Holly Baldwin MArch Final Portfolio - University of Greenwich

THE EARLY DAYS OF A BETTER FUTURE - PART 1 THE VIRTUAL CONTINUUM | A VIRTUAL SYNAESTHESIA EAST OF EDEN, GREENWICH PENINSULA

PROJECT THEMES 1. EAST OF EDEN: THE GREENWICH PENINSULA 2. INITIAL PROJECT THEMES: FIRST CONTACT 3. INITIAL PROJECT THEMES: FROM THE PERCEPTUAL PROCESS TO VIRTUAL REALITY 4. FILM 1: ‘THE VIRTUAL CONTINUUM - CONSTRUCTING REALITY’ 5. PROJECT THEMES: EXPANDING THE SENSORIUM THROUGH THE VIRTUAL 6. FILM 2: ‘A VIRTUAL SYNAESTHESIA’

2013

2010

Ravensbourne College arrives on the Peninsula

1999

Sir Terry Farrell creates his masterplan for the Peninsula

1999

16th Century

The Peninsula is drained allowing it to be used as pasture

The Greenwich Peninsula, or North Greenwich, comprises a piece of land bound on three sides by the River Thames to the east of the city of London. It has been the subject of development plans for the last 200 years, since its origins as marshland for farming and river industries, through the industrial heyday of east London in the 19th century, to the more recent residential and commercial development of London Docklands in the 1980s.

The Peninsula has gone through a variety of ownerships—institutional and charitable organisations dominated up to the 19th century focussing on encouraging and promoting local industries.

With the political and economic issues in England in the 1980s, the government sold off cheaply large areas of east london to a number of redevelopers with the hope of transforming the area, and boosting public funds. However due to the area’s poor

EAST OF EDEN GREENWICH PENINSULA

19th Century

The Peninsula is steadily industrialised

1860s

Henry Bessemer builds a ship works to supply the shipbuilding industry

connectivity to central London, a large quantity of public money was pumped into North Greenwich to provide new infrastructure such as the Blackwall Tunnel, the Jubilee Line Extension and North Greenwich Bus Station. This, alongside the public expense of the Milennium Dome, has caused huge political and economic unrest surrounding the peninsula, and many years of neglect.

Today the area is owned by Knight Dragon and Greenwich Peninsula Regeneration Limited, and outline planning permission was gained in 2004 for 1,683 residential units, hotel and office space over six plots. The construction is now being carried out. The commercial and entertainment hub of Peninsula Square, with the O2 arena, and the initial residential development of the Millennium Village have already been largely completed as the first stage of the redevelopment.

North Greenwich tube opens

1987

Blackwall Tunnel opens

2000

Millenium Exhibition is held at the Millenium Dome

2005

Millenium Dome becomes the O2 Arena

2012 Olympics hosted at the O2

2012

2007

Greenwich Peninsula Regeneration Limited is formed as a joint venture by Quintain and Lend Lease

2012

Knight Dragon purchases 40% share in GPRL, taking 100% ownership - renamed as Knight Dragon Developments Limited

2010

Commercial units open in Mitre Passage

2013 Emirates Cable Car Knight Dragon begins opens construction of 506 appartments. AEG begin work on hotel and residential building 2012

Residents move into first Bellway scheme

2014

Greenwich Peninsula Gateway Pavilions open. Cable and Roper and The Lighterman Buildings Launch

Thames Barrier

Canary Wharf

O2 Arena

Peninsula Square Greenwich Millenium Village

East and Central Greenwich

The Greenwich Peninsula is bound on three sides by the River Thames, with the fourth side comprising the Millennium Village Development and the roads leading back into East Greenwich. The heart of the peninsula is Peninsula Square, the urban space linking to the O2 Arena, which holds the commercial uses and activity. In contrast the periphery is still under construction and left exposed to the river and road traffic.

This makes it feel barren and open to the elements. Some industrial elements have been retained, such as various wharfs, jettys and the gas cylinder, which is enhanced by two art pieces by Anthony Gormley and Richard Wilson.

Initially I recorded sounds and movements in short films and timelapse sequences to document my journey around the Greenwich Peninsula, focusing on the aspects that caught my attention. The four sequences on the right show the journey around the periphery of the peninsula, from the sounds of the grass, the wind, the mechanical movement of the cable car and the dominance of construction work.

GREENWICH PENINSULA JOURNEY AROUND THE PERIPHERY

Tube and Bus Station

Thames Barrier

O2 Arena

Peninsula Square Greenwich Millenium Village

Tube and Bus Station

East and Central Greenwich

At the heart of the peninsula is Peninsula Square, the public open space that is enclosed by the bus/tube station to the west, the O2 dome to the north, Ravensbourne college and high rise buildings to the east and the round buildings housing marketing suites to the south.

Peninsula Square is the heart of activity on the peninsula, with shops, restaurants and cafes spilling out into it. The buildings at the edges are covered in advertisements, screens and icons, with materials such as glossy plastic and mirrored glass that intensify this experience.

The sounds and images recorded here comprise the noise of people, music and advertisements, and the short timelapses show fast paced movement and light.

GREENWICH PENINSULA PENINSULA SQUARE

The visually intense experience in Peninsula Square is dominated by graphics, adverts and symbols of the interested parties and investors as well as residents around the square. The complex political and economic history of the peninsula in recent years, is omnipresent with the dominance of private investment and big brands, although the adverts try to remind us of the more human and personal motivations behind the development— ”village life in the city”, “bloom”, “celebration”.

This combination of pre-conception and expectation of a place, or specific elements within it, running in parallel with the real-time experience of the space is a theme which interests me.

The idea of the virtual city as being a ubiquitous element within the Postmodern city, that constantly affects and is affected by real-time experience.

GREENWICH PENINSULA FIRST CONTACT

Introductory Project about Greenwich Peninsula, that begins to explore project themes such as space through experience, relationships between physical, emotional and virtual realities of space, Correalism and the ‘dynamics of continual interaction’ and architecture as the physical embodiment of ownership, identity and mass culture.

FIRST CONTACT THE EARLY DAYS OF A BETTER FUTURE

“postmodern hyperspace…has finally succeeded in transcending the capacities of the individual human body to locate itself, to organise it’s immediate surroundings perceptually, and cognitively map its position in a mappable external world…the incapacity of our minds, at least at present, to map the great global multinational and decentred communicational network in which we find ourselves caught as individual subjects” “The newer architecture therefore… stands itself as something like an imperative to grow new organs, to expand our sensorium and our body to some new, as yet unimaginable, perhaps ultimately impossible dimensions” “that euphoria or those intensities which seem so often to characterise the newer cultural experience” “strange new hallucinatory exhilaration... urban squalor can be a delight to the eyes when expressed in commodification... extraordinary surfaces of the photorealist cityscape” Text from“Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism”, by Fredric Jameson “Real life has become indistinguishable from the movies”

“The culture industry remains the entertainment business” “The culture industry perpetually cheats its consumers of what it perpetually promises” “The triumph of advertising in the culture industry is that consumers feel compelled to buy and use its products even though they see through them” Text from “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception”, by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer

Photographs from New York (top) and Berlin (bottom) that express the themes of Jameson’s and Horkheimer and Adorno’s Postmodern City—intensity, hallucinatory, commodification, photorealist, and extraordinary surfaces.

INITIAL PROJECT THEMES FREDERIC JAMESON | MAX HORKHEIMER AND THEODOR ADORNO

“Perception is our sensory experience of the world around us and involves both the recognition of environmental stimuli and actions in response to these stimuli. Through the perceptual process, we gain information about properties and elements of the environment that are critical to our survival.

