAC to running water to background music. All sounds in this category are a part of the place and would occur with or without a viewer. The other category is sounds created by the user in the space. These include footsteps, voices, and any other sound a person might make. This category cannot be controlled by the designer, but can be mediated, through the materials and scales used. As an example, footsteps on an old wood floor have a much different quality than footsteps on a smooth concrete slab. The designer can guide where the visitor walks and the material they step upon, but the pace, weight, shoe, etc. of the visitor cannot be controlled.

Reflected Light

Vibrations + pressure waves

Pattern, depth, movement

Time, intensity, Frequency

Transition, pattern, form

Built in + user created Pattern, form, transition


TOUCH

SMELL

BODY

The sense of touch occurs through contact between the skin and a surface. In order to ‘read’ a larger surface the skin must move across it. Because of this, touch is first a linear sense, reading point after point in order to understand texture and changes in texture. After reading enough of a surface though, a three dimensional figure begins to form in the mind. Due to this nature, the effect of touch is dependent upon the level of interaction the viewer has with the surface. The texture of a floor is read through the movement through a space, usually a linear path. The texture of a handrail is grasped and moved along, bringing out a clearer three dimensional construct. The identity of each is given through the viewer’s method of interaction. The composition of touch is predominantly determined through transition and form. Pattern in touch has a tendency to be read as texture, otherwise it would be considered most important. Instead, the transition from pattern (texture) to pattern is what the mind pays most attention to. Transitions can be quick and sharp, smooth and prolonged or anything in between. They can be marked by a boundary condition, such as a gap, a lip or an indentation, overlap, or fade together. The sense of touch is adept at recognizing the whole spectrum of differences and it is through these changes and the contrast between states that touch compositions are constructed.

The sense of smell can have a huge affective quality. Smell has a strong link to memory making it a very personal, subjective sense. Adding to this is the limited amount of control designers have over scents. Scent naturally fills a space, dissipates over time and follows the air flow into other spaces or away altogether. But knowing all of these natural characteristics, a designer can control scent to a certain extent. Because scent naturally dissipates through a space its scale cannot go down as far as the other senses. This tends to limit scent compositions to a room scale. On this scale, the composition of scents will rely mainly on transition. Through varying intensities, locations, air flow and physical divisions the transitions can be managed to some extent. Given the strong subjective relationship individuals have with different scents, by far the most important characteristic to control is the quality of the scents themselves and their relationship to the spaces they inhabit. Beyond these there is not much else to control in composition. The scale makes pattern extremely hard to notice and scent’s ability to fill a space leads to form not being a quality scent can normally have. Having discussed the modes of composition the variables to be composed should be mentioned. Both intensity and quality can easily be altered and modulated, and each one can have a profoundly different effect on a space.

To the body is attributed several sensory components. First, it senses temperature. Temperature can be transmitted through touching objects or through the air. Through varying the temperature up or down the atmosphere is effected. Temperatures in a sequence begin to create a form and the transitions between temperatures, while hard to control completely, can be designed to a certain extent. An important consideration with temperature is its effect on the physical comfort of the user. Temperature, perhaps more than other sensory elements can easily make a very uncomfortable place and too much variation can even be harmful to ones health. The body senses also something akin to a large scale texture. Specifically, the bumpiness of the terrain, which is great enough to be felt by the muscles as opposed to the skin as in touch. This bumpiness, whether small pebbles which the foot conforms to or stairs which the legs must climb is its own, unique sense experience. As it can best be described as a texture, the main component of its composition is pattern. The second component is the modulation of this pattern, through transition. Between these two elements—as modulated over space—the terrain forms a distinct composition throughout spaces.

Skin Contact, texture, form

Strong link to memory

Muscular + temperature

Linear and three dimensional

Limited control and scale

Transition, pattern

Transition and form

Intensity and quality

Impact on well-being

Creation

27


LIGHTING STUDIES

44% Lightness

An attempt to study the effects of opening sizes through comparisons. Each test was rendered physically accurate under the same conditions altering two parameters; first the number of openings (the total light penetration) and second the diffusion of light through a strip of skylight.

