SARAH BEDWELL
The Zoomscape ~ Lockdown restriction and its compression on interior reality
B4015143
Abstract This thesis challenges traditional modes of architectural representation through interrogation of a domestic space invaded by cameras. A parallel is drawn between the flaws of the linear perspective in architecture and those of the video-communication tools on which we now heavily rely. During a time characterised by change and uncertainty, the project is intended to uncover the capabilities of architectural representation to portray emotional perceptions of space.
Contents 01
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Thesis
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Studio
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Context
05
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Theory
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Development
14
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Installation
16
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Reflection and Conclusion
17
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Appendix
The ‘New Normal’ As a response to the unique present circumstances of isolation, Archive of the Collective Interior Studio’s objective is to reflect on our interior environments. The current period of turmoil and uncertainty has led us to gain a new, deeper level of familiarity and appreciation for our interior spaces as we rely on their boundaries for safety. Our associations with our immediate surroundings have resultantly become intensely emotional and complex. Any attempt to share these sentiments can seem hindered by the reductive, perspectival, virtual images, on which we now rely for connection to the outside world. In this light, the physical distance between isolated individuals is compounded by the distance between virtual representations and actual lived experience of space. Furthermore, there is a collective feeling of distress that arises from a scenario of overlapping realities as we are required to carry out domestic and working life within the same physical space. The project aims towards a representational approach that facilitates the expression of these unique, emotional associations to the physical interior space within the particular set of circumstances. In a broader context, the intention is to address the reductive nature of the linear perspective and its role within the architectural field as a scientific instrument used for accurate transcription as well as the germination of architectural ideas. In order to design in a way that truly reflects the depth of the human condition, the architect must be equipped with the tools to facilitate explorations beyond solely the visual, tangible aspects to the way in which humans interact with space. ‘For architects, concerned with ethics and not merely aesthetic novelty, who seek the realisation of places where a fuller, more compassionate human life might take place, that these mediating artefacts and tools be appropriate is paramount.’ (Pérez-Gómez & Pelletier, 1997, p. 7)
Archive of the Collective Interior
01. Amman, Portrait of Jamnitzer in His Studio with a Perspective Machine (ca.1565) (Pérez-Gómez & Pelletier, 1997, p.258)
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, different aspects of our lives, such as teaching and learning, have been dislocated from their usual environments. Distanced learning has become the new-normal and the architectural studio has been left eerily empty. Meanwhile, our domestic and working lives have been repositioned uncomfortably close together. During such a time of loss and change, the circumstances also offer opportunities for introspection; to reflect on our relationships to the environments within which we work at home. Archive of the Collective Interior Studio aims to offer another perspective on the unique current situation through detailed explorations of our new interior worlds. Such investigations are concerned with both our bodily interactions with the spaces and objects around us in addition to our newly detached interactions with the outside world. The latter can be perceived as often being mediated by frames; the window to the street outside as well as the computer screen which facilitates our communication with peers and teachers.
02. Dürer, St Jerome in His Study (1514) (Pérez-Gómez & Pelletier, 1997, p. 114)
These two modes of experiencing the world under the current conditions of isolation (bodily vs. virtually) whilst operating within the same physical space, can seem oddly separate and sometimes in conflict with one another. A desire to withhold information, during work-related video calls, to maintain the privacy of the domestic realm is juxtaposed by a frustratingly hindered ability to communicate and share ideas relating to work. The studio aims, through close observation, to develop an understanding of such dissonances and what they mean.
STUDIO ~ 02
Overlapping Realities The overlap of domestic life and working life within the same physical space introduces a number of juxtapositions: virtual reality vs. physical reality, 2D vs. 3D, publicity vs. privacy. Sociologist Erving Goffman refers to a ‘backstage’ and ‘front stage’, the ‘front stage’ being the version of oneself that is performed to the world while the ‘back stage’ is where, hidden from the audience, one plans and prepares their ‘performance’ (Goffman, 1990).
opposite that of my partner
Whilst sharing a study space (shown in the collage opposite) with my partner, I can regularly be seen working in the background of his university video calls. Leaving me with a constant acute awareness of being watched, this scenario serves as an example of the anxiety-inducing overlap of realities occurring under the current circumstances. The physical study space then becomes dissected into several zones by the Zoom camera, each with a different significance relating to the ‘backstage’ and ‘front stage’. Two on-camera zones, staged by two separate people, are encased by one shared, off-camera, private space.
