TOWARDS NEW PERCEPTIONS

TOWARDS NEW PERCEPTIONS Digital Implementation of Phenomenology in Architecture

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF MArch, 2012

by Simon Wyn James

ABSTRACT This dissertation seeks to evaluate our perception of architecture in our socalled ‘Information Age’; an age of ubiquitous information and emergent technologies. As the title suggests, it explores the relationship between two opposing ends of the architectural spectrum; the fundamental experience of architecture and the digitalisation of the design process, or rather ‘digital craft’.

A thorough understanding of how these technologies might affect our fundamental experience and perception of architecture is yet to be realised; what are the ontological and phenomenological implications of emergent technologies in architecture? Architects are now in a position of questioning their role in this ‘game’; they can neither simply dismiss nor blindly accept the influence that ubiquitous technologies have on our current lives. From the haptic perception of touch to the collective networks of the internet, this dissertation formulates a broad range of technical, theoretical and philosophical issues in attempt to re-cast our architecture toward new perceptions.

i

ii

TOWARDS NEW PERCEPTIONS Digital Implementation of Phenomenology in Architecture

i ii

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION & METHODOLOGY 1.1

BACKGROUND.................................................................................................. x

1.2

AIM & OBJECTIVES .......................................................................................... xi

1.3

METHODLOGY ................................................................................................. xi

1.4

STRUCTURE & CHAPTER OUTLINE ................................................................... xii

1.5

INTRODUCTORY GLOSSARY ............................................................................xiii

CHAPTER TWO: THE TECHNICAL 2.1

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1

[SKILLS] 2.1.1

THINKING SYMBOLICALLY & STRUCTURALLY ................................................ 3

2.1.2

THINKING ALGORITHIMCALLY & WITH ABSTRACTION..................................... 6

2.1.3

DIGITAL REPERTOIRE, (META-) HEURISTICS & MEDIATION.............................. 8

[STRATEGIES] 2.2.1

COMPUTER-HUMAN INTERACTION (CHI) ...................................................... 11

2.2.2

COLLECTIVE ‘INTELLIGENCE’ ...................................................................... 15

2.2.3

FEEDBACK LOOP(s) .................................................................................... 16

2.2.4

AUGMENTED REALITY ................................................................................ 18

2.2.5

BITS vs. ATOMS ......................................................................................... 20

2.2.6

SITUATED vs. UBIQUITOUS .......................................................................... 22

2.2.7

COMPUTER AS A MEDIUM .......................................................................... 25

iv

CHAPTER THREE: THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL 3.1

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 27

3.2

ENMESHED EXPERIENCE ............................................................................... 28

3.3

PERSPECTIVAL SPACE ................................................................................... 31

3.4

PROPORTION & SCALE .................................................................................. 33

3.5

COLOUR ....................................................................................................... 34

3.6

LIGHT AND SHADOW ..................................................................................... 37

3.7

SPATIALITY OF NIGHT .................................................................................... 39

3.8

WATER ......................................................................................................... 41

3.9

SOUND ......................................................................................................... 42

3.10

DETAIL ....................................................................................................... 44

3.11

TIME ........................................................................................................... 46

3.12

MEMORY .................................................................................................... 48

3.13

SITE CIRCUMSTANCE .................................................................................. 50

CHAPTER FOUR: TOWARDS NEW PERCEPTIONS 4.1

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 51

4.2

PLAY ............................................................................................................ 52

4.3

d4D ARCHIECTURE ........................................................................................ 56

4.4

THE ‘TRANSLUCENT VESSEL’......................................................................... 58

4.5

DIGITAL ETHER.............................................................................................. 60

4.6

FILTERING ..................................................................................................... 64

4.7

SYNECDOCHE ............................................................................................... 66

4.8

DIGITAL PHENOMENOLOGY ........................................................................... 69

4.9

CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 71

CHAPTER FIVE: BIBLIOGRAPHY 5.1

LITERARY RESOURCES .................................................................................. 73

5.2

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES.............................................................................. 79

5.3

MEDIA RESOURCES ....................................................................................... 82

v

I would like to thank Wassim Jabi for his guidance and insight.

vi

I would also like to thank my family for their continuing support and encouragement.

vii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FIG URE 1: ........................................................................................................................................ 3 BRIAN ENO - MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS NOTATION Eno, Brian, Ambient #1: Music for Airports, CD, BMG Songs, (1978), p. Back Cover.

FIG URE 2: ........................................................................................................................................ 6 ARANDA & LASCH – DELTA MUSEUM FORMATION Aranda, Benjamin and Chris Lasch, Tooling, Series: Pamphlet Architecture (New York Enfield: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006), p61.

FIG URE 3: ........................................................................................................................................ 8 AEDAS R+D - ABU DHABI EDUCATION COUNCIL (ADEC), ADJECENCIES & LAYOUT DESIGN TOOL [ONLINE] http://aedasresearch.com/features/view/computationaldesign/method/adjacencies-and-layout [Accessed: Oct 2011] FIG URE 4: ...................................................................................................................................... 11 MALCOMN MCCULLOUGH – BEYOND GRAPHICAL INTERFACES McCullough, Malcolm, Digital Ground : Architecture, Pervasive Computing, and Environmental Knowing (Cambridge, MA ; London: MIT Press, 2004), p.71.

FIG URE 5: ...................................................................................................................................... 14 SEIKO MIKAMI – DESIRE OF CODES INSTALLATION [ONLINE] http://www.idd.tamabi.ac.jp/~mikami/artworks/desire_of_codes/desire_ of_codes.files/doc007.jpg [Accessed: Nov 2011] FIG URE 6: ...................................................................................................................................... 16 JAY W. FORRESTER – WORLD DYNAMICS MODEL [ONLINE] http://www.friendspartners.org/utsumi/Peace%20Gaming/System%20Dynamics/World%2 0Dynamics-II/WD_Model_Diagram/WD_Diagram.jpeg [Accessed: Dec 2011] FIG URE 7: ...................................................................................................................................... 18 THE MACULA – NML PROJECTION MAPPING (VIDEO SEQUENCE) [ONLINE] http://vimeo.com/26884619 [Accessed: Sep 2011] FIG URE 8: ...................................................................................................................................... 22 MALCOLM MCCULLOUGH - COMMON OBJECTIONS TO PERVASIVE COMPUTING McCullough, Digital Ground, p.18.

FIG URE 9: ...................................................................................................................................... 23 MALCOLM MCCULLOUGH - TOWARD NICHE PROTOCOLS IN COMMUNICATION (A SITUATED STRATEGY) McCullough, Digital Ground, p.142.

FIG URE 10: .................................................................................................................................... 24 GREG TRAN - MEDIATING MEDIUMS (VIDEO STILL) [ONLINE] http://www.gregtran.com/index.php?/mediating-mediums/ [Accessed: Oct 2011] FIG URE 11: .................................................................................................................................... 28 HEIDEGGER’S HUT [ONLINE] http://faslanyc.blogspot.com/2011/10/landscape-delicatessen.html [Accessed: Dec 2011] vi ii

FIG URE 12: .................................................................................................................................... 30 STEVEN HOLL – PORTA VITTORIA COMPETITION Holl, Steven et al., Questions of Perception : Phenomenology of Architecture. [3rd] new edn (San Francisco, CA: William Stout Publishers, 2006), p.49.

FIG URE 13: .................................................................................................................................... 32 GYORGY DOCZI – THE POWER OF LIMITS: PROPORTIONAL HARMONIES IN NATURE, ART & ARCHITECTURE (EXTRACT) [ONLINE] http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltt1j1wrF01qk8kzf.jpg [Accessed: Dec 2011] FIG URE 14: .................................................................................................................................... 34 ARANDA & LASCH – COLOUR SHIFT [ONLINE] http://www.flickr.com/photos/arandalasch/3190862179/ [Accessed: Sep 2011] FIG URE 15: .................................................................................................................................... 36 SAM ARCHITEKTEN – DÜBENDORF HOUSING COMPETITION VISUALISATION Simon W. James FIG URE 1 6: .................................................................................................................................... 38 ANTIVJ – 3DESTRUCT INSTALLATION [ONLINE] http://blog.antivj.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/3Destruct8web.jpg [Accessed: Dec 2011] FIG URE 17: .................................................................................................................................... 40 MILLA DIGITAL – DIGITAL WATER PAVILION (DWP) [ONLINE] http://www.dwp.qaop.net/download/Images_13_June_2008.zip [Accessed: Sep 2011] FIG URE 18: .................................................................................................................................... 43 BERNHARD LEITNER – RAUMREFLEXION INSTALLATION Simon W. James (taken at Peter Zumthor's Kolumba Museum, Cologne) FIG URE 1 9: .................................................................................................................................... 45 GRAMAZIO & KOHLER, ETH – GANTENBEIN VINEYARD FAÇADE [ONLINE] http://tectonicablog.com/wpcontent/uploads/2010/08/061116_036_Baudokumentation_RalphFeiner _002_PR.jpg [Accessed: Dec 2011] FIG URE 20: .................................................................................................................................... 47 STEVEN HOLL – PALAZZO DEL CINEMA COMPETITION Holl, Steven et al., p.77.

FIG URE 21: .................................................................................................................................... 49 UN STUDIO – GALLERIA CENTERCITY MOIRÉ FAÇADE [ONLINE] http://www.unstudio.com/projects/galleria-cheonan [Accessed: Sep 2011] FIG URES 22-2 6, 28-29 ............................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.2-68 DIAGRAMS produced by Simon W. James FIG URE 27 ............................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.4 GEORGES PEREC – THE MACHINE (EXTRACT) Perec, Georges, 'The Machine', in The Review of Contemporary Fiction, 24.Spring 2009 (2009), pp.36-37. ix

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION & METHODOLOGY BACKGROUND This dissertation is the consequence and exploration of my on-going interest in the intersection between digital technology, craft, and philosophy in architecture.

Recently, technological developments in architectural design have escalated significantly; specifically in terms of parametric design and the related potential of creating unfamiliar awareness of space. However this significant advance in technology has a particular focus on quantitative aspects, one which is in danger of reducing architecture to a gentrified and often arbitrary level. 1 Furthermore, new technologies that emerge today are generally abused as marketing tools, without acknowledging the potential for true architectural expression.

These technologies are undoubtedly becoming a part of everyday life, yet we seem to be dismissing their potential for the augmentation of more qualitative aspects to architectural experience. Through this research I also hope to uncover new parallels and subsequent paradigm shifts that could be associated with such accession of approaches to technology. Some of these paradigms could include the notion of evolutionary or generative architecture which have been successfully embraced in other mediums by the likes of Brian Eno, and on a more philosophical level, new perceptions of ontology. Fundamentally, the aim of the dissertation is to establish that these developments in technology and their related implementations lead towards new, profound perceptions in architectural experience.