Perception not only creates our experience of the world around us; it allows us to act within our environment.” http://psychology. about.com/od/ sensationandperception/ ss/perceptproc.htm

In order to understand the complexities of the Postmodern city, the process of human perception, in particular visual perception, is an important starting point.

The difference between what we actually ‘see’ and what we perceive is fascinating and complex. Scientists have tried to understand this through experiments into eye tracking during watching a scene, computer simulations of vision, and images of focus and peripheral vision (images above left).

Further research into human perception explores the idea of multi-modal perception, where different senses combine to formulate a more complete idea of the world.

These senses can aid one another or confuse and trick us into making decisions about the location of a noise, or the source of a particular sensation, constructing our own reality.

The collages to the right begin to explore and represent these ideas.

INITIAL PROJECT THEMES PERCEPTION AND THE PERCEPTUAL PROCESS

If multi-modal perception could include the combination of two different visual stimuli, instead of being restricted to one visual and one oral for example, then how could this alter our perception of the world.

This collage combines a view of Canary Wharf with a photograph taken of Melbourne City Centre, a previously perceived place.

INITIAL PROJECT THEMES FROM MULTI-MODAL PERCEPTION TO THE ILLUSION OF REALITY

The possibilites of perceiving two different places in one space or time.

This collage combines a view of the Millennium Village with a photograph taken of an island in Indonesia, a previously perceived place.

INITIAL PROJECT THEMES FROM MULTI-MODAL PERCEPTION TO THE ILLUSION OF REALITY

In order to collect visual data from a scene, the eye flickers around fixating on certain areas to obtain ‘anchors’. The eye never takes data from the whole scene, instead filling in the blurry areas using expectations in the brain. These images explore breaking down a scene from the peninsula into particular fixations and blurred out areas.

“Typically fixations last about half a second, so babies havethe order of 10 million glimpses of the world in their first year of life.”

Separating the image into a grid of fragments of visual stimuli, the image is then organised into squares that are in focus and squares that are blurred, in a similar, albeit simplified, version of sensory perception. By attempting to very simply map my thought process over the image I identified anchors and samples that could be used to recognise and decipher, and demand attention or dismissal.

INITIAL PROJECT THEMES VISUAL PERCEPTION | FIXATIONS, EXPECTATION AND COGNITION

This experimental collage looks at the potential of changing expectation, recreating the blurred out areas of the image withand associated fragments and components: a reconstructed personal reality.

INITIAL PROJECT THEMES RE-CONSTRUCTING REALITY

“Culture is dominated by simulation…the real has been bypassed…the image has supplanted reality” (Baudrillard,‘The Precession of Simulacra” (1981))

“Screens have become a pervasive part of daily ex­perience. Buildings are adorned with screens as exterior walls, sports stadi­ums add Jumbotrons to the proscenium space of spec­tacle, screens show games to sport spectators in a time loop of instant replay and crosscut to its fans, fighter pilots and military strategists conduct manoeuvres on screens with global position­ing, televisions have gam­ing consoles and eye-toys, computers interface with other screens and digital archives, PDAs browse the Web, cell phones take and transmit photos.”

(Friedberg, “The Virtual Window” (2006))

The research into the construction of alternative realities brings back into focus the notion of the virtual.

With the advancement of technology and the ‘second media age’ (Poster, 1996), the virtual has become part of the everyday, an ‘immaterial space’ where we spend increasing amounts of time, changing the way we negotiate and interact within architecture and within the city as a whole.

This initial research into key theorists of recent years, sets out the current thinking on the virtual, and its importance within architecture and the city, which can broadly be identified as virtual as concept, media and immaterial.

INITIAL PROJECT THEMES THE VIRTUAL CONTINUUM

“An erosion of the physical, to the point where the loss of material space leads to the government of nothing but time...speed distance obliterates the notion of physical dimension” (notes on Paul Virillio from‘‘Rethinking architecture: a reader in cultural theory”, Neil Leach (1997))

Mapping Research from my initial study into the scientific process of perception of our environment to the implications of technology and new media on this concept of perception and the postmodern city.

My project begins to explore the increasing role of virtual reality in architecture and the city. This can be explored as a contributor to postmodern hyperspace as a further layer of perceptual information in the city, but it can also be seen as an effect of the new media age, directly influenced by postmodern image culture.

Virtual and augmented reality is often considered only as an overlay on the existing environment, a recognisable interface dominated by the graphics of computer games, social media and popular advertising, or as a dislocated experience through the computer screen or via headsets, separate from the environment that is being conveyed.

Using the concepts of sensory perception (from the gathering of sensory information, through, to reception), alongside advances in new technologies, virtual reality will be able to manifest itself directly into the city, and enable us to interact with and transform all aspects of our environment in real-time and space.

INITIAL PROJECT THEMES FROM THE PERCEPTUAL PROCESS TO VIRTUAL REALITY

The virtual continuum acts alongside the physical world, the ‘actual’, continuously in the postmodern city. The virtual often distorts and warps our perception, either consciously or subconsciouslly.

By using the media of film and animation, I have begun to explore representation of the concept of the virtual in the existing city. By collaging into existing footage, subtle alterations to the perception of space can be achieved. Multi-perspectival views of the cable car entry, the upside down bus, and a reflected Canary Wharf.

THE VIRTUAL CONTINUUM ALTERING PERCEPTION | THE VIRTUAL AND THE ‘ACTUAL’

Developing the chronogram for the initial film.

“The effect of new media such as the Internet and virtual reality, then, is to multiply the kinds of realities one encounters in society” (Mark Poster ‘Postmodern Virtualities‘)

THE VIRTUAL CONTINUUM THE VIRTUAL AND THE ‘ACTUAL’ | GREENWICH PENINSULA

10. PENINSULA SQUARE HYPERREALITY, SATURATION OF THE SENSES COMMODITY AND CONSUMPTION ADVERTISING, PRESENCE OF MAJOR BRANDS CELEBRITY CULTURE SOCIAL MEDIA - IMAGE UPLOADING AND SHARING COMMERCIAL AND PERSONAL VIRTUAL REALITY PAST EVENTS AS MEMORIES, COGNITIVE EXPECTATION, PUBLIC PROFILE OF THE GREENWICH PENINSULA

9. VIEW INTO PENINSULA SQUARE COMMODITY AND CONSUMPTION ADVERTISING, PRESENCE OF MAJOR BRANDS PAST EVENTS AS MEMORIES, COGNITIVE EXPECTATION, PUBLIC PROFILE OF THE GREENWICH PENINSULA

4. BACK OF O2 ARENA GLIMPSE INTO PENINSULA SQUARE ADVERTS AND PROPAGANDA VIRTUAL REALITY LIGHTS, TRANSFORMED AT NIGHT

5. VIEW TO CANARY WHARF AMALGAMATION OF SENSORY INFORMATION, PHYSICAL AND VIRTUAL ACTIVITY, COMMODITY CONNOTATIONS OF PLACE VIEWED FROM AFAR

6. VIEW OUT TO RIVER THAMES EXPANSE OF WATER AND SKY AEROPLANES AND CABLE CAR OVERHEAD COGNITIVE INTERPRETATION OF FRAGMENTS LIGHTS TRANSFORM 7. CABLE CAR ADVERTISING, BRANDING HYPERREALITY OF FILM VS VIEW PENINSULA FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE MOVEMENT DISTORTING VIEW

3. RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT NOISE AND CONSTRUCTION WORK FRAGMENTED IMAGE OF FUTURE BUILDINGS EXPECTATION AND IMAGINATION CONSTRUCTS REALITY BARREN, GLIMPSES OF ACTIVITY 8. CABLE CAR TERMINAL ADVERTISING, BRANDING MECHANICAL NOISE MOVEMENT DISTORTS LIGHTS TRANSFORM

1. WATER FEATURE DISTORTED VIEW EXPECTATION CONSTRUCTS REALITY 2. BLACKWALL TUNNEL VIEW NOISE OR CARS AND TRAFFIC GLIMPSE BACK INTO PENINSULA SQUARE ACTIVITY IN FORGROUND DISTORTS SENSORIUM

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By slowly introducing Peninsula Square as glimpses in the background of the beginning scenes, the film explores techniques to display the notion of virtual reality in the existing city – technological overlays, popular culture, fragmented images. As the film moves into Peninsula Square, it is intended that a fully immersive virtual reality should be presented, displaying all the different virtualities that affect perception of the environment – cognitive, cultural, temporal, social, personal.

The film also aims to begin to display signs of what virtual reality on the Peninsula could be in the future. As architecture moves from a physical manifestation to an increasingly virtual environment, material space becomes less relevant. The physical city becomes the framework within which to develop alternate virtual and augmented realities.

THE VIRTUAL CONTINUUM THE VIRTUAL AND THE ‘ACTUAL’ | GREENWICH PENINSULA

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PSYCHO-GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE OF THE GREENWICH PENINSULA CENTRED AROUND PENINSULA SQUARE AND MOMENTS OF INTEREST / ACTIVITY IN THE PERIPHERY

The intensified Peninsula Square, saturated with virtual fragments from past events, commercial graphics and logos and social media posts, as well as film and photographs from different times and views around the peninsula. The dominance of the square as a fragment is unsuccessful however, due to its association with the screen and its limitations of being a two dimensional object.

THE VIRTUAL CONTINUUM PENINSULA SQUARE

The periphery provides glimpses into Peninsula Square which is surrounded by empty buildings inhabited and altered by virtual constructs.

THE VIRTUAL CONTINUUM PENINSULA SQUARE

Vortex structures as installations breaking into and out of existing spaces. Sophia Chang, Arnie Quinze and Art League Houston.

Up to this point, the main project theme has been to combine the virtual and the actual, to create a new and enhanced experience of the Greenwich Peninsula. The virtual continuum should not only be an image overlay, but also a spatial experience within and around the current physical environment.

The virtual as transformative, ephemeral virtual spaces that enhance and alter the existing city. Spatially and temperally augmented. Creating new spaces, to fill and sit in the physical environment.

THE VIRTUAL AND THE ACTUAL VIRTUAL SPACES AND THE IN-BETWEEN

Collages of views into Peninsula Square with virtual spaces emerging: ambiance, colour, distortion, light.

THE VIRTUAL AND THE ACTUAL VIRTUAL SPACES AND THE IN-BETWEEN

The spaces become vortexes that emerge from between the buildings and structures around Peninsula Square, expanding and spilling out into the public spaces.

These initial model images show these almost parasitic structures which reflect and distort the environment. The periphery of the vortex melds into the actual with fragmented and blurred edges. The insides of the structures become intensified, multi-faced cave-like spaces.

THE VIRTUAL AND THE ACTUAL THE VORTEX | IMMERSION AND PERIPHERY

Virtual spaces that flicker in the space between buildings, spilling out into Peninsula Square. The interaction between the virtual and the actual creates reflections and distortions of the physical world.

THE VIRTUAL AND THE ACTUAL THE VORTEX | INTERACTION AND DISTORTION

Using a combination of model views and still photography from Peninsula Square, the virtual spaces are superimposed into the existing built environment.

The fragmented periphery of the space, as well as the distorted reflections in the convex walls produce interesting interactions between the virtual and the actual.

Rather than image-led media, the virtual becomes colour coded space that morphs and changes through the colour spectrum as a reaction to the environment and the people within it.

THE VIRTUAL AND THE ACTUAL BETWEEN REALITIES | COLOUR SPACE

Collage showing the actual as viewed through the virtual. As you cross over the threshold out of the virtual space, it melds away, morphing the view back into the actual, or presenting a new virtual space in the near-distance.

THE VIRTUAL AND THE ACTUAL BETWEEN REALITIES | THRESHOLD

The virtual continuum presents new possibilities for the quality and use of architectural space. Free from the traditional constraints of the built environment, virtual constructs can provide a new layer of experience focussed on dynamic changeability, responsiveness and fantasy.

Virtual constructs use colour and sensory experience as their materiality, to convey information and emotion to the inhabitant.

Precedents include: “Ganzfeld” by James Turrell, an Educational Centre by Alejandro Muñoz Miranda, Light Painting by Dennis Calvert, “Grace” by Anne Patterson, Thread installation by Mark Garry, “Colourant” by Floto+Warner, Marking the Forest Art Project, “Luminarium Mirazozo” by Dave Gorman and an extract from “Cosmonaut’s Keep” by Ken MacLeod.

BETWEEN REALITIES COLOUR AND MULTI-SENSORY SPACES | EXPANDING THE SENSORIUM THROGH THE VIRTUAL

Using virtual space as an expansion of the sensorium - colour and multi-sensory constructs that interact with the inhabitants and the existing built environment.

EXPANDING THE SENSORIUM THROUGH THE VIRTUAL COLOUR AND MULTI-SENSORY SPACES

“Imagine a world in which the number ‘2’ is pink, the word “computer” tastes of jelly beans, and F# has a conical shape. For people with synaesthesia, experiences such as these are an integral part of everyday life that goes beyond the realm of mere imagination.”

Ward, J. And Mattingley, J. B. 2006: Synaesthesia: An Overview Of Contemporary Findings And Controversies, from Cortex Journal: Special Issue, vol 42, issue 2, p. 2 “Through vibration comes motion. Through motion comes colour. Through colour comes tone”, Pythagoras Heyrman, H. 2007: “Extending the Synesthetic Code: connecting synesthesia, memory and art” Dr Hugo Heyrman, a personal art site, 1995. Retrieved 12 Jan. 2015 from http://doctorhugo.org/ synaesthesia/art2/index.html “O please, gentlemen, a little bluer, if you please! This tone type requires it”, Franz Liszt Cytowic, R. E, Eagleman, D: 2009: Wednesday is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synaesthesia: Cambridge: MIT Press, p. 93

Synaesthesia is a neurological condition whereby neurological cross-wiring increases communication between different sensory areas in the brain, ‘the elicitation of perceptual experiences in the absence of the normal sensory stimulation’ (Ward, J. And Mattingley, J. B. 2006).

A synaesthetic approach to the virtual continuum would allow intensification of space through experience of one sense within another. It could also provide the representation or ‘visualisation’ of an abstract idea or immaterial space through one or more sensory channels. This allows the human brain to interpret, and interact with the virtual in the city. Synaesthesia is a form of naturally occuring augmented reality where virtual constructs are perceived alongside the actual.

Precedents include: “Astonishing Splashes of Colour”, a book that uses the concept of synaethesia by Clare Morral, “Composition V” by Wassily Kadinsky, a synaesthetic painter.