CONTEXT
Collage showing bird’s- eye view of my study space
Based on this analogy, the current restrictions have completely reassembled the front and back stages of our lives because of the, often daily, intrusion of video calls into our private, domestic spaces and the disruption of our work-related communications by domestic life. This helps to explain a common feeling of discomfort brought on by the new-normal in which the back and front stages of our identities are being crudely amalgamated in a desperate effort to seek safety in solitude.
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The Portal Frame A reliance on video calls for distanced learning and teaching has reduced our communication with the outside world to framed, flattened perspective images of our interior environments. We have become familiar with the blurred thumbnail images of ourselves translated by the camera and reflected back at us to the extent that this represented fragment of our lives takes on its own separate meaning. It elicits changes in our awareness and behaviour; we position our cameras in good light and remove any mess from view. It prompts us to make choices as to how much of our lived realities we really want to disclose, emphasising the distinction in our minds between the virtual and physical realms or the outside world and the interior world. The perspectival image then becomes something more subjective than merely a true, accurate representation of a space.
This distance between overlapping realities can lead us to question the veracity of the perspectival image more generally.
Screen-shot view of my partner’s webcam with my workspace in the background
CONTEXT ~ 04
The Role of Perspective Within the architectural profession, traditional representational methods, such as the perspective, are generally expected to be unambiguous and are often regarded as ‘neutral instruments devoid of inherent value other than their capacity for accurate transcription’ (Pérez-Gómez & Pelletier, 1997, p. 3). In ‘The Architecture of Error’ Francesca Hughes discusses the architect’s fixation with pursuing precision beyond levels of constructability and how this has been exacerbated by the digitalisation of architectural drawing (Hughes, 2014). In this regard, the subjective capacity of architectural representation is greatly overshadowed by its status as a scientific, transcriptive tool. As described in ‘Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge’, ‘functionalist motivations of our technological world have promoted the pragmatic capacity of architectural drawing over its potential to construe a symbolic order’ (Pérez-Gómez & Pelletier, 1997, p. 6).
03. Les Perspecteurs - Abraham Bosse (Pérez-Gómez & Pelletier, 1997, p.70)
However, complex discourse around the value of visual representation can be traced back to classical Greece, for example, in the case of Plato’s famous argument that ‘the arts are twice removed from the truth’. This is based on an understanding of all art as mimetic of ideas and of ‘idea’ as the ultimate reality. The importance of these discussions can be attributed to the way in which they address the distance between humanity and the world (PérezGómez & Pelletier, 1997, p. 89). To refer back to Plato’s view, if all art is interpretative of reality, then art and representation can be viewed as a bridge between us and the world.
THEORY ~
The current restrictions, resultant of the COVID-19 pandemic, exaggerate the way in which this concept can be applied literally as well as figuratively. The strictly imposed distances between us and the outside world strengthen our fixation with and reliance on this fuzzy perspectival webcam image of our interior space and highlight a metaphorical distance between it and our real, bodily experience of our immediate surroundings. Further research around the role of the linear perspective is detailed on page 34 in the appendix.
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Tape 01 Using tape to map the perimeter of my physical workspace, as featured on my partner’s webcam, facilitated an exploration of the gap between the overlapped realities of the virtual and the physical. As shown in the arrangement of photos opposite, taken after completion of the experiment, this perimeter, once a neat, rectangular, virtual frame, immediately distorts when it is taken out of context. By mapping the 2D, flattened, webcam representation of my 3D space back onto the 3D space itself, the fragility of the linear perspective is revealed as it is so easily disrupted by a change in positioning of the viewer. This begins to show the breadth of information that is omitted by typical architectural representational methods, such as the linear perspective, and emphasises the distance between representation and lived experience of space.
DEVELOPMENT ~ 06
Tape 01 The application of axonometric translates the 3D tape experiment back into the confines of 2D representation, allowing the experiment to be seen more clearly to the outsider. A use of parallel projection distinguishes axonometric from the perspectival human view which, within this context, further emphasises the distance between representation and bodily experience of space. Further iterations of this tape exercise, along with additional development using animations, are detailed on pages 18-23 in the appendix.