1

‘Today’s software empowers us to think transversally across design information and to make decisions based on the feedback loops between formal and functional relationships. Parametric software must be rescued from the enclosure of Parametricism − however spectacular its effects − and put to work producing intelligent designs that embrace the full complexity of our environment. It is too easy to use our frustration with Parametricism, or even the shock of the economic recession, to hark back to nostalgic and provincial Modernism. The world is too complex, its problems too pressing. The built environment and the cultures it embraces require parametric thinking that places material over matter.’

Moussavi, Farshid, 'Parametric Software Is No Substitute for Parametric Thinking', Architecture Review, CCXXX.1376 (2011), 1 (p.39). x

AIM & OBJECTIVES This dissertation aims to research the potentials of implementing digitally the more qualitative and evidently phenomenological aspects to (the design, construction and experience of) architecture. Moreover, how it contributes towards new perceptions of architecture. The objectives therefore are to: DEFINE

the capacity of digital phenomenology through technical

understanding of relevant digital processes and craft; RESEARCH

and examine relevant phenomenological theories in response to

the defined digital processes; EVALUATE

and speculate as to the potential of new architectural perceptions

defined by the amalgamation of digital craft and phenomenological theory.

METHODLOGY By the very nature of the dissertation’s topic, an interdisciplinary methodology is required, which will hypothesise technical and theoretical research towards new perceptions of architecture. I propose to collect the data that will inform the research both through seminal works of literature and more importantly to compare, dismiss and contrast exemplar. This research will be conducted through an on-line blog, not only in order to organise the data but as a response to dealing with such a current and speculative subject. The blog can be viewed at the domain below: www.di gi tal phenomenol ogy.co.uk

Through this interdependent approach, the methodology and structure of the dissertation itself will tease out new themes of perception and form an appropriate conclusion to the hypothesis.

xi

STRUCTURE & CHAPTER OUTLINE The dissertation is structured into three parts; the technical, the phenomenological, and the potential new perceptions.

CHAPTER TWO: T HE TECHN ICAL

This bipartite chapter is structured in scale from the representation of bits to the global network of the internet. The first part begins with a technical understanding of the fundamental skills required to progress with the digital implementation of phenomenology in architectural design; it defines the role of digital craft. The second part explores relevant and current strategies in the digital realm by drawing on pioneering exemplar. Both parts emphasise the capacity of the digital in practice to mediate phenomenology in architecture.

CHAPTER THREE: THE PHENOM ENOLOGIAL

Chapter three examines a range of potential phenomenological theories in which the digital medium could appropriate. Through dissecting the phenomenal zones of Steven Holl’s ‘Questions of Perception’, along with other relevant exemplar and theoretical protagonists, the hypothesis of the dissertation becomes more focused as links are drawn to the technical aspects of chapter two.

CHAPTER FO UR: T OWA RDS NEW PERCEPTIONS

In this concluding chapter, the nonpartisan research presented in chapters two and three are critical appraised and manifested towards new perceptions in architecture. The amalgamation and evaluation of both the technical and phenomenological research is supported by additional exemplar as appropriate.

xii

INTRODUCTORY GLOSSARY The following introductory glossary is provided as to support some of the more technical terms and acronyms used throughout the dissertation.

3D PRO JECTION MAPP ING

is a relatively new technique of mapping a video

onto real-world objects using specific software that recognises Cartesian coordinates of that subject. In some sense it is has evolved from the principles of Augmented Reality (AR), and often uses architectural space (interior and exterior) as the object on which to project.

ACCELEROMETER

is a type of MEMS that measures acceleration often used in

smartphones to recognise the orientation in which the devise is being held (e.g. portrait or landscape) AD-HO C NETWORK

is a temporary wireless network connection between

devices usually used to share information. A wireless ad-hoc network is more beneficial than a conventional wired network as it is independent of pre-existing wired infrastructures.

ALGO RIT HM

is a finite list of very specific sequential instructions to calculate

a function from input to output. Algorithms are the basis to many computer calculations and generally directly affect the efficiency of software workflow.

'ALLO GRAPHIC'

is part of the terminology introduced by Nelson Goodman in

'Languages of Art' in order 'to distinguish fine arts on the basis of notation’.

'Allographic' (as opposed to 'autographic') implies work which is purely notational based, therefore 'multiple instances [or rather interpretations] are possible'. A common example is the notation used in music. 2 API (APPL ICAT ION P ROG RAMM ING INTERFACE)

is a specification based on

source code (rather than binary code) and used as an interface to manage how components in software communicate with one another in order to perform a particular task. These components may include data structures, classes and variables. API commonly uses programming language standards such as Java.

2

McCullough, Abstracting Craft, p.94. xiii

AR (A UGMENTED REALITY)

Unlike the familiar notion of Virtual Reality (VR)

which is based purely on the CHI interactions within in the digital medium, AR introduces a context-based approach by overlaying (in real-time) both digital and material dimensions into a manipulated and enhanced perception of reality.

'AUT OGRAPHIC '

refers to the terminology used by Nelson Goodman to

describe the originality / uniqueness of a piece of work (such as a painting). see 'Allographic'.

BETA RELEASE

Software developers often release 'beta' versions to the

general public as to test and report any bugs or changes that could be made (sometimes making use of open-source material).

BIM (BUIL DING INFORM ATION MODEL)

is typically used to model and manage

all properties of a building throughout its life-cycle, BIM utilises standardized components (often supplied by the construction industry) to increase efficiency and productivity. It is a parametric modelling process in the sense that it incorporates most stakeholders and therefore eliminates many inconsistencies usually experienced in architectural design and construction. Autodesk Revit software is one example of BIM software and is often used in the 'design-build' construction industry.

CA (CELLUL AR AUTOM ATA)

is a simple model of a grid of cells, with each cell

having a finite number of states that are either 'dead' or 'alive'. These states are dependent on neighbourhood rules (e.g. if two cells in the neighbourhood are 'alive' then the current cell will be 'dead' in the next generation). The model proliferates through 'generations' dependant on these 'neighbourhood' rules (typically a mathematical function). John Conway's 'Game of Life' (1970) is perhaps the most recognized example of CA. More pertinent however was John Frazer's proposed use of the tool with genetic algorithms in his seminal work 'An Evolutionary Architecture' (1995).

CCTV (CLOSED-CIRCUIT TELEVISION)

‘is the use of video cameras to transmit a

signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors.’ CLOUD COMPUT ING

is a shared method of computing by which the resources

(software and files) are distributed over a network such as the Internet, usually from a central source (or server). Typical examples include the Information Technology (IT) services in offices, or more recently iCloud by Apple. With the increasing prevalence of the internet and accumulation of xiv

information, it is becoming an increasingly popular strategy for managing data.

CHI (COMP UTER - HUMAN INTERACT ION)

is the study, development and design

of the interaction between people and computers / electronics devices. Its studies are commonly regarded as the intersection between technological and behavioural sciences. Malcolm McCullough's research, for example, is particularly centred on CHI. CMYK (CYAN M AGENTA YELLOW KEY)

CYBERNETICS

see RGB.

is, broadly speaking, an interdisciplinary field concerning the

structure and control of regulatory systems, which are applicable to not only computing, but also systems in nature and social systems. Cybernetics is often dependant of feedback loops and is sometimes regarded as a selforganising principle.

D3D (DIG ITAL T HREE-DIMENSIO N)

was coined by Greg Tran in his 'Mediating

Mediums' thesis and refers to the experience of 'virtual' three-dimensional space through Augmented Reality (AR), as opposed to 'D2d' which is what we conventionally experience as the representation of three-dimensional space through the digital medium (i.e. 3D modelling software such as Rhino or Sketchup). In architectural production, D3d can condition three stages: '- D3d immersion 'a simulated environment which is entirely digital and relies on material/site specificity as little as possible' (designer/programmer) - D3d renovation 'existing facilities which are retrofit with site specific D3d software and environment recognition' (architect/designer) - D3d architecture 'buildings which consider/mediate the digital and material realities during design, construction and completion' (architect)' 3 ETH (EIDGENĂ–SS ISCHE TECHNISCHE HOC HSCHU LE)

Swiss Federal Institute of

Technology, ZĂźrich, Switzerland

3

http://www.gregtran.com/index.php?/mediating-mediums/ [Accessed: Oct 2011] xv

FEEDBACK LOOP

essentially describes a reciprocal relationship between

'cause' and 'effect'. It is 'the causal path that leads from the initial generation of the feedback signal to the subsequent modification of the event'. Perhaps the most notable example of a feedback loop

is seen through The

Mandelbrot Set. FRACT AL

was coined originally by Benoit Mandelbrot, and is a term used for

a mathematical idea that describes patterns in natural phenomena (such as coastlines). Specifically, a recursive process called self-similarity, and is perhaps best illustrated by The Mandelbrot Set (also referred to as 'The Thumbprint of God') which mirrors ordering principles in nature.

GPL (GENERAL PU BLIC L ICENSE)

is, unlike most other software licenses

which restrict user accessibility, a free, copyleft license usually used for open-source software. It is intended to guarantee the 'freedom' to access, modify and copy (to use elsewhere) a specific programme.

GI (G LOBAL ILLUMINAT ION)

is the name given to a group of algorithms used

in 3D computer graphics which take into account not only the direct lighting source but also the indirect and reflected light of the same source dependant on the surface characteristics of the (virtual) surroundings; thus resulting in more realistic rendition of a 'scene'. Naturally, this requires significant computing power; therefore the data of the algorithm's calculations can be stored and reused relative to a scene's geometry (known as 'radiosity') GPS (GLOBAL POSIT ION ING SYSTEM)

is a satellite navigation system used to

provide location and time of any specific location on Earth (provided the line of sight is clear to four or more satellites). It is free to anyone with a GPS receiver.

GUI (G RAP HIC AL USER INTERFACE)

is the image based interface used to

interact with the digital medium. Rather than text based interaction (such as source code), GUI represents information using icons and as such a much more universal interaction language. Any operating system (such as Mac OS or Windows 7) is often evaluated by the success of its GUI. IMMERSION

‘is the state of consciousness where an immersant's awareness of

physical self is diminished or lost by being surrounded in an engrossing total environment; often artificial.’ IT ( INFO RMATION TECHNOL OG Y)

is generally the managing of data using

technology. xvi

LIFE-CYCLE DESIGN

‘is a process of creating or altering information systems,

and the models and methodologies that people use to develop these systems.’ The stages usually considered in life-cycle design are: -Planning / Feasibility -Analysis -Design -Implementation -Testing -Acceptance -Maintenance THE INTERNET

is a global 'network of networks' that utilizes the World Wide

Web and carries a comprehensive range of information resources and services.