EXPANDING THE SENSORIUM THROUGH THE VIRTUAL THE CONCEPT OF SYNAESTHESIA

Synaesthesia is derived from the Greek words ‘syn’(together) and ‘aisthèsis’ (perception) Online Etymology Dictionary

A second film is explored, representing synaesthetic virtual constructs within and around the existing buildings of the Greenwich Peninsula. By composting views of the models into existing footage a juxtaposition of the virtual and the actual is created.

The initial scenes explore how the virtual spaces will begin to appear in the actual, distorting or enhancing the view, and inviting you into the space. The scenes then move into the virtual spaces, conveying the synaesthetic, immersive and multisensory, transformative, environments.

EXPANDING THE SENSORIUM THROUGH THE VIRTUAL A VIRTUAL SYNAESTHESIA, GREENWICH PENINSULA

Beginnings of the second film chronogram. The film moves from the everyday on the peninsula, to glimpses of the virtual spaces, finally culminating in immersive interior views of the spaces themselves.

A VIRTUAL SYNAESTHESIA PENINSULA SQUARE, GREENWICH PENINSULA

“THE BRIGHT MONOCHROME BUBBLE BURST, THROWING US INTO COLOUR AND COMPLEXITY. MORE COLOUR, MORE COMPLEXITY THAN I’D EVER SEEN OR IMAGINED OR DREAMED” - Ken MacLeod, Cosmonaut’s Keep SCE NE

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The second film, ‘A Virtul Synaesthesia’ explores techniques for composting virtual constructs into existing footage. The after effect animated collages in the first scenes composite glimpses of the virtual into peninsula square, inhabiting the in-between.

As the film moves into Peninsula Square, the viewer is taken into one of the virtual constructs, which is intended to create a fully immersive, colour-intense experience, using sound to enhance or distort the space.

A VIRTUAL SYNAESTHESIA PENINSULA SQUARE, GREENWICH PENINSULA

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Initial glimpse of a virtual construct above the O2 Arena.

A VIRTUAL SYNAESTHESIA PENINSULA SQUARE, GREENWICH PENINSULA

The threshold between the virtual and the actual.

A VIRTUAL SYNAESTHESIA PENINSULA SQUARE, GREENWICH PENINSULA

A virtual synaesthetic construct.

A VIRTUAL SYNAESTHESIA PENINSULA SQUARE, GREENWICH PENINSULA

Further research into synaesthesia maps out the qualities of natural synaesthesia and how this could be applied to artificially induced, or virtual synaesthesia. The qualities of visual and spatial synaesthesia are especially interesting, in which synaesthetes are sometimes able to ‘project’ their elicited sensorial experience into existing world.

Synaesthesia also provides insight into cognition, possibly providing a model for manipulation of the perceptual process. In the context of the postmodern city which operates increasingly in the virtual realm alongside the actual, a synaesthetic approach to the sensorium could provide a new way to navigate the city.

A VIRTUAL SYNAESTHESIA FROM NATURAL TO VIRTUAL SYNAESTHESIA

[Social Condenser] "Programmatic layering upon vacant terrain to encourage dynamic coexistence of activities and to generate through their interference, unprecedented events." Rem Koolhaas, OMA Koolhaas, R.: 2004: Content. Tashchen, p.84

Visuo-spatial synaesthesia provides a model for augmented reality where visual percepts are the outcome.

The synaesthetic perceptual process for visuo-spatial synaesthesia involves personal, human, environmental and social triggers, from elementary sensations to higher level abstractions. For example, a visuo-spatial synaesthetic experience could be induced by simple exposure to a specific smell as well as by a more complex emotion.

Similarly the outcome could be a simple visualisation of an assortment of colours and shapes, or a more complex spatial map.

The capacity of the synaesthetic brain to deal with both bodily sensation and abstract concepts simultaneously, allowing one to interact with the other, mapping them both visually and spatially, is an important concept for the contemporary augmented city.

A VIRTUAL SYNAESTHESIA VISUO-SPATIAL SYNAESTHESIA TO THE VIRTUAL CONDENSER

Furthermore virtual synaesthesia could provide opportunities for social interaction.

The virtual is an important tool for communication in the contmeporary city, and augmented reality constructs could create the possibility for embodiment of this communication.

Rem Koolhaas’s definition of the Social Condenser typology as a ‘programmatic layering upon vacant terrain to encourage dynamic coexistence of activities’ provides a framework for the use of virtual constructs in the contemporary city.

Exploring techniques for compositing the virtual spaces within Peninsula Square. The transient, responsive, colour spaces could act as collision zones for social interaction in ther urban space.

THE VIRTUAL CONDENSER VIRTUAL CONSTRUCTS IN PENINSULA SQUARE

Collage of virtual constructs in Peninsula Square.

THE VIRTUAL CONDENSER PENINSULA SQUARE

Interrogating the qualities of the virtual realm. The vortex structures create cave-like interiors which could either act as personal escapes within the urban realm, or social constructs that respond to the community as well as the individual. The constructs form consciousness dislocations that take the inhabitant to a new fantastical world.

Precedents include “Infinite Rock” by Thilo Frank, “Infinity Mirror Room – Filled with the Brilliance of Life” by Yayoi Kusama and “Dancing in Peckham” by Gillian Wearing.

THE VIRTUAL REALM SYNAESTHETIC | IMMERSIVE | FANTASTICAL

Exploring the qualities of the virtual spaces using computer modelling.

THE VIRTUAL REALM VIRTUAL SPACES

Exploring colour, materiality and light using computer modelling.

THE VIRTUAL REALM VIRTUAL SPACES

THE EARLY DAYS OF A BETTER FUTURE - PART 2 THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM| THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY EAST OF EDEN, GREENWICH PENINSULA

MAJOR PROJECT 1. NARRATIVE: THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY 2. THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM: •

THE SYNAESTHETIC SENSORIUM | SYNAESTHESIA SHIP

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THE TECHNOLOGICALLY AUGMENTED SENSORIUM | MOLLY MILLIONS HOSPITAL

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THE SHARED SENSORIUM: MYCOURT

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THE CUSTOMISABLE SENSORIUM: THE BUNKER

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THE TEMPORAL SENSORIUM: THE FUSILLADE

3. FILM 3: ‘THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY’

In order to provide a framework for the final design project, the story of “The Secret Life of Walter Mity” was chosen. The story follows a man’s shopping trip with his wife, during which he lapses into various daydreams which are inspired by features of his surroundings. The interraction between the daydream space, the virtual, and the city, the actual, provides a similar premise to augmented reality in the city.

The story by James Thurber was originally published in 1939 in the New Yorker, and subsequently in Thurber’s book “My World and Welcome to it”. The story has also been made into film, most recently in Ben Stiller’s adaption in 2013.

THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY FANTASY SPACES IN THE MUNDANE CITY

The story takes the reader through five imagined scenarios where the protagonist imagines himself as the Commander of a US Navy ship in a storm, a world-renowned surgeon performing complex surgery, a famous assassin in court, the Captain of troops in a war bunker and lastly facing a firing squad for execution.

Each space is inspired by something in Walter’s day, be it driving a car, the sign on a builder, newspaper headlines or even his body position. However, the actual world also pulls Walter out of his daydream states, anchoring him back through the words of his wife or almost crashing his car.

The story provides the framework of five virtual constructs that could occur from specific locations on the site, and also provides the inspiration for the five spaces; the ship, the hospital, the courtroom, the war bunker and the firing squad.

THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY THE VIRTUAL AND THE ACTUAL

ACTUAL SPACE: 02 ARENA Smells of the coffee shop induce a personal construct to form. Customisation of the sensorium.