54% Lightness 59% Lightness

51% Lightness

19% Lightness 28% Lightness

11% Lightness

The study was performed in the early stages of investigating how to control the senses in order to create a specific experience.


Light and sound By developing a simple sequence of spaces in 3D, rendering it out as a video, and then mapping an equally simple sound track to it, I created my first planned sensory experience. While the experience itself was relatively uninteresting and unrealistic, the act of developing it was integral to an understanding of how to design and represent a sensory experience. I found that animations are key to understanding the transition of sensory experiences as an animation is as close as one can get to actu-

ally walking through a space. Additionally, a modified spherical camera was explored here as a way to better convey the actual feeling of inhabiting a space. In real life the eyes do not remain focused on a sole central point but explore the space around. The spherical camera is a better representation of this than the typical frontal projection camera, as shown by its ability to capture a sense of spacial scale which, in this scene, the normal camera had completely missed.

REMIX: GENTLE RISE - QUICK FALL - REPEAT

55 dB

74ยบ

720 cd/m2

Door Portal 5

70ยบ

500 cd/m2 50sec

Product

Door

600 cd/m2 50sec 20sec

1

600 cd/m2 20sec Door Traffic

63 dB

2 2 450 cd/m 550 cd/m

Water

60sec

Portal

50 cd/m2

25 12

Remixed Phenomena As the sensory graphs have become the most accurate image of an experience available, it was a logical step to work with them in order to create a new experience. This first test was a project to remix the experiences I had already mapped into a new composition. The relation of the graph to musical notation provided the basis of composition, leading to several studies translating different musical composition techniques into a series of remixes. While the result was interesting, the created experience is nearly impossible to decipher from the spliced graphs; the senses are too abstracted to communicate correctly.

Creation

29

400 cd/m2


PH

A Graph of a sequence through Temple Hoyne Buell Hall Brightness / Visual Contrast

ATH

nto

ht, re

day.

PH

ht, re

day.

Smell Intensity / Quality

Loudness / Signal vs. Noise

Haptic Texture / Temperature

Spacial Scale / Ease of Movement

63º

65º 10 8 6 4 2

80º 30º 80 cd/m 1sec

Outdoor | Indoor Light: Natural | Artificial Population

2sec

380 cd/m

Door

3sec

10sec

1

Door

500 cd/m

560 cd/m

2

1

Changes

65º

Brightness / Visual Contrast

Vsual Density / Visual Pattern

Smell Intensity / Quality

Loudness / Signal vs. Noise

Haptic Texture / Temperature

Spacial Scale / Ease of Movement

Vsual Density / Visual Pattern

Smell Intensity / Quality

Loudness / Signal vs. Noise

Haptic Texture / Temperature

Spacial Scale / Ease of Movement

63º

10 8 6 4 / Visual Contrast Brightness 2 860 cd/m

1sec Outdoor | Indoor Light: Natural | Artificial Population

ATH

nto

Vsual Density / Visual Pattern

2sec

3sec

Above

10sec

3

Stairs

1

Stair 63º

10

3

65º 10 8 Changes 6 4 2

80º 30º 80 cd/m 1sec

Outdoor | Indoor Light: Natural | Artificial Population

2sec

380 cd/m

Door

3sec

10sec

1

Door

500 cd/m

560 cd/m

2

1

Chosen as Site of Installation

Changes

65º

Brightness / Visual Contrast

Vsual Density / Visual Pattern

Smell Intensity / Quality

Loudness / Signal vs. Noise

Haptic Texture / Temperature

Spacial Scale / Ease of Movement

68º

Door 63º

10 8 6 4 2

2

1sec Outdoor | Indoor Light: Natural | Artificial Population

1

860 cd/m 2sec

3sec

Above

10sec

3

2

6

Stairs

1

Stair 10

3

Changes

68º

Door 2

END

1

A SENSORY MODIFICATION

ALTERATIONS TO A SEQUENCE IN TEMPLE HOYNE BUELL HALL CONTEXT:

OPEN 3

Path through Temple Hoyne Buell Hall Contains The schools of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning Resides on south side of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus Sequence enters through the building’s main entrance and ends at the 2nd year graduate architecture studios

USE OF PATH:

Path of a graduate student to their studio desk. Path from world to place of creativity and work. Space of transit leading to long use space space (and partial path) used by others. Path is the main artery for multiple a variety of students and professors.