L-SYSTEM

(LINDENMAYER

S YSTEM)

is named after botanist Aristid

Lindenmayer and his description of the growth patterns seen in multicellular organisms such as algae (which incidentally follows the Fibonacci sequence). L-systems, similarly to fractals, are commonly used to describe the recursive pattern of branching structures, and have been used in the generation of artificial life. 4 METAHEURIST ICS

‘designates a computational method that optimizes a

problem by iteratively trying to improve a candidate solution with regard to a given measure of quality.’

MEMS

(MICROELECTROMECHANICAL

SYSTEMS)

are electrically driven

technologies usually controlled around a microprocessor, and are composed of micro-components (1-100 micrometres in size). Common applications of MEMS include sensors, actuators, accelerometers, inkjet printers and displays.

MICROP ROCESSO R

‘incorporates the functions of a computer's central

processing unit (CPU) on a single integrated circuit. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and provides results as output.’

4

Burry, Jane and Mark Burry, The New Mathematics of Architecture (London: Thames & Hudson, 2010), p. 261. xvii

NURBS (NON-UNIFO RM RAT ION AL BAS IS SPL INE)

are the mathematical model

used for creating curves and surfaces in the majority of CAD software. They are defined by four highly flexible and precise parameters: degree, control points, knots and an evaluation rule.

OOP (O BJECT-ORIENTED PRO G RAMMING)

is a type of programming in which

both the data type of data structure and their operations are defined. Data structure therefore becomes an 'object' which includes data, functions and relationships between other 'objects' Java programming language is one example that utilizes object-oriented programming. It is intended for the abstraction of data and an attempt to closer relate the thought process of people.

OPEN SOURCE

became a widely adopted phrase with the rise of the Internet

(where users are able to view the coding of any website and modify it based on their own needs). It is now democratically promoted in the development of software, where anyone can access, copy or modify the source material (code) of a programme. Notable examples using Open Source material are Linux operating system (Android for mobile devices), Mozilla Firefox web browser, WordPress blogs, Python scripting language and Processing software (now available in Javascript) PARAMETRIC(S) / PA RAMETRIC DESIGN

‘Parametric approaches aim at representing change.

Rather than the designer creating the design solution (by direct manipulation) as in conventional design tool, the idea is that the designer first establishes the relationships by which parts connect, builds up a design using these relationships and modifies the relationships by observing and selecting from the results produced. The system takes care of the job of keeping the design consistent with the relationships and thus increases designer ability to explore ideas by reducing the tedium of rework.’ 5 Common software includes Microsoft Excel, Grasshopper extension for Rhino, Autodesk 3DS Max, Bentley Generative Components (GC).

QUANTUM COMPUT ING

was introduced by Richard Feynman in 1982, and

differs from the binary digits of digital computing (bits) in that it utilizes quantum mechanics to represent data (the ability to have simultaneous states other than simply 1 or 0 seen in binary code). It is still a highly theoretical

5

http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415779876/parametric.asp [Accessed: Dec 2011] xviii

field (one example is the Quantum Turing Machine (QTM)); however increasing efforts are being made to advance the technology with respect to the culmination of Moore's Law. RTC ( REAL-TIME COMPUT ING / REAL-T IME PROCESS ING)

is the study and

development of hardware or software which must response within a given time constraint (usually ranging from microseconds to milliseconds). It is dependent on 'synchronous programming language, real-time operating systems (RTOS) and real-time networks'. Real-time processing differs from a non-real-time system which cannot assure specific response time in a given situation. Common applications of RTC are evident in anti-lock brake systems in cars.

RGB ( RED GREEN BLUE)

is a common primary colour model where each (Red,

Green and Blue) are added (as opposed to the subtraction used in the CMYK colour model) in various degrees to produce a broad range of colours.

RUN-TIME INTERACT ION

see RTC. Specifically, run-time interaction concerns

the time in which changes are made to a system through (parametric) interaction. This would be a common requirement for efficient APIs. 'Kangaroo' Live Physics engine for Grasshopper, and Processing are examples that address run-time interaction.

SMARTPHONES

offer more advanced computing ability and 'all-in-one' /

packaged functions than conventional mobile phones primarily due to an onboard operating system (e.g Android or Mac iOS). Smartphones usually make use of high speed internet, GPS, camera and advanced MEMS / CHI applications such as touch screens and accelerometers. Notable examples include the BlackBerry and Apple's iPhone.

SOCIAL NETWO RKING

is an online service or platform which builds and

reflects on social interaction. Possibly the earliest example of this was in 1969 through ARPANET. Today, social networking dominates the internet as the most visited website type (evident through Facebook and Twitter for example).

SDK (SOFTW ARE DEVELOPMENT KIT)

consists of a broad range of software

development tools (usually in the form of an API) to make applications specific to software packages and operating systems. This development of

xix

software is usually controlled through GPL. Examples include debugging applications or SDKs for Mac iOS. UBIQU ITOUS COMPUT ING

was coined originally in 1988 by Mark Weiser at

Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC), and ‘is a post-desktop model of human-computer interaction in which information processing has been thoroughly integrated into everyday objects and activities'.

VARIABLE

‘is a symbolic name given to some known or unknown quantity or

information, for the purpose of allowing the name to be used independently of the information it represents'.

VR (VIRTUAL REAL ITY)

is, as opposed to Augmented Reality (AR), a

completely computer-simulated environment usually experienced through a display.

WORL D WIDE WEB

was invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. The 'Web'

is a service by which interlinked data (HTML) is accessed through the Internet. It is navigated via hyperlinks.

SOURCE: EN.WIK IPEDIA.ORG UN LESS STATED OTHE RWISE

xx

CHAPTER TWO: THE TECHNICAL INTRODUCTION Establishing new perceptions in architecture through digital implementation of phenomenology is dependent both on a range of key technological achievements in the digital age and, foremost, on a thorough understanding of technological skills and strategies. Through the study of key academic texts and influential exemplar, this chapter sets out a technological framework and its potential in practice; from the representation of bits to the ubiquitous networks of the internet.

1

2

[SKILLS] THINKING SYMBOLICALLY & STRUCTURALLY

FIG URE 1: BRIAN ENO – MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS NOTAT ION

After all, computing is essentially the use of symbolic notation on a huge range of scales, from microscopic arrangements of changes that yield logical interpretations (e.g memory) right on up to planetary webs of computer networks. 6 5F

From prehistoric cave paintings; François Viète’s conception of notational algebra in late Renaissance; to Alan Turing’s logical chutzpah, thinking symbolically has proved fundamental in the communication of ideas. Unlike the literal representation of an image – particularly with regard to the ocularcentrism of our age – symbols are the ‘ultimate tools of abstraction’. 7, 8 Symbols can be representative of not only quantitative 6F

7F

parameters but also qualitative elements; hence why, at this most rudimentary level of computing science and the digital medium, symbols have cumulative implications in the capacity for the digital implementation of phenomenology.

6

McCullough, Malcolm, Abstracting Craft : The Practiced Digital Hand (Cambridge, Mass ; London: MIT Press, 1996), p.96.

7 Pallasmaa, Juhani, The Eyes of the Skin : Architecture and the Senses (Chichester Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Academy ; John Wiley & Sons, 2005), pp.19-22.

8 McCullough, Abstracting Craft, p.86.

3

The most authentic and elegant example of this is the symbolic notation in music, which is also quite possibly the only successful model of universal language. For example, a single note (or rather symbol) represents a unique sound; however it is subject to interpretation in how it is played. 9 Consequently, the listener experiences subtle variation in perception.

Similarly, notional systems within the digital medium have the capacity to ‘encourage human imagination.’ 10 The discretion here is therefore twofold; whether symbolic thinking in the digital medium should be considered autographic (one of a kind) or allographic (reproductive, with multiple interpretations possible, i.e. music). 11 Although designers and architects have an egotistical tendency toward the autographic, the latter would allow for ‘compositional explorations’, which fundamentally is a key constituent in both computational structure and architectural design. 12 Furthermore, the success of these explorations in architecture is ultimately measured through phenomenology. As Pérez-Gómez states: This is also the challenge to which architectural notation must respond, both as the origin of a process of making and as an open, participatory site for inhabitation. 13 Consequently, allographic symbols and their relationships precipitate the essential variable in data structure, and thus thinking structurally.

According to Jean Piaget, structure promotes three ideas: wholeness, transformation and self-regulation. 14 These ideas not only correlate to the allographic symbol but also to more recent parametric methodologies in architecture. Moreover, the powerful notion of generative structure which ‘is the beginnings of a medium largely because it invites manipulation.’ 15 The analogy to music also bodes well here in terms of thinking structurally.

Steven Holtzman’s exploration into the cycle of fifths (symbols / notation), for example shows how simple structures can ‘produce complex results’, in

9

Ibid., p.92.

Ibid., p.103.

11 Goodman, Nelson, Languages of Art (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1976), p.113.

12 McCullough, Abstracting Craft, p.95.

13 Pérez Gómez, Alberto and Louise Pelletier, Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1997), p.382.

14 Piaget, Jean and Chaninah Maschler, Structuralism (London: Routledge and K. Paul, 1971), p.5.

15 McCullough, Abstracting Craft, p.99.

10

4

turn creating subtle variations in perception; a methodology embraced today by jazz pianists. 16,17 Similarly the analogy in thinking structurally extends further in language, particularly with regard to Roland Barthes’ Death of the Author and Noam Chomsky’s Generative Grammars. Predominantly however, structure is considered – for lack of a better word - preprogrammed in our mind as human activity, forming our ‘cognitive map’, with the mind itself as the symbol. 18 After all, according to Malcolm McCullough’s polemic ‘computers are the product of our minds, the mind must be somehow like a computer.’ 19 This is particularly pertinent to today’s digital generation where the mind is subject to the digital medium in early life-experiences.

16

Holtzman, Steven R., Digital Mantras : The Languages of Abstract and Virtual Worlds (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1994), p.27.

17 Brian Eno - Another Green World, dir. by Roberts, Nicola (BBC, 2010) 18 McCullough, Abstracting Craft, p.225.

19 Ibid., p.103.

5

THINKING ALGORITHIMCALLY & WITH ABSTRACTION

FIG URE 2: ARAN DA & L ASCH – DELTA MUSEUM FO RMAT ION

The essential goal of computing science and the digital medium is to increase abstraction in order to achieve efficiency. 20 Once one has grasped the notion of thinking symbolically and structurally, then one can begin to think algorithmically and with abstraction. Understandably, the procedure and precision required in algorithmic thinking departs somewhat from a designer’s conventional point of view, where ‘designerly representations are replete with imprecision – they rely on human readers to interpret mark appropriately’. 21

However,

a

certain

phenomenological

beauty

is

recognisable in algorithms, where time and the capacity for human mediation are embodied through their evolution (given that the computer does not take over). 22 This evolution sees the return to the potential of generative structures by means of fractal, recursive and growth algorithms.