DEVELOPMENT
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Tape and string installation photo
Click to view: Tape and string installation animation
DEVELOPMENT
Tape and string installation photos
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3D Venn Diagram
01
Off- camera zone
Stemming from the idea of the cone-shaped, hidden linear perspective mechanism, the installation featured above used tape and string to map the overlapping on-camera spaces of both mine and my partner’s webcams. The tape outlines the picture planes of both camera images while the string shows the visual cone stemming from the image perimeter and converging at the point of the camera. The photographs convey the obscurity of the construction, echoing the feeling of disorder induced by such an amalgamation of multiple realities. The animation, which can be accessed via the link on the previous page, utilises the mechanism of perspective to clarify the arrangement by showing it in its entirety from a distance.
02
On-camera zones
Referring back to the idea that a collective feeling of chaos during the current conditions of isolation could be attributed to an unnatural psychological blending of our ‘front’ and ‘back’ stages, according to Erving Goffman’s analogy (Goffman, 1990), the installation demonstrates the dissection of the physical space into various zones, much like a 3D Venn diagram: the two overlapping on-camera zones represent the ‘front stage’, leaving an off-cut of surrounding space that acts as the ‘backstage’. Lastly, the zone where the two front stage spaces overlap creates a curious, hybrid entity in the middle. An animation of these three zones can be accessed by clicking the ‘3D Venn Diagram’ page title.
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Hybrid zone
DEVELOPMENT
In this respect, the arrangement acts as a 3D embodiment of these emotional perceptions associated with the physical space and particular set of circumstances. This further highlights the capacity of architectural representation to convey more abstract conditions of space rather than solely visual conditions of space.
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Double Projection 04 As an embodiment of the ‘hybrid entity’ formed by the intersecting fields of view of both Zoom cameras, the double projection exercise projects both images from either Zoom camera back into the middle of the space in real time. The two projected views meet on either side of a semi-transparent projector screen placed in the middle of the room. As described on appendix page 38, this can be viewed as a model of Jacques Lacan’s diagram of the visual field.
DEVELOPMENT ~ 11
Double Projection 04 The resultant image, (a video of the screen filmed on a separate camera which can be accessed by clicking the current page title), is then much more multilayered, ambiguous, and fluid than either original frozen webcam perspective and conveys the chaos of compressed activity playing out in the centre of a space that serves both domestic and working life. For this reason, to me, the film becomes a much more familiar reading of the space than the linear perspectival webcam view. Perhaps this is because of the mutability and ephemerality of spatial experience that can’t be captured by the linear perspective. In addition, the body and movement become an integral part of spatial representation which is much more akin to the experience of living and working in the same space every day. This idea is supported by Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s view (expressed in the 1948 radio broadcast, The World of Perception) that ‘rather than a mind and a body, man is a mind with a body, a body who can only get to the truth of things because its body is, as it were, embedded in those things’ (Merleau-Ponty, 2009). This is expanded upon in further research detailed on page 36 of the appendix. Initial projector exercises that led to ‘Double Projection 04’ are also featured in the appendix under ‘additional development’ on pages 24-32.
DEVELOPMENT ~ 12
Composite Axonometric Taking inspiration from Morphosis’ iconic Sixth Street project conceptual drawing, the composite axonometric gathers fragments of description of the same space (my home-working space) created throughout the development of the project. The Double Projection 04 axonometric sits in the centre of the image surrounded by an axonometric of each Zoom camera field-of-view and a plan of the space. The fragments were arranged intuitively into an overall image that is symbolic of my own subjective experience of living and working in the space. Lastly, the compressed activity carried out within the multi-use space is represented by two fragments of the Double Projection video at the top and bottom of the composition. These can be seen in motion by clicking the page title. Further research on the abstract mode of representation developed by Morphosis is detailed on page 39 in the appendix.