LIMITS TO INTERVENTION: OPEN 2

Scale cannot be enlargened Accessability must be maintained Ease of movement cannot be increased Variability of users in space

POSSIBLE PROPOSALS:

Maximize change Increase the drama already within the architecture.

Minimize change Level out the sensory experience.

1

OPEN

Minimize secondary sensory experiences Heighten awareness of the key senses in the composition.

Utilize existing patterns as motifs for additions Create guiding structure for additions which will “fill out” the composition.

START

Add density of experience through additional sensory moments Heighten the sensory experience in an unstructured, suprising manner.

Create new sequence in under-utilized sense Creates an awareness of a sense whose patterning can interact with the existing.

Create a series of sensory zones manipulating one or two senses at a time Provides each sense with a moment to stand out, creating awareness of each as unique.

2

6


Creation

31


Material Selection Criteria for Inclusion: Available in large quantities Lower price preferable quickly and accurately cuttable Same material on both sides Unique texture/visual Performance Criteria: Texture Color match to space Color skew to space Interaction with air flow Interaction with user Durability Dirt collection Material List: Red Symphony $2.99/yrd Vibrant Orange Flannel $4.99/yrd White Burlap $2.99/yrd Chili Red Blizzard Solid $7.99/yrd Unbleached Muslin $1.49/yrd Sage Woven $5.99/yrd

Animation as study of Perception


Sensory installation 1: stairwell By designing an installation on a site within the architecture building, the end result could be compared in actuality to its graph. This proved to be essential as I had still not found an effective way in which to convey the full range of a sensory designs qualities to an audience. By working to produce a physical space, the materiality proved integral. Through the material and its composition, the senses develop and because of this the choice of materials and how they are composed are essential characteristics of the design. This led to material studies and full sized mock-ups which provided a realistic and comprehensible study of the senses at work. The first installation relies on a simple maneuver to have a large effect on the user. Fabric strips hanging from a canopy at varying densities create a field which one must move through. As one progresses, the density becomes greater, making it harder to push through, darker, quieter, etc. and then thins out again at the end. By manipulating the material, density, and height of canopy, the sensory experience could be refined to fit the graph I had in mind. The focus was not on creating a specific perception of the space so much as on figuring out how to materialize the specific sensory experience I developed as opposed to beginning with material and working backward. Critique of the installation was to be based on how it created the experience and not what the effect of that sensory experience was on the user. This is not to say that the second question isn’t important, but it is part of a larger issue which has little foundation for critique at this early a stage in this research; it is a question to be answered after the study of many spaces and their affective nature.