FOURTH VIRTUAL CONSTRUCT Dislocation from the ‘actual’ in consciousness only. Body remains in the actual space of the coffee shop whilst the senses of vision, sound and smell are augmented.

Virtual construct is ‘seen’ through the ‘eyes’ of the persona.

SIngle perception within the space.

ACTUAL SPACE: THAMES PATH A moment of contemplation / cognition of the day.

FIFTH VIRTUAL CONSTRUCT Cognitive map of the Peninsula. Bodily sensations are entirely augmented, bringing the persona into a fully immersive virtual world.

ACTUAL SPACE: SHOP/ RESTAURANT/ COMMERCIAL SPACE OF KNIGHT DRAGON GREENWICH PENINSULA

Categorisation and organisation of the city as sensorium, dynamic map, urban senses.

A memory or sudden response brings persona back into the ‘actual’.

FIRST VIRTUAL CONSTRUCT

Social interaction - virtual and actual

Body and consciousness are connected. The persona is seated in the cable car which is mimicked in the construct.

Touch and proprioception are in the actual as well as the virtual. Sound and vision are dislocated.

Virtual construct is ‘seen’ through the ‘eyes’ of the persona.

ACTUAL SPACE: ARRIVE AT PENINSULA SQUARE / JOURNEY

THIRD VIRTUAL CONSTRUCT Dislocation from ‘actual’ - physical body is walking through Peninsula Square consciousness is transported into virtual construct - sound, emotion, touch, vision, proprioception.

Virtual construct is multi-perspectival, body seen as object in the space and from multiple viewpoints as well as through the ‘eyes’ of the persona.

Multiple people, shared construct, combining of perceptions and virtual constructs.

Single perception within the space.

[sense] of other person’s virtual construct brings persona back to ‘actual’

ACTUAL SPACE: CABLE CAR

Actual inducer: [newsboy shouting] as inducer for next experience SECOND VIRTUAL CONSTRUCT Dislocation from ‘actual’ - the physical body is walking towards Peninsula Square whilst consciousness is transported into the virtual construct - vision, sound, temperature, proprioception, touch, emotion and personality.

Virtual construct is multi-perspectival, body seen as object in the space and from multiple viewpoints as well as through the ‘eyes’ of the persona.

Single perception within the space.

The story of Walter Mitty is re-imagined on the Greenwich Peninsula, mapping it spatially across the site. A journey is created starting from the cable car, the ship, through the surrounding buildings of Peninsula Square, the hospital, to Peninsula Square itself, the courtroom, into the O2 Arena, the war bunker, and finally along the Thames Path, the firing squad.

The project themes of an expanded sensorium through the virtual is also mapped into the story, examining the sensory qualities of each space in the story. For example in certain constructs Walter only imagines visual or aural qualities to the daydream, whereas in other spaces he projects his entire body into the space, including haptic and prioproceptive experiences.

The design project becomes “The [Secret] Life of Wanda Mitty”.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY EXPANDING THE CITY THROUGH VIRTUAL CONSTRUCTS | GREENWICH PENINSULA

Voiceover from the cable car brings the persona back into the ‘actual’.

Daydreaming: Lapsing into other virtual constructs along the route: emotion, vision, sound, personality, touch

ACTUAL SPACE: CABLE CAR PORT / JOURNEY ‘Actual’ inducers: [gloves] as inducer for next experience [glimpse of hospital] as inducer for next experience

The story is developed by way of a script which includes all the original dialogue of the story, with the scene descriptions expanding and augmenting the story into the design project.

Each space is imagined through narrative, growing out of the qualities of the cable car, the buildings along Mitre Passage, Peninsula Square, a coffee shop in the O2 Arena and the Thames Path, Peninsula Riverside.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | DEVELOPING SPACES

“In other words, [synaesthetic] experience is an experience of [accessible], [connected], [continuous] material signifiers which... link up into a coherent sequence.”

(Adapted from Frederic Jameson, ‘Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism’. 1982: p. 111)

THE SYNAESTHETIC SENSORIUM

THE SENSORIAL BEING AS SYNAESTHETE

THE TECHNOLOGICALLY AUGMENTED SENSORIUM

“Synaesthesia employs both SPATIAL and VISUAL dimensions of visual experience. If advanced in both dimensions, it could be an explicit virtual model that facilitates multiple viewpoints, a spatial model that could be used interactively, and a visual experience that is ‘projected’ into the environment and not only ‘in the mind’s eye’. It would use varied and complex visual imaging and have visual detail in all spatial locations.”1

“Splitting is no longer instrumentalised but proliferates an aesthetic in its own right…More and more often, the desired aesthetic seems to be one of disorientation itself. Leaving us open, unbounded, or fragmented is not meant to produce us as psychotic, but to make us available for re-organ-isation in terms we might be able to negotiate for ourselves.”1

“[This is] the adventure that is our future, as we immerse ourselves ever more deeply in our own technologies; as the boundaries between our technologies and ourselves continue to implode; as we inexorably become creatures that we cannot even now imagine. It is a moment which simultaneously holds immense threat and immense promise. I don’t want to lose sight of either, because we need to guide ourselves - remember cyber means steer in all our assembled forms and multiple selves right between the two towers of promise and danger, of desire and technology”1

1 Jonas, C. N, and Price, M. C: 2004: Not all synesthetes are alike: spatial vs. visual dimensions of sequence-space synesthesia’, from Frontiers in Psychology. 30 Oct. 2014. Retrieved 04 Jan. 2015 from http://journal.frontiersin.org/ article/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01171

1 Jones, C. A, 2006: Sensorium: Embodied Experience, Technology, and Contemporary Art. Cambridge: The MIT Press p. 39

1 Stone, A. R: 1996: Cyberdammerung at Wellspring Systems, in Moser, M. A and MacLeod D: 1997: Immersed in Technology: Art and Virtual Environments. Cambridge: The MIT Press, p. 116

The story of the design project was further developed through construction of the thesis. Research into virtual and augmented reality as augmentation of the human sensorium provided two main augmentations to the contemporary self: the synaesthetic, connected approach to the sesnsorium; and, the premise of technological augmentation of the human senses into tele-senses, including wearable technologies or more radically neuro-implants or neuro-cosmetics.

This provides the qualities for the first two spaces: the ‘Synaesthesia Ship’ and the ‘Molly Millions Hospital’, in reference to William Gibson’s character ‘Molly’ who employs technologically augmented senses.

THE CITY AS SENSORIUM VIRTUAL SPACES THROUGH THE CITY AS SENSORIUM

THE SHARED SENSORIUM

THE CUSTOMISABLE SENSORIUM

from Inception by Christopher Nolan (2010) D-Tower by NOX and Lars Spuybroek (2001) SYS*017.ReR*06/PiG-EqN\15*25’

by Matthieu Briand (2004)

From this research, three further spatial ideas were formed as potentials for the future expanded sensorium of the city: the Shared Sensorium, the Customisable Sensorium, and the Temporal Sensorium. These three ideas explore the future of augmented reality for social interaction and communication, to allow customisation of the city, and lastly to explore the potentials of augmenting time constraints in the city.

The third construct therefore becomes ‘MyCourt’ in reference to a future social media, the second ‘The Bunker’, which is a moment of escapism, and ‘The Fusillade’, a contemplative moment at the end of the day.