Such algorithms are often spawned from systems in nature and have been the basis of Biomimicry in architecture. 23 One can relate this interpretation

20

McCullough, Abstracting Craft, p.97.

Woodbury, Robert, Elements of Parametric Design (London ; New York: Routledge, 2010), p.35.

22 McCullough, Abstracting Craft, p.231.

23 Biomimicry is the method of drawing inspiration from nature’s systems. Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome is one early example. Other examples include Nicholas Grimshaw’s Eden Project, John Frazer’s explorations of Cellular Automata (CA) using genetic algorithms in his seminal work ‘An Evolutionary Architecture’ (1995), and more recently, Cecil Balmond’s structural exploration using L-Systems.

21

6

of nature phenomenologically, by virtue of enhancing our primitive relation to nature as part of experience. Conjointly, architecture has indisputably displayed a fascination in mathematical derivation and rationale for centuries, to the extent that one could conjecture its embodied phenomenological qualities are perceived through a harmony of proportions.

Fundamentally however, thinking algorithmically allows higher control over the complete design process through the variables (symbols) in structure; effectively demonstrated by Aranda & Lasch’s ‘Tooling’ explorations [FIG.2]. 24 Furthermore: These configurable worlds of generative action need not exactly mimic corresponding physical worlds. In particular, they may allow better crossovers between different media and representations and therefore allow for the practice of higher-level meta-techniques. 25 It should be stressed however that the potential in these algorithms is heavily dependent on abstractions as they ‘generate many alternatives’; a key theme for encouraging multiple and phenomenological perceptions of architecture. 26 Moreover, the ‘Object-Orientation’ (OOP) of these variables ensures ‘the ability to operate on abstractions as if they were things.’ 27 ‘Things’, in as much as symbols, are both quantitatively and qualitatively conceivable, thus reinforcing the potential bridge between digital and phenomenological mediums. Skill is needed however in understanding the limits of abstraction; to apprehend that abstractions ‘need to be governed by human practice and context-based understanding.’ Holtzman concludes that: …approaching expressive media in terms of abstract structure should not limit their ability to be expressive even of the most profound subtle emotions. To the extent that the emotions themselves are built on a system of structures and relationships, expressive media viewed as systems of relationships can represent profound emotions. The challenge in designing abstract systems of expressive capability is not a limitation of the systems themselves – of dealing with abstract structure. Rather, the challenge is to develop abstract descriptions of sufficient richness, capable of capturing profound emotions and subtle expressive nuances. 28

24

Aranda, Benjamin and Chris Lasch, Tooling, Series: Pamphlet Architecture (New York Enfield: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006), pp.10-74.

25 McCullough, Abstracting Craft, p.232.

26 Woodbury, p.30.

27 McCullough, Abstracting Craft, p.98.

28 Holtzman, p.276.

7

DIGITAL REPERTOIRE, (META-) HEURISTICS & MEDIATION

FIG URE 3: AEDAS R+ D- ABU DHABI EDUCATION COUNCIL (A DEC), ADJECENCIES & LAYOUT DESIGN TOOL

However pertinent thinking algorithmically and with abstraction may be, they should not be taken too literally; computational skill culminates in achieving a balance through heuristics. 29 Similarly to the writer’s craft, one must not become a consumerist in the vast amount of tools available.

Naturally, from the progressive accumulation of coding and software in computer programming over recent decades, it’s easy for one to get lost in a sea of jargon, surrendering only to what’s known. 30 Coupled with the common misconception in holistic modelling - evident in ‘life-cycle design’ and BIM principles – which displays the tendency to overcomplicate computational design by incorporating as many parameters and stakeholders as possible, dismissing heuristics results in a ‘separation into simulation and (not with) design’ (top down rather than bottom up). 31 Rather, as McCullough believes, the process should be reciprocal; to ‘simultaneously inhabit and redesign a design world.’ 32

29

Derix, Christian, 'Mediating Spatial Phenomena through Computational Heuristics', (2010), pp.1-7.

30 McCullough, Abstracting Craft, p.228.

31 Derix, p.2.

32 McCullough, Abstracting Craft, p.232.

8

Christian Derix, director of Aedas R&D Computation Design Research (CDR) group, responds well to this by mediating the computer as a tool for ‘perceiving, representing and generating spatial phenomena’ [FIG.3]. 33 He also defines the problem in current software and its mediation as twofold; firstly, in a lack of ‘ontological understanding of representation’ (i.e. the use of symbols); and secondly in its ‘technological ambition to create holistic simulations’. 34 This is a fundamental paradox of the contemporary world, where the ontological distinction between the real and virtual is becoming increasingly ambiguous. Moreover, the computer-user-interface should be more manipulative, interactive and responsive so that the designer is able ‘observe the search struggle’. 35 Conclusively, in order to overcome the ‘Hybrid Paradigm’ that is inevitable from such a fusion of the qualitative and quantitative, Derix emphasises that software should be able to meet the following criteria:

REAL-TIME PROCESSING ACCESSIBLE ‘AP PLIC ATION PRO GRAMMING INTERFACES’ (AP I) & ‘S OFTWA RE DEVELOPMENT KITS’ (S DK) PUBL IC ‘GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE’ (GPL) RUN-TIME INTERACTION 36

As a result, and encouraged by the spatial theories of Norberg-Schulz and Georges Perec, CDR constructs its software based on long algorithms, metaheuristics and data structures. 37 Not only are CDR’s methods powerful tools for spatial organisation and a promising digital implementation of phenomenology, but are also ecologically economical by means of almost total incorporation of all stakeholders. 38 This could ultimately redeem the reputation of technological advances in computing - particularly parametric design – that are currently seen as simply marketing and form-finding tools. Furthermore, the group’s main objective - as part of one of the world’s leading practices - is to 33 34 35 36 37 38

Derix, p.1.

Ibid., p.3.

Ibid., p.4.

Ibid., p.5.

Ibid., p.6.

Ibid., p.6.

9

introduce what was a rather speculative and unexplored territory in architectural research into current industry. In spite of these assets, it is likely that the industry will still have an edge over academia for some time in this field as continual learning of computation heuristics is required for its success; new workflows in the industry need to emerge. 39 Regardless, CDR’s exemplars have the potential to revolutionize the way we treat computational heuristics in architectural design. As Derix summarises: The negation of artificial and analogue heuristics enables designers to find new expressions for sensitive spatial designs that will probably embody very simple geometries but subtle perceptive intricacies. 40

39 40

Ibid., p.5.

Ibid., p.7.

10

[STRATEGIES] COMPUTER-HUMAN INTERACTION (CHI)

We have yet to escape the state where a sensible person can quickly dismiss computer usage for creative work on very simple grounds: one, it’s too arbitrary; two, it cannot record feelings; three, you cannot get a hold for it; four, it is difficult and time-consuming; and five, it’s not much fun. 41 40F

The skills involved in understanding the capacity for digital implementation of phenomenology focus on the architecture of the digital medium itself.

However in order to fully establish the plausibility we must consider how we interact with the digital medium [FIG.4]. Following Derix’s definition for software criteria, specifically ‘Run-Time Interaction’, it is clear that our mediation of the digital medium should be reciprocal, manipulative and interwoven; much like the Möbius topology. 42 Subsequently, Computer41 F

Human Interaction (CHI) plays a crucial role in how the digital medium is translated into the physical environment, and thus the potential for its phenomenological experience in architecture.

FIG URE 4: MA LCOMN MCCULL O UGH – BEYOND GRAPHICAL INTERFACES

41

McCullough, Abstracting Craft, pp.104-105.

Baudrillard, Jean, The Transparency of Evil : Essays on Extreme Phenomena (London ; New York: Verso, 1993), p.62.

42

11

There are a considerable number interfaces through which we interact with the digital medium. Most common of course is with the computer screen, specifically the Graphical User Interface (GUI), which arguably is the most important as our eyes are considered the best at recognising. 43 Coupled with the Cartesian view of sight ‘as the most universal and noble of the senses’, what and how we display the digital medium is paramount in our ontologically ambiguous information society. 44 However one must not neglect our other senses and solely rely on the primacy of vision; all one would perceive is pure simulation and dematerialization of our surroundings. CHI development is the primary focus of major corporations and as such we are able to utilise the technology for a potentially more profound phenomenological experience in architecture. McCullough identifies these interactive components as:

Si tes and devi ces are e mbedd ed with MIC ROPROCESSORS SENSORS det ect action Communi cation l i nks form AD- HOC NETWO RKS of de vices TAGS identify actors ACTUATO RS close the loop CONTROLS make it participatory DISPL AY s preads out FIXED LOCAT IONS track mobile positions (GPS) SOFTWA RE models situations TUNING overcome s rigidity 45

Fundamentally, the success of CHI is dependent on how embodied these loops of interactions become; much like the Butler metaphor.

43

McCullough, Abstracting Craft, p.233.

Pallasmaa, p. 19.

45 McCullough, Malcolm, Digital Ground : Architecture, Pervasive Computing, and Environmental Knowing (Cambridge, MA ; London: MIT Press, 2004), pp.72-94.

44

12

As Mark Weiser foresaw: The most profound technologies are those that disappear… They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it. 46 Seiko Mikami investigates the potential of CHI provocatively in the recent interactive installation ‘Desire of Codes’; where she aims to manifest memory in our information society [FIG.5]. The installation comprises three parts. The first two gather current information through a sensory wall embellished with lights, cameras and sensors, in addition to six highly sensitive camera-mounted robotic arms, both of which follow the movements of the user as they experience the space (similarly to dECOi’s pioneering Aegis HypoSurface 47). The final part takes form as a ‘compound eye’ of 61 hexagonal video screens where the current and past information from the exhibition, as well as global CCTV data is amalgamated to form the ‘memory’. 48 The capacity of the captured sensory information is said to be outside the levels of human perception, which essentially adds to the construction of a new reality of space and time – one that is ultimately more suited to the information society of today. 49 However, this proliferating information society has concerned theoretical and philosophical thinking for some time; most notably in Baudrillard’s work, where he states ‘we live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning’. 50 Mikami’s response not only amalgamates past and present data, but also the notion of ubiquitous and contextualized data in attempt to form this memory. Without being able to visit the installation myself, it is difficult to say how effectively this phenomenon of memory is manifested. However it poses the question of whether indeed memory should be considered in terms of such physical representations. These phenomenological connotations are explored further in chapter 3.12.

46

Weiser, Mark, 'The Computer in the 21st Century', Scientific American, 265.3 (1991), 8 Designed primarily by Mark Goulthorpe and Mark Burry between 1999 and 2001, Aegis HypoSurface is a leasable, facetted screen surface that is responsive to the user’s presence through 896 pneumatic actuators: http://www.sial.rmit.edu.au/Projects/Aegis_Hyposurface.php [Accessed : Jan 2012] http://hyposurface.org/ [Accessed : Jan 2012] 48 http://doc.ycam.jp/ [Accessed : Nov 2011] 49 http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/17565/seiko-mikami-desire-of-codesinstallation.html [Accessed : Nov 2011] 50 Baudrillard, Jean, Simulacra and Simulation, Series: Body, in Theory (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1994), p.79.