Creation

33


560 cd/m2

1

560 cd/m2

1

NEW

63ยบ

10 8 6 4 2

NEW

63ยบ

860 cd/m2

Walkway

Outdoor | Indoor Light: Natural | Artificial Population

Brightness / Visual Contrast

1sec

2sec

10 81 6 4 2 Vsual Density 2 / Visual Pattern

860 cd/m

Walkway

EXISTING

Outdoor | Indoor Light: Natural | Artificial Population

Brightness / Visual Contrast

Manuever

Dense 10sec

Enclosed

1

Smell Intensity / Quality

1sec

2sec

Manuever

Loudness / Signal vs. Noise

Haptic Texture / Temperature

Spacial Scale / Ease of Movement

Push Aside

3sec

Dense

1

Vsual Density / Visual Pattern

EXISTING

Stairs

Above

Push Aside

3sec

Stairs

Tensility Effect Test

10sec

1

Smell Intensity / Quality

Loudness / Signal vs. Noise

Haptic Texture / Temperature

Spacial Scale / Ease of Movement

Enclosed


Installation on the Bridge A change of location helped to further establish the sensory experience inherent in the installation, as opposed to site based aspects. The new location also provided a simpler path which allowed for the development of the materiality and configuration to take precedence. A focus on using only a single material led to a rigorous study of the full variety of experiences the fabric could create in its different configurations, as well as how it could be used to provide structure and connections for itself. The end result is an installation where the properties of the fabric are fully utilized and manipulated to create a distinct sensory sequence. The study and representation of this version of the project relied heavily on working with the actual material in order to realize its true potentials and limits. Specifics such as how the composition hangs under its own weight, the way the strips twist when tensions, and the way pushing through the field of strips actually affects the user all necessitated physical tests in addition to drafting and computer modelling. Additionally, because the project had developed into such an interactive installation, a large portion of time was spent working out how the user would react to the various conditions. This focus on the user was integral to the final form of this version and the installation became in large part a choreography of the user as a means to create an affective space.

Creation

35


Creation

36


12’

4’

10 8 6 4 2 2ft

4ft

6ft

8ft

10ft

12ft

Outdoor | Indoor Light: Natural | Artificial

Brightness / Visual Contrast

Visual Density / Visual Pattern

Smell Intensity / Quality

Loudness / Signal vs. Noise

Haptic Texture / Temperature

Spacial Scale / Ease of Movement

Random undulation diffuses sound and provides tactile and visual texture Variations of the opening size, shape and density have different effects


Scripted Perception as built


Scripted Perception

While the fabric installations had developed well, the end result was a space which was overly emphatic and highly intrusive to the user, negatively impacting the function of the site as a place of quick movement. The next step was to begin anew using what was learned from the previous projects as a starting point for a new installation. The beginning goal was to trim the installation down to a wall adjacent to a path; a much less intrusive and passive interaction. With this goal in mind, I studied the various ways in which a wall could effect the perception of an adjacent user. Texture, brightness, pattern, scale, and acoustics all seemed open to manipulation. The next step was to define a sensory sequence to be achieved and begin setting up the parameters which would alter the phenomenal qualities. By manipulating this set of variable parameters—profile, undulation, opening, and

Creation

39

texture—the sensuous qualities of the surface could be altered into many compositions. This parameterization of the project was further developed through the use of scripting to define the surface based on the direct manipulation of specific factors., from aperture size to undulation height. Through this script I could not only refine the qualities of this specific surface but of any surface of any size. By defining parameters in this way, the ideas inherent in the installation are nonscalar and could reasonably be translated into much larger or smaller projects. The task of taking this scripted surface from the computer to the physical object was facilitated through the use of a CNC router. This allowed for a direct translation of this complex surface with minimal manufacturing error. Additionally, this last step of routing further enhanced the surface qualities through careful planning of the tool paths. In this way the use of the router leaves its own mark on the surface.


Bibliography Benedikt, Michael. For an Architecture of Reality. New York: Lumen Books/Sites Books, 1988. Branigan, Edward. Narrative comprehension and film. London: Routledge, 1992. Diller, Elizabeth. Blur the making of nothing. New York, N.Y: Harry N. Abrams, 2002. Film and theory an anthology. Malden, Mass: Blackwell, 2000. Gilles., Deleuze,. Cinema II (Continuum Impacts). New York: Continuum International Group, 2005. Heschong, Lisa. Thermal delight in architecture. Cambridge, Mass: MIT P, 1979. Holl, Steven. Questions of perception phenomenology of architecture. Tōkyō: Ē ando Yū, 1994. Incerti, Guido, Daria Ricchi, and Deane Simpson. Diller + Scofidio (+ Renfro) The Ciliary Function. Milan: Skira, 2007. Kwinter, Sanford. Architectures of Time Toward a Theory of the Event in Modernist Culture. New York: The MIT P, 2001. Moran, Dermot. Introduction to Phenomenology. New York: Routledge, 2000. Zumthor, Peter. Thinking Architecture. Boston: Birkhäuser Basel, 2006.

Bibliography

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