THE CITY AS SENSORIUM VIRTUAL SPACES THROUGH THE CITY AS SENSORIUM

from Gamer by Brian Taylor (2009)

Freshwater Pavilion by NOX and Spuybroek (1993-7)

THE TEMPORAL SENSORIUM

from The Matrix by the Wachowski Brothers (1999)

Her Long Black Hair by Cardiff and Miller (2004)

CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM

THE BUNKER VIRTUAL CONSTRUCT

THE TEMPORAL SENSORIUM THE FUSILLADE THE FUSILLADE VIRTUAL CONSTRUCT

COFFEE SHOP

THE CUSTOMISABLE SENSORIUM

THAMES PATH PENINSULA RIVERSIDE

THE BUNKER

O2 ARENA

THE SHARED SENSORIUM MYCOURT AUGMENTED SPACE

MITRE PASSAGE

MYCOURT EMIRATES CABLE CAR

THE MOLLY MILLIONS HOSPITAL CORRIDOR AUGMENTED SPACE

THE TECHNOLOGICALLY AUGMENTED SENSORIUM THE MOLLY MILLIONS HOSPITAL

PENINSULA SQUARE

THE SYNAESTHESIA SHIP VIRTUAL CONSTRUCT THE MOLLY MILLIONS OPERATING THEATRE VIRTUAL CONSTRUCT

This site plan shows the five virtual and augmented constructs on the Greenwich Peninsula and the journey of the protagonist in the final film of the design project.

The design project aims to explore the five key spatial ideas of the project, the concept of synaesthesia, technological augmentation of the senses, shared senses, customisable senses and a temporally augmented sensorium.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM | GREENWICH PENINSULA

THE SYNAESTHETIC SENSORIUM THE SYNAESTHESIA SHIP

THE SYNAESTHESIA SHIP

Initial sketches to begin to develop the qualities of the five augmented and virtual spaces around the Greenwich Peninsula.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM | DEVELOPING SPACES

THE MOLLY MILLIONS HOSPITAL

MYCOURT

THE BUNKER

THE FUSILLADE

WIRES AND MEDICAL MACHINERY OPERATING THEATRE LIGHTS

METAL PANELS OF EXISTING BUILDING REPEATED TO FORM WALLS OF OPERATING THEATRE

‘INANIMATE FIGURE’

SCENE 01 INT. THE SYNAESTHESIA, SHIP CABIN – DAY A vast cavern opens ahead. In the distance there appears to be a small window, but it is difficult to make out. The walls of the cabin are relentlessly shifting and adjusting, ‘making distance and perspective impossible to judge and shapes difficult to cohere in the eye’.

There is a sense that the ship is propelling itself forward, with bands of colour vibrating along the walls.

Faint sounds of mechanical movement can be detected, with flecks of yellow and orange flickering along the floor.

RED FABRIC OF THE CABLE CAR WHITE PAINTED METAIL STRIPS AND RAILINGS Development of the design of the virtual construct within the Emirates Cable Car, the Synaesthesia Ship. The design draws from the existing city, the cable car, the original story, a ship in a storm, and the thesis, the concept of synaesthesia, are all intended to be embodied within the design.

CABLE CAR WINDOW

WINDOW THROUGH END OF CONSTRUCT

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM | THE SYNAESTHESIA SHIP

CABLE CAR SEAT

SHIP MECHANICS AND CONTROLS

The materiality and shape of the cable car including the red fabric of the seats and the white painted metal structure are augmented and warped into the virtual construct similar to the cave-like interiors of the early design work.

METAL PANELS OF EXISTING BUILDING BEND TO FORM AUGMENTED CORRIDOR

DOORWAY FORMED IN EXISTING FACADE

The mechanical sound gets louder ta-pocketa-ta-pocketata-pocketa, and the ship responds in a chorus of Technicolor. The window gets slowly closer, its blue sky drawing nearer.

Early render of the interior of the synaesthesia ship.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM | SYNAESTHESIA SHIP

WIRES AND MEDICAL MACHINERY OPERATING THEATRE LIGHTS

METAL PANELS OF EXISTING BUILDING REPEATED TO FORM WALLS OF OPERATING THEATRE

‘INANIMATE FIGURE’

SCENE 06 INT. THE MOLLY MILLIONS HOSPITAL CORRIDOR – DAY A series of parasitic constructs begin to grow out of the cold, lifeless windows, distorting in the reflective surface of the glass, bending and morphing into the ripples of the new surfaces.

The colours, sounds and smells of the Peninsula reflect, intermingle and intensify, forming a new space that WANDA can taste on her tongue.

METAL PANELS OF EXISTING BUILDING BEND TO FORM AUGMENTED CORRIDOR The Molly Millions construct is split into two parts, the augmented hospital corridor and the virtual operating theatre. The corridor that features in the original story is also inspired by the facades of the buildings along Mitre Passage which create a corridor in the existing city. The notion of technological augmentation allows the building facades to warp and bend into the augmented space.

RED FABRIC OF THE CABLE CAR WHITE PAINTED METAIL STRIPS AND RAILINGS

CABLE CAR SEAT

SHIP MECHANICS AND CONTROLS CABLE CAR WINDOW

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM | TECHNOLOGICALLY AUGMENTED SENSORIUM | THE MOLLY MILLIONS HOSPITAL CORRIDOR

WINDOW THROUGH END OF CONSTRUCT

GLIMPSE OF AUGMENTED CORRIDOR FROM OTHER SIDE

TRANSIENT, PERMEABLE, FRAGILE

DOORWAY FORMED IN EXISTING FACADE PERSONAL CONSTRUCT FORMED FROM SMELL OF COFFEE SHOP

The curved pathway is transformed into a long winding hospital corridor. The semi-transparent walls reveal glimpses of the sterile buildings of the actual world, dancing in and out of focus. A pink scent travels towards WANDA in distress.

Early computer image of the Molly Millions Hospital Corridor alond Mitre Passage.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM | THE MOLLY MILLIONS HOSPITAL CORRIDOR

SCENE 08 INT. THE MOLLY MILLIONS OPERATING THEATRE – DAY WANDA’s perspective shifts and she sees herself as PERSONA 2, Dr Mitty, within the space, moving over to the operating table and shaking the hands of the four other doctors in the room. The shape of an inanimate figure can barely be made out beneath an assortment of electronic and medical cables and wires that are plugged into the pulsating envelope of the theatre.

WIRES AND MEDICAL MACHINERY

Similar to the previous pages, the operating theatre grows out of the existing building facades. The qualities of an operating theatre including the electrical wires, large moveable lights and sterile turquoise colour scheme are abstracted in the virtual construct.

OPERATING THEATRE LIGHTS

METAL PANELS OF EXISTING BUILDING REPEATED TO FORM WALLS OF OPERATING THEATRE

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM | TECHNOLOGICALLY AUGMENTED SENSORIUM | THE MOLLY MILLIONS OPERATING THEATRE

‘INANIMATE FIGURE’

The wall of the construct begins at that moment to go pocketa-pocketa-pocketa, as the room begins to fall in on itself.

WANDA springs to the wall which is now going pocketapocketa-queep-pocketa-queep. She reaches out to the construct, feeling every wire in turn.

Early computer image of the operating theatre.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM | THE MOLLY MILLIONS OPERATING THEATRE

SCENE 14 INT. MyCOURT COURTROOM – DAY WANDA ‘punches herself through to find an infinite blue space ranged with colorcoded spheres strung on a tight grid of pale blue neon’. MyCourt is alive with its iridescent spectators, organised cognitively in the rows of seats in the gallery.

The rows are fixated on the bench, an infinite horizontal surface extending out of view.