47

13

FIG URE 5: SE IKO MIK AMI – DESIRE OF CODES INSTAL LAT ION 14

COLLECTIVE ‘INTELLIGENCE’ From Derix’s ‘public GPL’, McCullough’s ‘ad-hoc networks’ and Mikami’s manifestation of our information society there emerges the common theme of a collective. Our most compelling experience of this is undoubtedly through the internet by means of cloud computing and social networks, themselves powerful phenomenon with the potential for embodied memory.

Furthermore, the ubiquitous nature of the internet forms a rhizomatic digital-urban; where the entire built environment is connected and able to share and manipulate open-source data. 51 The notion of sharing and modifying open-source material as a collaborative method - much like Derix’s criteria for ‘Accessible APIs / SDKs’ - could not be more relevant in respect to today’s information society and the banality of the internet as part of our everyday life. Open beta software releases are a good example demonstrating that a phenomenon of ‘subconscious consensus’ is at play here, manifesting all the processes of human craftsmanship. 52 Moreover, this is essentially how Juhani Pallasmaa measures the success of phenomenology in architecture; it ‘depends on the ability to symbolise human existence or presence’. 53 Provided that the sheer power of the internet is not underestimated and abused, its underlying collective framework shows a potential to be harnessed strategically, as a vehicle for the expansive implementation of phenomenology in architectural design. Despite this potential, what is most concerning is the lack of control over the collective ‘intelligence’ that is inevitable from such ubiquitous systems.

51

Ballantyne, Andrew, Deleuze and Guattari for Architects, Series: Thinkers for Architects (London ; New York: Routledge, 2007), pp.18-37 Chapter 2 – Machines (Deleuze and Guattari’s use of the rhizome): ‘The particular network structure that Deleuze and Guattari promote is the rhizome – a plant structure that can bifurcate and send out a new shoot at any point. They use it as a contrast with the tree structure, where everything branches out from a central trunk – the little twigs branch out from larger ones, and so on, back to the sturdy core. This is treated as an image of centralized power, or as something more than an image: it is a model of centralization, a real acting-out of it.’ (pp.25-26) 52 All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace, dir. by Curtis, Adam (BBC, 2011) 53 Nesbitt, Kate, Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture : An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995 (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996), p.447.

15

FEEDBACK LOOP(s)

FIG URE 6: JAY W. FO RRESTER – WORLD DYNAMICS MO DEL

Any successful system requires some form of maintenance and control, in addition (particularly with regard to the phenomenological implications) to an evolution based on user’s needs. With feedback loops ‘some rudimentary intelligence is implied’ as a system (e.g. software) then has some capacity to maintain itself. 54 This is where one can begin to introduce a more immediate and qualitative implementation of phenomenology into the digital system, much like Derix’s specification for ‘Real-Time Processing’. This is far from a new concept in systematic strategies, perhaps most reputably through Jay Wright Forrester’s contribution to cybernetics and the Club of Rome.

Following the global environmental crisis in the early 1970’s, Forrester proposed an ecological model of the world based on all major contributing factors, with their relationships governed by feedback loops [FIG.6].

Despite its convincing predictions, Forrester’s approach was almost purely scientific and quantitative; treating humans simply as machine components in a system that would not influence evolution in the system itself. It sparked the popular delusion of equilibrium in nature, essentially excusing politicians’ protection of power. 55 Undoubtedly this is an extreme case of

54 55

McCullough, Digital Ground, p.83.

All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace, dir. by Curtis, Adam (BBC, 2011) 16

‘The Wicked Problem’ and mistreatment of the digital medium. 56 However it reinforces the issue that, as Derix emphasizes: It remains in the hands of experienced designers to responsibly use this technological power and resist the common temptation to increase the complexity of models. 57 Nevertheless, the model demonstrates a powerful capacity for the discourse; one that is increasingly becoming an important part of both technological developments and cyclical design methodologies. Perhaps most significant is its underlying role in parametric design, which is becoming an increasing priority in architectural practices. Parametric design essentially is the hierarchical relationship of nodes (variables), based on feedback loops. As discussed in the first part of this chapter, these variables have the capacity to represent qualitative data as well as the conventional quantitative data that was the basis of Forrester’s work. Consequently, there are strong potentials in harnessing this strategy for the implementation of phenomenology.

56

The ‘Wicked Problem’, coined originally by Charles Churchman in a 1967 editorial for Management Science and later defined by Horst Rittel, is a term to describe an inexplicable problem, or that an attempt to solve a problem directly affects the initial problem.

57 Derix,, p.5.

17

FIG URE 7: T HE MAC ULA – NML PROJECTION MAPP ING (VIDEO SEQUENCE) 18

AUGMENTED REALITY Another strategy which has had significant focus in recent technological development in architectural design is Augmented Reality (AR). Following on from Derix’s ‘Real-Time Processes’, the tool has a potential not only for real-time design testing in practice as demonstrated by the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology’s (Calit2) ‘StarCAVE’, but also as a means of expressing an altered reality. 58 Unlike the familiar notion of Virtual Reality (VR) which is based purely on the CHI interactions within in the digital medium, AR introduces a context-based approach by overlaying both digital and material dimensions into a manipulated and enhanced perception of reality.

The technology conventionally overlays digital information onto a physical medium, however recent explorations by Czech Republic group ‘The Macula’ demonstrate a phenomenological application through 3D Video Projection Mapping. I was fortunate enough to experience their ‘NML’ projection onto the Museum of Liverpool, where a complex 3D video was mapped seamlessly on the existing façade in order to create altering perceptions of the architecture [FIG.7]. Combined with synchronized audio, the effect was altogether mesmerizing with astonishing levels of detail.

However it does raise the question whether this tendency toward dematerialization in new technologies is in fact answering to our fascination with media and the digital medium, or contributing further to our ontologically ambiguous understanding of reality. As expressed in ‘The Macula’ manifesto: The Macula project explores the relationship between image, sound and viewer. It fights the established limits and pushes the boundaries in search of alternative approaches. The goal is to achieve perfect symbiosis and satisfy audio-visual nihilism…The main objective is to use projections tailored to the selected surface or object to shatter the viewer’s perception of perspective. The projector allows bending and highlighting any shape, line or space. A suggestive play of light on a physical object creates a new dimension and changes the perception of a seemingly ordinary object.

Everything becomes an illusion. 59

58 59

http://www.calit2.net/newsroom/release.php?id=1383 [Accessed: Sep 2011] http://www.themacula.com/index.php?/about/ [Accessed: Sep 2011] 19

Smart phones are a more feasible example of how to exploit the technology in gaming and urban experience through use of an in-built camera. A fascinating dualism occurs between both the virtual interface and the user’s reality, yet the CHI is rarely completely embodied; it is perceived through the digital interface. It remains to be seen whether AR could be implemented without the use of the smart phone itself. However, research into bionic AR contact lenses from the University of Washington and Aalto University displays a promising potential for a seamless integration of the tool into everyday life. 60

BITS vs. ATOMS In the discourse of dematerialization emerges a paradox regarding bits and atoms. Clearly from the discussion so far, there is a need for some form of manipulation, or rather ‘play’ when developing design ideas if a digital implementation of phenomenology is to succeed. No doubt designers are familiar with this through countless alterations of sketches and models. The question is what happens to the qualitative information when we bridge the physical and digital realms from atoms to bits. McCullough convincingly argues for the latter: …it is a distinct advantage of computation to introduce play; this is a natural consequence of working in bits.

As we have seen, the irreversibility of so many traditional processes is rooted in the physical laws of material – in the atoms. 61 McCullough essentially argues that, unlike the bits of the digital medium, the physical is not only incapable of keeping up with the rapid change experienced in the contemporary world, but fundamentally the process of manipulating and testing material is destructive, eventually resulting in the loss of its original quality. 62 Besides, does our media culture now have less satisfaction in the physical object; do we now feel more compelled by the sheer diversity of knowledge that the digital medium is capable to represent?

60

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-11/22/augmented-reality-contact [Accessed: Nov 2011] 61 McCullough, Abstracting Craft, p.221.

62 Ibid.

20

Conversely, with respect to the fast approaching culmination of Moore’s Law, it is likely that the structure of the computer will change significantly, with bits disappearing completely. 63 Researchers are now exploring the possibilities of DNA and Quantum Computing as alternatives. 64 Contrasting with McCullough’s presumption on the inadequacies of a physical medium, Quantum Computing has the potential for incomprehensible computing speed and mediation, yet it is the atoms he dismissed that are the fundamental component of the technology.

Undoubtedly, from this chapter’s foundation, the digital medium has the capacity to represent qualitative properties, yet some may argue that if these elements are considered in digital terms as bits, there is a danger of losing their original quality. Consider the camera for instance; a device that has become so pertinent to capturing the phenomenon of time and memory – yet since the deviation from film to digital, the distinction between each medium is almost unrecognisable. In the same way, one may conclude that phenomenology in architecture is rarely considered purely physical; rather, as Tierney suggests, ‘architectural expression is intrinsically, though not exclusively, virtual’. 65

63

http://www.intel.com/about/companyinfo/museum/exhibits/moore.htm [Accessed: Oct 2011] Intel® co-founder Gordon E. Moore predicted in his 1965 Electronics Magazine article ‘Cramming More Components Onto Integrated Circuits’ that: ‘The number of transistors incorporated in a chip will approximately double every 24 months.’ This exponential advancement in miniaturization suggests that microchip technology is soon to reach the barrier of atomic dimensions, and thus the fundamental mechanics of computing itself.

64 Beigl, Michael and others, Disappearing Architecture : From Real to Virtual to Quantum (Basel ; Boston: Birkhäuser, 2005), pp.64-76.

65 Tierney, Therese, Abstract Space : Beneath the Media Surface (Abingdon: Taylor & Francis, 2007), p.127.

21

SITUATED vs. UBIQUITOUS

FIG URE 8: MA LCOLM MCC ULLO UGH - COMMON OBJECTIONS TO PERVASIVE

COMPUTING

Parting from the atomic scale, it is important to address the more pressing issue regarding the popular assumption that the goal of the digital medium is total ubiquity [FIG.8]. Whilst it is a tempting prospect that we could access and gain knowledge anywhere, and somewhat rightly so on an urban level, pure ubiquity is of particular concern to the discourse in terms of phenomenology in architecture as ‘place’ and therefore identity is no longer considered, resulting in a homogenised and chaotic reality. 66 As McCullough expresses: Contexts remind people and their devices how to behave. That framing has often been done best and understood most easily as architecture. 67

66 67

McCullough, Digital Ground, p.94.