DEVELOPMENT ~ 13
Final Installation The project ends by reversing the act of displacement with which it started. The installation, featured opposite, is an object of longing; a transgressive reincarnation of the home-work space that reclaims the territory of the studio as Covid 19 restrictions begin to loosen. Representative of the curious, hybrid entity born from the two overlapping Zoom cameras in my study space, the welded steel and fabric construction hovers incongruously, like a ghost, within the eerily empty studio space. The friction between the hovering entity and the studio space exaggerates the theme of displacement, from studio space to home-work space and vice versa, and makes an anti-authority statement, expressing my own discontent at the institution and the events of the past year.
INSTALLATION ~ 14
Final Installation A film of the installation can be accessed via the page title and shows the layered film from the Double Projector 04 exercise being projected onto the suspended object. The audio track is made up of layered recordings of conversation between me and my partner which, together with the dynamic projections of our movements inside the space, convey the condensed activity that is carried out inside the small domestic study space. Observing the studio space engulfed in darkness also leaves the viewer with a feeling of alienation from a space that was so familiar and alive with creative activity not so long ago. In the now, mostly featureless, empty space, traces of restriction as a result of the pandemic can be glimpsed throughout the video: a bottle of disinfectant spray, a cautionary poster, the socially distanced arrangement of desks.
INSTALLATION ~ 15
Relflection and Conclusion The project began with instinctual moves, driven by my own anxiety and discomfort under conditions of displacement and confinement. What morphed into a critical study of architectural representation itself allowed me to gradually gain a deep understanding of my own immediate spatial circumstances and their effect on my psychology. Actively manipulating and distorting the perspectival zoom camera view became a therapeutic process of taking ownership of the image that once felt like an intruder in my domestic space. Considering the turbulence of the past year, it has been enjoyable to approach the current circumstances as an opportunity for creative interrogation. To me, the project has highlighted the importance and possibility of drawing these themes of emotional, psychological perception of space into architectural representation. In a world that is gradually beginning to comprehend the gravity of mental health, an understanding that has been accelerated by the universal suffering that has taken place during the pandemic, these concerns are more prevalent than ever. If the architect is to respond empathetically to human existence, the design process must begin to centralise these themes which are so rarely encountered in architectural representation. Although I believe the project has been successful in addressing these concepts through representation, it should be emphasised that there is endless scope for further exploration. The project followed an experimental, iterative process of feeding the original webcam image through various 2D and 3D modes of representation and observing the effects of distortion and deterioration. This procedure helped to both reveal the flaws of traditional modes of architectural representation, such as the linear perspective, and develop alternative, more ambiguous, subjective representational practices. The same method could be effectively applied to a range of different contexts and would
surely lead to a multitude of unexpected outcomes. If the project were to be continued, it would be interesting to attempt to map the figures and shadows of bodily movement from the Double Projection 04 film back onto the physical study space. More generally, one could attempt to develop a framework for the production of subjective architectural representation that could be applied to a broader range of contexts. However, this agenda contradicts the objective to depart from rigid frameworks on which architects heavily rely. In this respect, this type of investigation is inherently open; it must be allowed to evolve organically and demands a more flexible, responsive approach by the architect.
Appendix
Contents ~
Additional development
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Additional research
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Bibliography
APPENDIX
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Tape 02
DEVELOPMENT
Opposite are photographs of the tape experiment repeated in a corner of my apartment where I often take video calls. The paint, applied to the peripheries of the photographs, allows the space inside the tape to be emphasised whilst being transparent enough to show traces of the off-camera territory.
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Tape 02 The recognisably architectural, traditional representational mode of axonometric has associations with accuracy and precision which seem inconsistent with the flawed, distorted, original tape experiment. Subjective decisions were required to be made as to, for example, where the boundary of the drawing sits; within the boundary of the tape from the axonometric view or to the perimeter of what is seen by the Zoom camera? This can be seen in the bottom right corner of the drawing opposite where the cabinet protrudes out of the confines of the tape from the axonometric viewpoint. However, to exclude this corner of the cabinet would have hidden something that is seen from the original perspectival camera view which seemed decidedly less logical. The necessity of this kind of improvisation around the rationale of the drawing starts to unpick the perception of traditional architectural modes of representation as scientific and absent of ambiguity or subjectivity.