WANDA’s perception splits, and she is aware of herself in the gallery, whilst watching herself as PERSONA 3, the Defendant in the witness stand.

WIRES AND MEDICAL MACHINERY

SHARED SENSES INTERACT

CONSTRUCTS COMBINE AND INTERACT WITH EACHOTHER

OPERATING THEATRE LIGHTS

Peninsula Square is intended to be flooded with virtual and augmented constructs.

The features of a courtroom are re-imagined to provide organisation for the virtual network: the gallery, the bench, the defendant and the jury. The space is a social construct involving interaction of different sensoriums and so should appear dynamic METAL PANELS OF and active.

EXISTING BUILDING

The REPEATED features ofTO Peninsula FORM Square, including the canopy and flags, the ground treatmentWALLS and the OFsurrounding buildings and entry to the O2 Arena provide various shapes and features to augment and re-construct.

OPERATING THEATRE

JURY GALLERY BENCH

‘INANIMATE FIGURE’

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM | SHARED SENSORIUM | MYCOURT

DEFENDENT / WITNESS STAND

FOCAL POINT OF MYCOURT SPECTATORS IN MYCOURT (PARTICIPANTS IN VIRTUAL NETWORKS)

An excited buzz runs around the courtroom inducing a flourish of movement. The edges of the construct tremble, losing their rigidity. The JUDGE raps for order.

Initial collage of MyCourt social construct.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM | MYCOURT

The construct swings as WANDA’s sensorium is embraced.

The blue space metachroses into deep amethyst; the witness stand glowing an ominous red. All the spheres in the gallery are unmoving. The construct holds its breath.

SHARED SENSES INTERACT

WIRES AND MEDICAL MACHINERY

DEFENDENT / WITNESS STAND CONSTRUCTS COMBINE AND INTERACT WITH EACHOTHER

OPERATING THEATRE LIGHTS

JURY METAL PANELS OF EXISTING BUILDING REPEATED TO FORM WALLS OF OPERATING THEATRE

GALLERY BENCH

‘INANIMATE FIGURE’

FOCAL POINT OF MYCOURT SPECTATORS IN MYCOURT (PARTICIPANTS IN VIRTUAL NETWORKS)

SCENE 19 INT. THE BUNKER - DAY Out of the aroma, a construct forms around her: warm chocolate presses into her back and wraps around her body. Pearls of calm blue suspend in front of her eyes. Her equilibrioception is also augmented, giving her the sense of floating. Only murmurs of the ‘actual’ remain, stretching out beneath like a perceptual carpet.

METAL PANELS OF EXISTING BUILDING BEND TO FORM AUGMENTED CORRIDOR

RED FABRIC OF THE CABLE CAR WHITE PAINTED METAIL STRIPS AND RAILINGS

GLIMPSE OF AUGMENTED CORRIDOR FROM OTHER SIDE

CABLE CAR SEAT

SHIP MECHANICS AND CONTROLS The Bunker is a personal escape where the protagonist customises the coffee shop, CABLE editing her sensorium. The construct is inspired by scent, representing the smellCAR WINDOW of the coffee shop both spatially and visually. This also conveys the fragility of the bunker.

In this way it is only the smells of the exisitng city that is retained creating an immersive construct.

WINDOW THROUGH END OF CONSTRUCT

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM | CUSTOMISABLE SENSORIUM | THE BUNKER

TRANSIENT, PERMEABLE, FRAGILE

DOORWAY FORMED IN EXISTING FACADE PERSONAL CONSTRUCT FORMED FROM SMELL OF COFFEE SHOP

GLIMPSES OF THE ‘ACTUAL’ WORLD OUTSIDE

Initial computer image of the experiential qualities of the Bunker, modelled from fragments, precipitation and suspended pearls.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM | THE BUNKER

The coffee shop thunders and whines around The Bunker and batters at the door. The construct shudders and the perceptual carpet rises, threatening to invade.

WANDA ‘punches herself through to find an infinite blue space ranged with color-coded spheres strung on a tight grid of pale blue neon’ . ‘MyCourt’ is alive with its iridescent spectators, organised cognitively in the rows of seats in the gallery. The rows are fixated on the bench, an infinite horizontal surface extending out of view.

The coffee shop responds to her sensorium, filtering out millions of perceptual stimulus down to the pure scent of warm coffee.

Out of the aroma, a construct forms around her: warm chocolate presses into her back and wraps around her body. Pearls of calm blue suspend in front of her eyes. Her equilibrioception is also augmented, giving her the sense of floating. Only murmurs of the ‘actual’ remain, stretching out beneath like a perceptual carpet.

The cafe aligns, back in focus. WANDA is left staring at her empty coffee cup.

WIFE I’ve been looking all over this hotel for you!

Why do you have to hide in this old chair? How did you expect me to find you?

WANDA (vaguely) Things close in.

WIFE What? Did you get the what’s-its-name? The puppy biscuit? What’s in that box?

WANDA Overshoes WIFE Couldn’t you have put them on in the store?

WANDA I was thinking. Does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?

WIFE I’m going to take your temperature when I get you home.

As she stands motionless, WANDA is transported through glimpses of the day flickering rapidly through the memories of her senses.

The fragments distort and intensify against each other and WANDA’s synaesthetic map allows organisation and interpretation according to her impulses. Her sensorium is interspersed with shared senses, weaving alongside and within her own, a Fusillade of senses within the city around her.

A5 - O2 ARENA

WANDA’s body walks towards Peninsula Square. Suddenly an immaterial space to her her sensorium and distorts Knight Dragon scene.

the entry into there is the sense of right, which enters the perfection of the

PASSER-BY (shouting angrily) Back it up, Mac! Look out for that Buick!

Abruptly WANDA comes to a halt,‘re-organi-ising’ her body with a jolt.

PASSER BY (cont.)

Wrong lane, Mac WANDA Gee, yeah.

PASSER BY Leave her sit there, I’ll put her away. Hey, better leave the key.

WANDA Oh. WANDA walks into Peninsula Square. It is alive with the hum of city life. People are going about their everyday life, shopping, socialising, shouting at one another, or walking quickly as if not really there at all. WANDA realises the complexity of the space as it hits all her sensory receptors at once, battling for her attention, before settling into a sensory hierarchy and presenting her with a manageable, mappable, cognitive reality.

As she walks towards the tube station, WANDA is suddenly aware that her reality is not as stable, and as impenetrable as she thought. The fragile edges of her vision and her easily-influenced auditory nerve is intermittently invaded by ‘shares’ of the passers-by.

A6 - THAMES VIEW

At first just indiscernible faces of the crowd, WANDA is invited into numerous profiles within the space in turn.

A4 - PENINSULA SQUARE

A3 & A4 - PENINSULA SQUARE

A1 - CABLE CAR

A3 - WAY TO PENINSULA SQUARE

A2 - KNIGHT DRAGON PENINSULA

WANDA walks out of the terminal, shielding her eyes from the ‘extraordinary surfaces of the photorealist cityscape’ and into the ‘strange new hallucinatory exhilaration’ of the Knight Dragon Peninsula.

WIFE Remember to get those overshoes while I’m having my hair done.

A chronogram was developed prior to production of the final film to map out the qualities of the spaces as well as to plan the making of the film.

The script is used as a basis for the story, which follows the protagonist, Wanda, as she lapses from the actual into the virtual constructs.

The film will combine existing footage shot from first person and third person with computer models and interior collages.

WANDA I don’t need overshoes.