McCullough, Digital Ground, p.118.

22

FIG URE 9: MA LCOLM MCC ULLO UGH - TOWARD NICHE PROTOCOLS IN COMMUNICATION ( A S ITU ATED STRATEGY)

Greg Tran, winner of this year’s Harvard Graduate School of Design Thesis Prize, answers admirably to McCullough’s concerns in his thesis ‘Mediating Mediums’ [FIG.10]. Tran’s approach meets all the fundamental criteria discussed so far, by proposing ‘D3d architecture’ (Digital Threedimensional Architecture). Here the digital is implemented not only in design and construction phases, but above all in its perception; where the experience is categorized into ‘visual’ (spatial mediations), and ‘operative’ (occupational mediations) frameworks. 68 Contrary to the conventional ‘3D architecture’ that we perceive through the computer screen, Tran utilizes AR technology together with run-time interaction which is further enriched by context-specific (both location and user) variables. It is Tran’s careful acknowledgment of context, as well as treating the computer as a medium, which ensures that no further ontological ambiguity is made to our understanding of reality. Moreover, that our experience of architecture through the digital medium has potential to be phenomenological.

It is not meant to supersede material architecture and would be unable to if it tried... the tools simply provide new potentials for architects and create a site specific condition which can empower and give agency to the profession at large. 69

68

http://vimeo.com/24860709 [Accessed: Oct 2011] http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/57431988?access_key=key-1pyggugumvz9ujkdqftd [Accessed: Oct 2011] ‘This evolution is culminated with an architecture designed simultaneously with the digital.

Projects which consider both material and digital realities from conception to finish and allow architects continued effect and commission throughout the lifespan of a building. With this new agency, architects are able to update and maintain the digital and are given the ability to reauthenticate digital spatial paradigms as the audience changes. This territory must be navigated thoughtfully to avoid empty stimulation or gimmicky appeal. The digital 3d has the potential to change perception and action, but it is fundamentally unable to replicate material effects like shelter, texture, touch and heightened privacy.’

69

23

FIG URE 10: GREG TRAN - MEDIATING MEDIUMS (VIDEO STILL )

24

COMPUTER AS A MEDIUM Conclusively, in order to fully understand the capacity for digital implementation of phenomenology in architecture, we must comprehend the computer as a medium. Much like the traditional craftsman and his tools, computing should be treated as a ‘digital craft’ and a potential mediator between the quantitative and qualitative, not simply objectively. 70 It is imperative, particularly with regard to the habitual nature of computing in everyday life, that one maintains an understanding of the computer’s affordances, and not to let it simply take over and do the work for us. 71 Undoubtedly, a major shift in the current perception of the computer in practice needs to occur if we intend to make any progress in the discourse.

However, through this chapter’s exemplar, this imperative paradigm shift is imminent, ultimately advancing to the digital implementation of phenomenology in architecture: Maybe you can’t touch it now, but there are signs that haptic interaction will arise. Maybe it can’t record feelings, but no medium captures anything but a partial and implicit record of the state of an author. In any case, the growing perception of a computer as medium demonstrates a slowly increasing capacity for implicit emotional content. 72

70

McCullough, Abstracting Craft, pp.215-219.

Ibid., p.198.

72 Ibid., p.105.

71

25

26

CHAPTER THREE: THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION Although the issues raised throughout the previous chapter were concerned with phenomenological implications, a detailed theoretical understanding has yet to be set. This chapter therefore aims to determine the scope of phenomenological theory that relates to the technological framework.

Through following the phenomenal zones of Steven Holl’s ‘Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture’ as a key point of departure, as well as references to other key theoretical protagonists, the chapter will summarize a set of potential parameters with which we can begin to evaluate the potential for digital implementation.

phenomenology [fɪˌnɒmɪˈnɒlədʒi] noun [mass noun] Philosophy the science of phenomena as distinct from that of the nature of being. an approach that concentrates on the study of consciousness and the objects of direct experience. 73

73

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/phenomenology?q=Phenomenology [Accessed: Dec 2011] 27

FIG URE 11: HEIDEG GER’S HUT

28

ENMESHED EXPERIENCE Holl begins with perhaps the most holistic view of phenomenology, or rather the experience of architecture as a complete perception. Moreover, he highlights the notion of Merleau-Ponty’s ‘in-between’ (or ‘chora’ in the symbolic sense 74) which formulates the fusion and overlapping of both the qualitative and quantitative constituents that form the ‘experiential continuum’. 75 This common theme that appears in phenomenology of a series of parts, or rather parameters, that form the whole experience shares parallels with the principles of parametric thinking and cybernetic feedback loops; the components alone are meaningless without considering their holistic relationship. As Holl argues: Though we can disassemble these elements and study them individually during the design process, they emerge in the final condition, and ultimately we cannot readily break perception into a simple collection of geometries, activities and sensations 76 Similarly, Pérez Gómez reinforces some discerning limits by which a medium (specifically the digital) is able to implement phenomenological parameters as enmeshed experience in architecture: Architecture addresses directly our whole embodied perception (rather than a “subjective” cybernetic receptor, an “objective” mechanism, or a composite organic body). Architecture is not an experience whose meaning may be fully translated into other media. Like a poem, its very presence is that which constitutes the means and end of the experience. Yet we must also acknowledge that human experience is always mediated linguistically. 77

74

Holl, Steven et al., Questions of Perception : Phenomenology of Architecture. (San Francisco, CA: William Stout Publishers, 2006), p.12.

Pérez Gómez references Plato on the notion of chora: ‘Plato concludes that there must be three components of reality: first, “the unchanging form, uncreated and indestructible, … imperceptible to sight or the other senses, the object of thought” (Being); second, “that which bears the same name as the form it resembles it, but is sensible, has come into existence, is in constant motion… and is apprehended by the opinion with the aid of sensation” (Becoming); and third, chora, “which is eternal and indestructible, which provides a position for everything that comes to be, and which is apprehended without the senses by a sort of spurious reasoning and so is hard to believe in – we look at it indeed in a kind of dream and say that everything that exists must be somewhere and occupy some space, and that what is nowhere in heaven or earth is nothing at all.” (Plato, Timaeus and Critias, pp.70-71.)

75 Ibid., p.45.

76 Ibid.

77 Pérez Gómez, & Pelletier, p.383.

29

FIG URE 12: STEVEN HOLL – PORTA V ITTORIA C OMPETITION

30

PERSPECTIVAL SPACE Moving from the intimacy of the first ‘zone’ of phenomenology, Holl now focuses on the larger, urban scale experience of architecture. Regardless of viewpoint, it is the fragmented, open-ended perception and ‘network of overlapping perspectives’ that is at play here. 78 This is also somewhat comparable to the ephemeral quality of the feedback loop and how Tran treated situated computing using AR. Furthermore, our contemporary experience of the urban realm is, if anything, more fragmented when we consider mapping technologies such as Google Maps and Street View which one can experience through smartphone applications - that formulate a series of snapshots from almost any perspective. Nevertheless, Holl describes how the computer aided the development of the 1986 Milan Porta Vittoria proposal [FIG.12] which, despite being a more linear and out-dated approach, could be considered as potential implementation of this phenomenal zone through the digital medium: A ‘multiple-perspectives’ approach to urban planning is facilitated by using the computer in the design process to find precise plan dimensions within perspectival views, and to test speed, angles of motion, and peripheral vision. However the pixelated digitalized cannot simulate qualities of material, light and other sensations of full-scale urban experience. 79

78 79

Holl, et al., p.48.

Ibid., p.55.

31

FIG URE 13: GYORGY DOCZ I – THE POWER OF LIMITS: PROPORTIONAL HARMON IES IN NATURE, ART & ARCHITECTURE (EXTRACT )

32

PROPORTION & SCALE Here we see possibly the most harmonious link to issues discussed in chapter two and strongest potential in respect to the discourse. Mathematical theories and phenomena of proportion and scale are, as we have established in the foundation of the dissertation, fundamental to the structure of the digital medium. However more applicable are the phenomenological connotations associated with these principles: One of the intuitive powers of humans is the perception of subtle mathematical proportions in the physical world. 80 As implied by Steen Eiler Rasmussen’s anthropometric dissection of Corbusier’s Le Modulor and recurrence of the golden ratio in ‘Experiencing Architecture’, the phenomenon applies over a wide range of scales to fractals in nature, harmonies in music and cybernetic theory [FIG.13].

Certainly, one can deduce perception of architectural proportion and scale metaphorically as ‘frozen music’. 81 However, the paradigm shifts that are inevitable from such topics and changes in ontological perception, imminently present ‘us with new questions of proportion and scale in the development of future architectures’. 82 These proportions can easily be regulated and explored intuitively in a parametric system such as the Grasshopper® extension to Rhinoceros® NURBS software; demonstrating one of the key assets to digital parametric design.

80

Holl, et al., p.116.

Rasmussen, Steen Eiler, Experiencing Architecture. Paperback edn (Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press, 1964), p.105.

Rasmussen compares the pleasure of certain musical harmonies, specifically ones which relate to the golden ratio, to that of architectural proportions (i.e. 5:8 = minor sixth). ‘Frozen music’ implies the manifestation of this in architecture.

82 Holl, et al., p.116.

81

33

FIG URE 14: ARAN DA & L ASCH – COLOUR SHIFT

34

COLOUR The phenomenal zone of colour reveals a number of possible interpretations by the digital medium, specifically as the elements that effect our perception of colour such as light, material, environment and texture are interdependent; they are in themselves parametric. 83 Colour therefore has the potential of bridging qualitative and quantitative values; it can be described scientifically, mathematically and subjectively, consequentially constructing a phenomenological experience. Moreover, as Rasmussen suggests: In architecture color is used to emphasise the character of a building, to accentuate its form and material, and to elucidate its divisions. 84 Aranda & Lasch explore the phenomenon in their recent project ‘Colour Shift’ [FIG.14], where they made use of North America’s largest video billboard to display an algorithmic sequence of the RGB colour space, in turn transforming a two mile radius area of Queens, New York, into a saturated, dream-like reality. 85 As a practice routed in process rather than ornament, their approach was an attempt to shed light on new perceptions of a city. Colour Shift is to some extent, an answer to Rasmussen’s depiction of colour in architecture, however more pertinent to the notion that we may experience the built environment as ‘Color Planes’. 86 It also demonstrates – much like the previous discretion of bits and atoms - a symbiotic relationship between material and digital realities, of which the latter can equally construct phenomenological experiences of place. Undoubtedly, perception of colour is heavily subjective which is why - despite its evanescence - the sheer variation capable in Aranda & Lasch’s experiment is particularly applicable to this discourse.

83

Holl, et al., p.58.

Rasmussen, p.215.