DEVELOPMENT ~ 19
Tape 03 Lastly, the tape experiment was repeated around the sofa area where I often take social video calls to family and friends. The delineation of zones by the tape can also be viewed as a physical manifestation, from a more psychological standpoint, of the ‘front’ and ‘back’ stages to which Erving Goffman refers. This third exercise, in particular, demonstrates the anamorphic effects of removing the perspectival image from its original context. For example, where the tape reads as a straight line as it makes its way around the lamp and sofa arm (on the top left), the axonometric is able to expose the way in which the tape breaks several times in reality.
DEVELOPMENT ~ 20
Tape 03 Moreover, use of digital drawing software allows for a particularly high degree of accuracy in the axonometric reiterations of the tape experiments. Francesca Hughes describes the way in which these types of software lead architects to ‘draw brick walls (which we know will be built on muddy sites, by workers wearing thick gloves) to six decimal places’ (Hughes, 2014). Hughes’ viewpoint that the architectural profession is intent on working to a level of precision that is surplus to requirements echoes the incongruity of such a precise way of working in the context of the messy tape experiments. This highlights another facet to the argument; that the profession places too much emphasis on the role of architectural representation for precise transcription, neglecting its potential to convey more abstract conditions of space.
DEVELOPMENT ~ 21
Animation The animation, accessible via the current page title, was intended as an experiment in breaking traditional codes of architectural representation by adding movement to the image. Having noticed the removal of the body in previous images, I had speculated as to whether this reflected a subconscious dissociation from the oncamera environment because of its relation to a more performative version of the self, linking to the ‘front stage’ theory. In response to this lack of human presence, the GIF layers various aspects of my bodily interaction with the interior space that the perspectival webcam image is not capable of conveying, such as my view through the window, bodily movements, and interactions with objects.
DEVELOPMENT ~ 22
Monoprints Animation One aspect of my bodily experience conveyed in the animation was a series of intentional interactions with objects such as the act of picking a hair bobble off the floor, using the scanner and lighting a candle. These were presented as a series of monoprints which can be viewed in sequence separately by clicking current page title. The method of mono-printing was chosen for its messy aesthetic and unpredictability given that the results can vary greatly depending on how the ink is rolled. This irregularity seemed appropriate to express the spontaneity of the series of human gestures. At this stage in the project, the animations still refer to physical, visual perceptions of space as opposed to those of a more abstract nature. The intention to progress beyond this and towards a mode of representation that communicates the emotional aspects to my perception of the study is demonstrated in later experiments from the String Installation onwards. DEVELOPMENT ~ 23
Double Projection 01
DEVELOPMENT
Projection experiment equipment configuration collages
An initial projector exercise placed the image plane within the study space (on the side of the bookshelf) and one projector on my desk. Each of the two webcam views were projected onto the image plane, one at a time, whilst I traced them in pen. Because of the presence of my own body in the image, the body is traced several times in slightly different positions, conveying my own movement in the space. The two overlapped tracings of both webcam views are shown on the following page.
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DEVELOPMENT ~
Double Projection 01 overlapped tracing
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Double Projection 02 The second projector experiment placed the image plane in a different position inside the study space (on the opposite wall) with two projectors projecting one webcam image each onto the surface at the same time. The image was then traced in pen again, shown on the following page. It is interesting to observe the differences between the traced images from Double Projection 01 and 02 as a result of projecting and tracing both webcam images at the same time instead of one at a time. The two layered viewpoints become more blended, and it becomes much more difficult to differentiate one from the other. Resultantly, the image reads more clearly as one whole space when compared with Double Projection 01. A series of photos of the two webcam views projected onto the surface are shown on page 28 and display the same blended, ambiguous quality as the tracing. A video of the tracing process can be viewed by clicking the title.
DEVELOPMENT ~
Double Projection 02 equipment configuration collage
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DEVELOPMENT
Double Projection 02 overlapped tracing
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Double Projection 02 photographs
DEVELOPMENT
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Double Projection 03 Double Projection 03 equipment configuration collage
Lastly, the process is repeated using a third configuration of the two projectors and image surface. Interestingly, the image produced in each double projection exercise is notably different despite the fact that each was formed by the overlapping of the same two viewpoints (the two Zoom cameras placed in roughly the same position each time). This displaces the importance of the viewpoints themselves in constructing the image, rejecting the tradition of linear perspective which is constructed from a singular viewpoint. Instead, the image becomes constructed by the activity within the space.