A series of parasitic constructs begin to grow out of the cold, lifeless windows, distorting in the reflective surface of the glass, bending and morphing into the ripples of the new surfaces. The colours, sounds and smells of the Peninsula reflect, intermingle and intensify, forming a new space that WANDA can taste on her tongue.

The curved pathway is transformed into a long winding hospital corridor. The semi-transparent walls reveal glimpses of the sterile buildings of the actual world, dancing in and out of focus. A pink scent travels towards WANDA in distress.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM | PRE-PRODUCTION CHRONOGRAM

The shape of an inanimate figure can barely be made out beneath an assortment of electronic and medical cables and wires that are plugged into the pulsating envelope of the theatre.

WIFE We’ve been all through that, you’re not a young man any longer.

WIFE (cont.)

Why don’t you wear your gloves? Have you lost your gloves?

WANDA reaches in a pocket and takes out her gloves. She puts them on.

The camera follows WANDA as she walks aimlessly along the curved pathway to Peninsula Square.

The contrived public realm of curved gardens and specially placed trees and fountains reflect in the glass curtain walls and shiny facades, detaching them from physical touch. The carefully controlled ‘No Car’ streets drain the walk of unpleasant sounds and smells, purifying the visual experience.

A PASSER-BY shouts angrily, shattering the calm.

PASSER-BY Pick it up, brother!

A vast cavern opens ahead. In the distance there appears to be a small window, but it is difficult to make out. The ‘walls’ of the cabin are relentlessly shifting and adjusting, ‘making distance and perspective impossible to judge and shapes difficult to cohere in the eye’. There is a sense that the ‘ship’ is propelling itself forward, with bands of colour vibrating along the walls. Faint sounds of mechanical movement can be detected, with flecks of yellow and orange flickering along the floor.

Testing the techniques of camera tracking with after effects and compositing. The first scene explores the Molly Millions Corridor and the second the Synaesthesia Ship, focussing on the melding of the virtual and the actual.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM | TEST SCENES

Developing a second chronogram which locates the five constructs on site at varying levels of virtuality. The spatial model becomes a mental map of the virtual and the actual on site.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM | SPATIAL MODEL CHRONOGRAM

The second chronogram maps out the journey and the making of the film, locating the individual constructs on the site, and interrogating their aesthetic qualities. Models were developed for each space that can be composited into the footage or made into interior collages.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM | THE MAKING OF THE FILM

Fragments of a series of virtual constructs were made growing from elements in the existing environment and interspersed with colours and features from the spaces of the story. These constructs are animated in order for them to composited into the existing footage.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM | THE MAKING OF THE FILM

View of the fusillade final model for animation and compositing.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY THE CITY AS EXPANDED SENSORIUM | THE MAKING OF THE FILM

The first part of the film outlines the existing site. contextualising the design project.

The five locations for the constructs are shown: the buildings along Mitre Passage, Peninsula Square, the Thames Path and the Emirates Cable Car. The original footage was editted using filters and overlays, creating the de-saturated mundane site.

The film also begins with a short introduction and title sequence.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | THE MAKING OF THE FILM

The first construct that appears is the Synaesthesia Ship. In order to differentiate between the augmented world of Wanda and the ‘actual’ world on the site, the film fluctuates between first person and third person footage. The first person footage is heavily filtered and colourised to give the sense of being in the personal, augmented sensorium of Wanda. As the film develops Wanda’s augmented sensorium begins to overlap with the city, building up the intensity of the virtual in the scenes.

Thumbnails showing layers of collage, models, footage and filters that were used to create the Synaesthesia ship, the Emirates Cable Car and the first glimpse of the Molly Millions.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | THE MAKING OF THE FILM

The Synaesthesia Ship virtual, immersive construct.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | THE MAKING OF THE FILM

A glimpse towards the Molly Millions construct.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | THE MAKING OF THE FILM

The second space is the Molly Millions. The film moves from the augmented corridor between the two buildings into the fully immersive virtual construct of the operating theatre. The city begins to merge with Wanda’s sensorium within this construct where augmented constructs are seen in both the first and third person.

The models are composited into existing footage using green screen animation and filters and blurs to merge it with the original footage.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | THE MAKING OF THE FILM

Molly Millions hospital corridor augmented reality construct.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | THE MAKING OF THE FILM

Inside the Molly Millions Operating Theatre.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | THE MAKING OF THE FILM

MyCourt construct, the third virtual and augmented space is seen from multiple perspectives. There should be a sense that Wanda’s sensorium is invaded by the sensoriums of others, culminating in the busy, colourful scenes of Peninsula Square.

At the end of this section Wanda retreats into the Bunker, the calm immersive virtual construct. This is scene from her perspective only.

3D animated models, orginal footage, and filters. 2.5D animated collage.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | THE MAKING OF THE FILM

Peninsula Square transformed into the gallery of MyCourt.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | THE MAKING OF THE FILM

The calming escape into the sensorium of the Bunker.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | THE MAKING OF THE FILM

The climax of the film is to represent the notion of cognitive mapping of both the actual and the virtual, in a way that is synaesthetic, social, customisable and temporal, enabling the individual to navigate the city.

The models and scenes made in the film are brought together in a dynamic and pulsating map that is suspended around views of the Peninsula.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | THE MAKING OF THE FILM | THE FUSILLADE

Final view of Wanda’s cognitive map of the city as sensorium.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | THE MAKING OF THE FILM

The final edit included adding effects to create enhanced atmospherics and to bring together the whole film. The colour space and ambience of each scene is important to bring to life the notion of the sensorium. Blur, light flares and colour enhancement were especially useful in achieving this, with the film building in intensity and saturation as the story develops.

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | THE MAKING OF THE FILM | COLOUR GRADING AND POST-RENDER EDIT

“We’re going through!”

We can’t make it Sir, it’s spoiling for a hurricane if you ask me”

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | FINAL FILM

“Not so fast! You’re driving too fast! What are you driving so fast for?”

“Hmm?”

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | FINAL FILM

“Coreopsis has set in. If you would take over, Mitty?”

“If you wish”

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | FINAL FILM

“The cannonading has really got the wind up in young Raleigh, Sir.” “Get him to bed with the others. I’ll fly alone”

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | FINAL FILM

“With any known make of gun, I could have killed Gregory Fitzhurst at three-hundred feet with my left hand.”

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | FINAL FILM

“We only live once, Sergeant... Or do we?”

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | FINAL FILM

“We only live once, Sergeant... Or do we?”

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | FINAL FILM

“I was thinking. Does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?”

“I’m going to take your temperature when I get you home.”

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | FINAL FILM

“To hell with the handkerchief!”

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | FINAL FILM

TEMPORAL SENSORIUM

THE FUSILLADE

03:34:16

SHARED SENSORIUM

MYCOURT CUSTOMISABLE SENSORIUM

THE BUNKER

TECHNOLOGICALLY AUGMENTED SENSORIUM

03:04:01

03:18:02 01:37:17 01:24:01

02:49:18 02:37:06

02:26:20

01:32:04

MOLLY MILLIONS HOSPITAL

00:45:00

SYNAESTHETIC SENSORIUM

SYNAESTHESIA SHIP

THE [SECRET] LIFE OF WANDA MITTY CITY AS SENSORIUM | THE MAKING OF THE FILM | POST PRODUCTION CHRONOGRAM

GREENWICH PENINSULA

MITRE PASSAGE

PENINSULA SQUARE

PENINSULA SQUARE

THAMES PATH

EMIRATES CABLE CAR