85 Sakamoto, Tomoko and Albert Ferré, From Control to Design : Parametric/Algorithmic Architecture (Barcelona ; New York: Actar-D, 2008), pp.206-216 86 Rasmussen, p.83 84

35

FIG URE 15: S AM A RCHITEKTEN – DÜBENDORF HOUSING COMPETITION VISUAL ISAT ION

36

LIGHT AND SHADOW Similarly, the fundamental properties of light and shadow show strong potentials in digital implementation for their qualitative and quantitative attributes, and are undoubtedly a key constituent to the experience of architecture. One can consider the raw, material quality of light as a digital parameter (the variable discussed in chapter two), specifically as ‘its ethereal variety of change, fundamentally orchestrates the intensities of architecture and cities’. 87 Furthermore, the phenomenon of light behaviour itself, in a scientific and quantitative sense, could easily be manipulated digitally, particularly when one considers building performance modelling.

However, a more interesting prospect emerges if we comprehend the dematerialised character of light, allowing it to become the mediator of the paradoxical relationship between bits and atoms, expressed to some extent through Macula’s projections. 88 In today’s architectural practice, we are able to digitally explore these phenomenological connotations with rendering software. Maxwell Render® for example harnesses the power of Global Illumination (GI) algorithms, which essentially analyse a (digital) 3D model and act upon it based on realworld light physics and evolutionary feedback loops. 89 Undeniably, this unbiased technique can deliver particularly realistic and evocative imagery; however its ontological implications are arguably yet to be fully understood [FIG.15]. This relationship between architectural representation and the intended product has, of course, been of great interest to architects and theorists for many years, however Tierney argues rather poignantly that ‘the contemporary architectural image cannot be contained; it is diffused, mutable, and migratory’. 90 Perhaps this is true of our contemporary perception of architecture and our seduction to fantastical and cinematic imagery.

87

Holl, et al, p.63.

Commonly used to describe the effect of photography or the consequence of artistic representations (both Tierney and McCullough explore this idea), I use the term dematerialisation here to describe that light is neither pertaining to bits nor atoms, yet it is directly affected by both. One may speculate that it light itself is virtual, devoid of any material properties. (this, of course is until it is obstructed by material itself) 89 http://www.maxwellrender.com/index.php/technology [Accessed: Dec 2011] 90 Tierney, p.93.

88

37

FIG URE 1 6: ANTIVJ – 3DESTRUCT INSTA LLAT ION

38

SPATIALITY OF NIGHT Arguably there is significantly more mediation here in terms of digital implementations, as we are primarily concerned with the use of artificial and, in that sense, more quantitative character of light. This could potentially be a powerful tool due to the ease of its quantitative manipulation through digital tools such as Modul8® software. Ultimately, these manipulations can offer new perceptions of the same space, dependant on the time of day. As expressed by Holl, ‘to shape this light is to give new dimensions to the urban experience’ 91 This phenomenal zone is suitably pertinent to Macula’s approach, specifically their ‘NML’ projection as discussed in the previous chapter, which proposes an alternative perception of the architecture without negating the material reality. McCullough also reinforces that - despite their inherent novelty in some cases - throughout these technological changes emerges the fascinating dualism between reality and new perceptions.

Rather, technology is able to reverse our conventional perception of architecture: Lighting, for instance, reverses the privacy relation between indoors and outdoors at night by making the former visible to the latter. It also reverses the architectural modulation of classical facades by lighting then from below, rather than from above like the sunlight for which they were designed. 92

91 92

Holl, et al., p.69.

McCullough, Malcolm, Digital Ground, p.61.

39

FIG URE 17: M ILLA DIG ITAL – DIGITAL WATE R PAVILION (DWP)

40

WATER Further bridges between the qualitative and quantitative emerge here with the phenomenal zone of water. Emphasis is again placed of the ephemeral and unpredictable qualities of this phenomenon; how water changes its behaviour scientifically and intensifies experience through ‘reflection, space reversal and refraction’. 93 Holl stresses however that ‘the psychological power of reflections overcomes the “science” of refraction’. 94 This phenomenon also shares the parametric quality of colour, in that it is dependent on external influences such as weather and material in order to create ‘exhilarating perceptions’. 95 These external influences also further reinforce

the

importance

of

a

situated,

rather

than

ubiquitous

implementation.

Some recent experiments into the more playful qualities of water have been made such as Milla Digital’s Digital Water Pavilion (DWP) at the 2008 Zaragoza Expo [FIG.17]. The transparent and ephemeral quality of their installation proves to be an intriguing and heavily haptic experience; challenging our understanding of conventional building materials. 96 However, it concurrently reaffirms industry’s tendency toward gimmicky appeal and use of emergent technologies as marketing tools rather than for true architectural expression. Water is undoubtedly a powerful tool for transcending experience into the ‘hyper-real’ as recently experienced when visiting Château de Chillon on the edge of Lake Geneva, Switzerland where - as a result of the light at the time of day – water reflections animated the castle’s halcyon interiors. The phenomenon demonstrates ability to ground intense, albeit introverted and fantastical architectural experience to the peripheral reality. Fundamentally, these interdependencies and ability to bridge the qualitative and quantitative, undoubtedly show potential for digital implementation, though are - as seen in Milla Digital’s work - prone to novel mistreatment.

93

Holl, et al., p.80.

Ibid.

95 Ibid., p.83.

96 http://www.dwp.qaop.net/ [Accessed: Sep 2011] 94

41

SOUND As we further progress into these phenomenal zones it is clear that there is more emphasis on awakening of the senses and consciousness, arguably none more so than the phenomenon of sound. 97 Moreover there are profound opportunities related to implementing and manipulating this phenomenon through the digital medium, particularly when parallels can be seen in the development of sound and music technology. In terms of architecture however, sound ‘yields a spatial map’ and engages the body as a whole leading to ‘a mesmerising effect on the psyche’. 98 Such effects are evident in Corbusier’s Phillips Pavilion for example, as are Bernhard Leitner’s sound spaces explorations, recently experienced when visiting the RaumReflexion installation.

Interesting studies have been made on the fusion of music and architecture in Elizabeth Martin’s ‘Architecture as a Translation of Music’, where the phenomenon of the ‘y-condition’ is used as the mediator between the two arts. 99 Additionally, the representation of sound and music using manuscript, notations, and more relevantly generative programming tools, draw close parallels to meta-heuristics, and is something which has been explored by the likes of Brian Eno and Autechre with strong phenomenological

effect. 100

Emphasis

is

also

placed

on

the

interdependencies of sound (specifically with time, material and space), which highlights further the concern for situated types, as well as variable interrelations governed by feedback loops. Through the use of open-source programming tools such as MaxMSP® and Processing®, artisits are now able to create their own tailored software easily, as Derix identified through accessible APIs and SDKs. Brian Eno expresses his revolutionary thinking in a 1995 Wired magazine interview: In the future, you won’t buy artists’ works; you’ll buy software that makes original pieces of “their” works, or that recreates their way of looking at things…

What people are going to be selling in the future is not pieces of music, but systems by which people can customize listening experiences for themselves.

Change some of the parameters and see what you get.

In that sense, musicians would be offering unfinished

97

Pallasmaa, pp.49-51. (‘Acoustic Intimacy’) Holl, et al., p.87.

99 Martin, Elizabeth, Architecture as a Translation of Music. 1 edn, Series: Pamphlet Architecture (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996), p.16.

100 Brian Eno - Another Green World, dir. by Roberts, Nicola (BBC, 2010) 98

42

pieces of music – pieces of raw material, but highly evolved raw material, that has a strong flavour to it already. I can also feel something evolving on the cusp between “music,” “game,” and “demonstrations” – I imagine a musical experience equivalent to watching John Conway’s computer game of Life or playing SimEarth, for example, in which you are at once thrilled by the patterns and knowledge of how they are made and the metaphorical resonances of such a system. Such an experience falls in a nice new place – between art and science and playing. This is where I expect artists to be working more and more in the future. 101 10F

FIG URE 18: BERNHA RD LEITNE R – RAUM REFLEXION INSTAL LA TION

Eno validates his foresight with his smartphone applications ‘Bloom’ and ‘Trope’, where the user is able to play with the simple framework of parameters and form their own interpretation of a piece through haptic interaction. Perhaps one can begin to speculate of similar approaches in architecture, which depart from Archigram’s rather dystopian principles of user-flexibility in ‘Plug-in City’, for example.

101

Kelly, Kevin, 'Gossip In philosophy: Interview with Brian Eno', Wired, 3.5 (1995) [Online] Available at: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.05/eno_pr.html [Accessed : Oct 2011] 43

DETAIL Materials may be altered through a variety of means which do not diminish, and may even enhance their natural properties. 102 Holl focuses mainly on the sense of touch, authenticity and the ‘materiality of details’ in this phenomenal zone, and demonstrates an opportune area for the digital medium. 103 For instance, ensuring that process and the details which make the whole are evident is comparable to the processing and relationships

of

components

in

parametric

design.

Contrary

to

McCullough’s dismissal of the workable physical material, there is, if treated sensitively, potential to enhance the phenomenological experience of materials and their details through the manipulation that is associated with emergent technologies (in particular with glass). Technology such as ETH’s robotic arm for example is appropriated as the skilled bricklayer’s hand which formulates variations in the orientation of bricks which eventually constructs the subtle optical illusion of an image on the Gantenbein Vineyard Façade [FIG.19]. 104 While arguably it questions Louis Kahn’s honest response to brick, or rather truth to material, it also demonstrates the strengths of parametric design in the construction industry through mediating the phenomenon.

Furthermore, current CHI research is now heavily informed by the successes of smartphone technology and their related MEMS applications, such as the accelerometer and pressure sensitive touch screen. One should discern that these haptic interfaces often precede our potentially false predispositions of visual perception, much like the interaction with tactile architecture. 105 As depicted by Pallasmaa: The door handle is the handshake of the building. The tactile sense connects us with time and tradition: through impressions of touch we shake the hands of countless generations. 106

102

Holl, et al., p.92.

Ibid., p.91.

104 http://www.dfab.arch.ethz.ch/web/e/forschung/52.html [Accessed: Dec 2011] 105 McCullough, Digital Ground, p.29.

106 Pallasmaa, p. 56.

103

44

Pallasmaa’s poetic personification emphasises the significance of this phenomenological zone; however haptic digital interfaces have yet to make such distinctions in architecture. 107 106F

FIG URE 1 9: GRAM AZIO & K OHL ER, ETH – GANTENBEIN VINEYARD FACADE

107

Some interactive explorations were displayed at the 2010 ‘DECODE’ exhibition at the V&A Museum. Available at: http://www.vam.ac.uk/microsites/decode/ [Accessed: Dec 2011] 45

TIME Time is another key variable that appears progressively through the studies of both technical and phenomenological thinking. Specifically in terms of processes and methodologies of design which, in the conventional sense are more linear, should now be considered reciprocal; a series of feedback loops where time is, in effect eternal and somewhat embodied. Furthermore, Holl expands on Henri Bergson’s theories of how we experience time and duration as ‘Duree Réal’ (real time / lived time), in that it can be measured in terms of ‘a concentration of energy’. 108 Further analogy is therefore drawn to Derix’s criteria of ‘Run-Time Interaction’.