DEVELOPMENT ~ 29
DEVELOPMENT ~
Double Projection 03 overlapped tracing
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Double Projection 03 photographs
DEVELOPMENT
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Double Projection experiments composite axonometric
Double Projection
01
Double Projection
03
Double Projection
02
DEVELOPMENT ~ 32
Studio installation in situ axonometric
Studio Installation Made from a collection of crudely re-created objects from my home working space (such as the lamp, windowsill and hybrid entity) suspended within a timber frame that denotes the two metre social distancing restrictions, the installation, shown opposite, is deliberately somewhat offensive in its jarring relationship with the surrounding, neatly arranged studio space. During a time of restriction and order, the installation is intended as a disruption that draws our attention to the effects of the pandemic on our way of working. Intended as an earlier iteration of the final installation, the construction can be viewed as a film by clicking the page title. As in the final installation, the Double Projector 04 film can be seen projected onto the suspended objects.
DEVELOPMENT ~
Studio installation photograph
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The Invisible Cone The illustration opposite is one of many by Albrecht Dürer showing perspective devices. His famous apparatus was intended to provide a precise method for copying nature and consisted of an eyepiece to hold the position of the viewer and a glass screen that cut through the cone of vision. Today, Dürer’s machine can still be seen as ‘an appropriate metaphor for the scientific objectification of reality. It shows man placing the world in his cone of vision’ (Pérez-Gómez & Pelletier, 1997, p. 34). Constructed by invisible lines that travel from the perimeter of the picture plane and converge at a single point, the linear perspective generally serves, within modern architectural practice, as a scientific methodology capable of conveying reality as it is perceived by the human eye. This, of course, is in spite of the binocular nature of human vision.
04. Albrecht Dürer, Unterweysung der Messung (1525) (Pérez-Gómez & Pelletier, 1997, p.34)
Leonardo Da Vinci himself, often credited for helping to develop the mechanism of the linear perspective, even referred to this contradiction whilst questioning the concept of the visual cone, arguing that ‘A small object placed in front of the eye does not prevent us from seeing objects behind it, as it would if the eye perceived from a point’ (Serres, 1988). During this theocentric time, rather than being utilised as a quasi-scientific tool for its potential to convey visual truth or to act as a generative device within the architectural design process, the linear perspective was seen to offer the capacity to address the divine dimension of the world. The method was thought to draw upon the mathematical order of the universe in a manner comparable to musical harmony. Perspective was not seen as a generative architectural idea until The Scientific Revolution that followed The Renaissance Period, during which tensions arose between traditional forms of symbolisation and the mechanistic understanding of the world.
05. Thomas Malton, The principle of continuity in conic sections (Pérez-Gómez & Pelletier, 1997, p.133)
It is interesting to consider the juxtaposition between the modern perception of the linear perspective as embodying visual truth, given its strong historical associations with symbolism, metaphysics, religion, and other intangible themes. This begins to unveil the potential for architects to return to an approach to architectural representation that addresses more symbolic truths in order to enrich the design process. RESEARCH ~ 34
06. Girl at a Window (1976) Sir William Coldstream
Painting and Visual Experience During the twentieth century, several British artists also began to question the inconsistency between geometrical representations of space and the way it is perceived by the human eye. Most notably, human vision is binocular rather that monocular (as in the linear perspective), often causing double vision or ‘physiological diplopia’; a denser distribution of rod and cone nerve cells in the centre of the eye results in the centre of the visual field being much clearer than the periphery; and the curved retina, unlike the flat film sensor for example, perceives straight lines as curved, especially at the periphery, which is cropped by the linear perspective’s frame (Pepperell & Hughes, 2015). Despite this, the linear perspective has long been valued, in western tradition, for its mathematical and optical correctness. Around 1909-10, artists such as Braque and Picasso departed from hegemonic representational tradition through analytic cubism. Their paintings ‘effectively de-centred the viewpoint of the artist, and by extension the viewer… in order to reveal facets of objects that would otherwise remain occluded’ (Pepperell & Hughes, 2015). By contrast, artists such as Sir William Coldstream, Ivon Hitchens and Evan Walters reacted to the flaws of the linear perspective by attempting to advance the objectivity of their paintings. Coldstream believed that a movement towards realism would appeal to a mass working class audience who were being alienated by the ‘lyrical realism’ of more surrealistic art.
07. Still Life With Cricket Ball (1940)
08. Balcony at Cambridge (1929)
Evan Walters
Ivon Hitchens
09. Orange Tree I (1974 - 5)
Sir William Coldstream
These conflicting approaches, which both attempt to depart from the restraint of the linear perspective in order to create representation that relates more closely to perceptual experience, reveal interesting viewpoints on what constitutes human experience. In my view, attempting to increase the visual accuracy of representation (as favoured by Sir William Coldstream), only intensifies a historic dominance, in representation, of visual experience over all other types of spatial experience. Resultantly, this project aims to highlight, not only visual, but emotional and psychological associations with space. The discrepancies between the linear perspective and ocular perception of space, in the scientific sense, can seem trivial when compared to the insufficiency of a representational framework that priorities scientific objectivity whilst human experience of space is something much more multifaceted, symbolic, mutable, psychological and subjective where the body and mind are intertwined with the space itself. In the 1948 radio broadcast, The World of Perception, Merleau-Ponty argued that ‘our experience is not of a world observed from afar but one of which we are a part, as earth-bound, embodied, perceiving beings: ‘rather than a mind and a body, man is a mind with a body, a body who can only get to the truth of things because its body is, as it were, embedded in those things’’ (Pepperell & Hughes, 2015).
RESEARCH ~ 36
Absent Bodies The disparity between architectural representation and human experience of space, as previously discussed, is intensified by the architect’s often overly scientific approach. Alongside this, a frequent absence of bodies and activity in architectural representation has also been widely criticised and scrutinised in architectural discourse. In ‘This Is Not Architecture: Media constructions’, Jonathan Hill writes, in his essay on original photographs of Barcelona Pavilion, that architectural photographs often omit people ‘because they mimic the perfect but sterile conditions of the artwork in the gallery’, thus ‘the experience of the building is equated with the contemplation of the artwork in a gallery, a condition disturbed by the irreverent presence of the user’ (Rattenbury, 2002, p. 87). Hill argues that this portrayal of architecture as an object of contemplation discourages everyday use, affirming the architect’s authority whilst denying that of the user (Rattenbury, 2002, p. 89). This supports the view that, for architecture to sufficiently address the needs of the user and reflect the human condition, architectural representation must play its role in putting human perception and activity at its forefront. The architect can only fulfil these objectives through the production of architectural representation that embraces the subjectivity of humans’ experience of space. By prominently featuring my own bodily movement, activity and spatial perception in representations of my home-work space, the project aims to disrupt the historic tendency of architectural representation to eliminate traces of human experience. Experimentation with animation to show bodily movement also, in the literal sense, counteracts the stagnant nature of the linear perspective.
10. Barcelona Pavilion (1928 - 9) Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
RESEARCH ~ 37
Lacan’s Diagram of the Visual Field Jacques Lacan’s diagram of the visual field, which illustrates his psychoanalytic conception that ‘the subject’s image – what the subject imagines itself to be – never corresponds to the image that others have of it’ (Rice & Littlefield, 2015, p. 45), can be directly related to critical discussions around representation and perception in architecture. The diagram shows two intersecting triangles which can be interpreted as follows: ‘the real (gaze) is located opposite the symbolic (the viewing subject, subject of language), with the imaginary (screen, bearer of images) in between.’ (Holm, 2000, p. 50)
11. Diagram of the Visual Field Jacques Lacan
RESEARCH
In this sense, the Double Projection 04 exercise becomes a physical manifestation of Lacan’s diagram. A parallel can also be drawn between the spatial scenario generated by the two zoom cameras – of being watched whilst watching oneself and others on screen – and the issues Lacan explores surrounding the ego and self-identification. In summary, these issues are concerned with the duality of seeing vs. being seen and how this relates to the ego and a sense of identity. Referring back to Lacan’s diagram of the visual field, Lorens Holm writes ‘One position seems to the subject to be the point from which the subject looks; the other the point from which the subject feels looked at’ (Holm, 2000, p. 51). In this light, the projection, specifically, of the two webcam images themselves (which face inwards and film the study space, including the double-sided screen) back onto the screen itself adds another layer of ambiguity with regard to the positioning of the subject and the gaze according to Lacan’s diagram. The points from which the subject looks and is looked at become blurred and difficult to distinguish and resultantly the final video of layered projections is a montage of viewpoints in which the subject features as an integral part of the spatial representation. In subverting Lacan’s framework, in this way, the project tests the boundaries of visual representation to develop a more subjective, ambiguous mode of representing space. In addition, the friction between seeing and being seen, which is the root of my own emotional discomfort whilst caught between the views of two Zoom cameras, becomes a key theme of the representation. As previously described, a key enquiry within the project is to explore the possibility of representing intangible, emotional aspects of spatial perception with the view that this would facilitate architectural design that responds more closely to human experience.
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Morphosis Drawings Between the late 1970s and late 1980s, architectural practice Morphosis (founded by Thom Mayne and Michael Rotondi) developed a method of design development centred around the production of abstract conceptual drawings. ‘By collapsing plan, elevation, and detail through juxtapositions of scale, oblique angles, projection, and rotation’ (MoMA, 2012) their multi-projective drawings disrupt conventional architectural procedures, allowing new interpretations of architectural objects. ‘A multi-projective space combines fragments of description of the same object’ (Derycke, 2016). The relationship between projections is deliberately ambiguous to emphasise their autonomy and allow for subjective interpretation. For example, the iconic conceptual drawing created for their Sixth Street project, shown opposite, puts eleven sculptural fragments in the same graphic space. The fragments’ positions in the drawing broadly coincide with their positions in the plan, however aside from this, it is not completely possible to identify what links the projection systems. Thom Mayne explains, regarding the 6th Street drawing, that ‘he stopped trying to connect the fragments and their projection systems in order to express their autonomy and their unexpected confrontation’ (Derycke, 2016). Similarly, my project, through experimentation with several modes of representation (such as animation, video, photography, 3D installation and axonometric) aims to manipulate and confront various projections at play in the ‘zoom space’ scenario. This is directed towards the development of a more subjective mode of architectural representation that contradicts the limiting, perspectival linearity of the Zoom camera view.
Morphosis
RESEARCH
12. Sixth Street House (1988)
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Image References
Bibliography
01-05. Pérez Gómez, A. & Pelletier, L. (1997) Architectural representation and the perspective hinge. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Derycke, D. (2016) Morphosis Drawings and Models in the Mid 1980s: Graphic Description of Graphic Thinking.
06. Girl at a Window - Sir William Coldstream https://www.piano-nobile.com/artists/1198-william-coldstream/ works/3886/
Goffman, E. (1990) The presentation of self in everyday life. Repr. London: Penguin.
07. Still Life With Cricket Ball - Evan Walters https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/23/as-seenmodern-british-painting-and-visual-experience 08. Balcony at Cambridge - Ivon Hitchens https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/23/as-seenmodern-british-painting-and-visual-experience 09. Orange Tree I - Sir William Coldstream https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/23/as-seenmodern-british-painting-and-visual-experience 10. Barcelona Pavilion - Photograph credit: Adam Wagner https://www.are.na/block/186705 11. Diagram of the Visual Field - Jacques Lacan Rice, L. & Littlefield, D. (2015) Transgression: towards an expanded field of architecture.
Holm, L. (2000) What Lacan said re: architecture. Critical Quarterly Merleau-Ponty, M. (2009) The world of perception. Routledge classics. London ; New York: Routledge. MoMA (2012) Morphosis, Santa Monica, CA, Thom Mayne with Andrew Zago. Pepperell, R. & Hughes, L. (2015) As Seen: Modern British Painting and Visual Experience. Tate Papers. Pérez Gómez, A. & Pelletier, L. (1997) Architectural representation and the perspective hinge. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. Rattenbury, K. (ed.) (2002) This is not architecture: media constructions. London ; New York: Routledge. Rice, L. & Littlefield, D. (2015) Transgression: towards an expanded field of architecture. Serres, M. (1988) L’axe du cadran solaire. Études françaises. 24 (2), 35.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
12. Sixth Street House - Morphosis https://www.moma.org/collection/works/299
Hughes, F. (2014) The architecture of error: matter, measure, and the misadventures of precision. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
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