On a more pragmatic level, this ‘energy’ could be considered a quantitative, scientific variable and therefore have potential digital implementation.

However the primary phenomenon at play here is the ability to manipulate our consciousness of time through controlling the speed of our perceptions, particularly with regard to the increasing speed in which we experience reality through the banal use of the internet. As Pallasmaa argues: In my view, the task of architecture is to maintain the differentiation and hierarchical and qualitative articulation of existential space. Instead of participation in the process of further speeding up the experience of the world, architecture has to slow down experience, halt time, and defend the natural slowness and diversity of experience. 109

108 109

Holl, et al., p.74.

Pallasmaa, pp. 149-150.

46

FIG URE 20: STEVEN HOLL – PALAZZO DEL CINEMA C OMPETITION

‘…passing time was measured and observed in a precise strip of sunlight which slowly formed different reflections as it passed across the glossy black floor.’

47

MEMORY One other aspect I would like to introduce, and one that was not covered in ‘Questions of Perception’, is the phenomenon of memory. Childhood memory in particular re-appears through a significant number of references and specifically concerns the work of Gaston Bachelard. 110 In essence the foundation of our experiences at the earliest stages of our lives heavily influences how we experience and perceive in the future. 111 This was acknowledged in the previous chapter through the ‘digital generation’ and the potential for embodied memory in social networking.

More pertinent however was Mikami’s ‘random access’ response to our information society, which, despite its rather literal interpretation, shares parallels to the theoretical thinking of Maurice Merleau-Ponty; specifically that, ‘in order to fill out perception, memories need to have been made possible by the physiognomic character of the data’. 112,113 In Mikami’s case, the ‘physiognomic character’ was her emphasis on CHI and the user’s physical appearance. Merleau-Ponty refers to the analogy in language to further understand our perception of memory: It is shown that in the reading of a book the speed of the eye leaves gaps in the retinal impressions, therefore the sense-data must be filled out by a projection of memories. 114 Merleau-Ponty seems to suggest that our memory is able to fill out gaps between what we perceive in the physical realm. Comparatively, the projected ephemeral memories serve as a mediator between the sense-data gathered through the initial parts of the installation. This is also somewhat comparable to UN Studio’s use of the Moiré effect in their recent Galleria Centercity in Cheonan, Korea [FIG.21]. 115 What is of particular difficulty in the implementation of memory through the digital medium however, is its sheer subjectivity and uniqueness to each individual. It is, for this reason,

110

Bachelard, Gaston and M. Jolas, The Poetics of Space (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1994), p.16.

‘Through this permanent childhood, we maintain the poetry of the past. To inhabit oneirically the house we were born in means more than to inhabit it in memory; it means living in this house that is gone, the way we used to dream in it.’

111 Zeitgeist: Moving Forward, dir. by Joseph, Peter (2011) 112 Pérez Gómez, & Pelletier, p.378.

‘Artists and architects interested in the cultural consequences of cyberspace, however, emphasize the potential for computers to transcend their binary logic and become a tool for poetic disclosure: they stress “random access” as opposed to “linear” memory.’

113 Merleau-Ponty, Maurice and Colin Smith, Phenomenology of Perception, Series: Routledge Classics (London: Routledge, 2002), p.22.

114 Ibid., p.184.

115 http://www.unstudio.com/projects/galleria-cheonan [Accessed: Sep 2011] 48

that our banal use of internet and its ephemeral social networking appear inherent of the strongest potential in the implementation of memory through the digital medium.

Before any contribution by memory, what is seen must at the present moment so organize itself as to present a picture to me in which I can recognize my former experiences. Thus the appeal to memory presupposes what it is supposed to explain; the patterning of data, the imposition of meaning on a chaos of sense-data. No sooner is the recollection of memories made possible than it becomes superfluous, since the work it is being asked to do is already done. 116 15F

FIG URE 21: UN STU DIO – GALLE RIA CENTERCITY MOIRÉ F AÇA DE

116

Merleau-Ponty, & Smith, pp.22-23.

49

SITE CIRCUMSTANCE The discussion of these phenomenal zones culminates to form the idea that the perception of these experiences as a whole prevails over the experience of each individual component. 117 This essentially describes the underlying principle to Gestalt theory of perception. 118 Moreover, that – much like the discretion between situated and ubiquitous - the perception is directly affected by the uniqueness of each architectural context (whether physical, cultural, or programmatic). Additionally, Holl suggests that new methodologies such as the ones seen in the phenomenon of sound could be used as organisational tools in architecture. Fundamentally however: The unity of the whole merges from the thread that runs through the variety of parts; whether it be one discrete idea or the interrelation of several concepts. 119 The symbolic thinking intrinsic to the discourse’s inception may be considered as this ‘interrelation’ between architectural requirements.

Conversely, we return to the notion of ‘computer as a medium’ which concluded the previous chapter. Specifically, that this ‘medium’ should be treated as the mediator, much like the ‘thread’ described here, between these phenomenal zones; ultimately negotiating the relationship of each to form the complete perception. After all, ‘the final measure of architecture lies in its perceptual essences, changing the experience of our lives.’ 120

117

Holl, et al., p.119.

Merleau-Ponty, & Smith, p.4.

119 Holl, et al., p.119.

120 Ibid.

118

50

CHAPTER FOUR: TOWARDS NEW PERCEPTIONS INTRODUCTION This concluding chapter speculates on the possibilities of new perceptions of architecture

through

the

amalgamation

of

the

technical

and

phenomenological research thus far. Additionally, other protagonists and exemplar will be brought to attention as appropriate, along with diagrams to assist the depictions. Similarly to the overriding structure of the dissertation, the chapter seeks to explore these perceptions narratively, from pragmatic to theoretical extremes; ultimately establishing the perception of digital phenomenology.

51

cti val per

nce

s pe

sta cum cir

s pa

ce

enmeshed experience

site

HEAR

ING

L EL SM

me

io

ort

mo

p pro

ry

n&

le

sca

colour

TOUCH

time

TAST E

lig

ail

ht

SIGH T

lity

tia

sou

spa

nd

det

&

sha

do

w

t igh

n of

water

PLAY Throughout this dissertation the recursive theme of interaction has been firmly accentuated. From McCullough’s evident toil in exploring CHI technologies, to the precept of sense experience in phenomenology, our perception of architecture is fundamentally experienced and measured through interaction. However, the architect’s obsessive tendency with the permanence of their imprinted autographical design arguably leaves little left to interact with; the notion of play is in danger of disappearing altogether from both architectural design and experience. Moreover, it is proven that play allows for intuitive learning and improved understanding through sense perception, particularly with children, yet we seem to simply dismiss its potential as adults. After all, playing is undoubtedly more fun and enjoyable.

Jerome Bruner suggests that this interaction is the element of surprise which can be described as either empirical (a creative use of an object), formal (music, or the simplicity of great formulations in science for instance) or metaphoric (suggestive, structure of language and symbols for instance). 121 It is this element of surprise that is also even more pertinent to today’s media society, which finds less satisfaction in the static object than the interactive object, possibly most evidently expressed through the success of smartphones.

Visual artists ANTIVJ explore these perceptions of play and interaction in their light projections. One of their more profound projects, ‘3Destruct’ [FIG.16.] is an immersive audio-visual installation for the Scopitone Festival at Le Lieu Unique in Nantes, France. 122 It challenges our conventional and intuitive Euclidean space perceptions that were discussed in chapter 3.4, by deconstructing spatial coherence to form a ‘non-linear’ experience. Constructed from semi-transparent sheets arranged to form a cube, four linked projectors are mapped onto the surface using similar technology to Macula’s ‘nml’. 123 What is fascinating here is the playful and tactile interaction between the user and object, which I believe is a particularly more immersive environment than Macula’s somewhat cosmetic response to surface. Visitors are able to move through the

121

Bruner, Jerome and others, 'On Craft, Creativity, and Surprise', in Play: Its Role in Development and Evolution (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976) 122 http://www.triangulationblog.com/2011/12/3destruct-2011-by-antivj.html [Accessed: Dec2011] 123 http://www.antivj.com/3Destruct_v2/ [Accessed: Dec2011] 53

installation and in doing so manipulate the ‘space’ that is projected onto the sheets; an immersive and surprising intersection between the virtual and the real is perceived. This is the element of surprise that has the potential for a new perception in architecture.

ANTIVJ is a visual label initiated by a group of European artists whose work is focused on the use of projected light and its influence on our perception.

Clearly stepping away from standard set-ups & techniques, AntiVJ presents live performances and installations, providing to the audience senses a challenging experience. 124 What ANTIVJ have demonstrated is that interaction and play does not simply involve and rely on gimmicky virtual appeal as misconceived by Microsoft’s recent ‘Productivity Future Vision’ proposal. 125 The intersection between digital and physical can still inherit tactile phenomena; it is not intended to supersede the perception of material architecture. Rather, the digital medium is able to provide agency to the element of surprise that is intrinsic to the experience of architecture.

124

http://www.antivj.com/label/index.htm [Accessed: Dec2011] http://www.microsoft.com/office/vision/ [Accessed: Dec2011] ‘Microsoft’s long-term productivity vision explores how we will create and share content; collaborate across teams, organizations and networks; and gain contextually relevant insights based on preferences and intent. Each scene showcases real technologies being explored by Microsoft teams and partners and others in the industry.’

In reality, their approach of plentiful touch-screen devices flattens CHI almost altogether into two-simensional space, without considering true haptic interaction.

125

54

D4d ARCHIECTURE Tran’s ‘Mediating Mediums’ further emphasises the predominance of material architecture together with the perception of play, whilst expressing some verisimilitude in his conception of the ‘Digital 3d architecture’.

However, Tran’s rather prescribed and scenario-based approach leads to the belief that there is more phenomenological potential in its operation.

Fundamentally, whilst Tran proposed a run-time interaction in the spirit of ‘Duree Réal’, time was considered linear, therefore negating the prospect of memory. Furthermore – despite Tran’s convincing and insightful operative framework - the experience of Tran’s proposal was heavily reliant on prescribed visual cues, without fully considering mediating other phenomenal zones explored in chapter three.

Although there would be a danger of losing identity of place, the power of social networking at large could introduce the fourth dimension of memory to the proposal. Social networking giant, Facebook, recently announced the launch of their new application ‘Timeline’ which is intended to completely replace the conventional GUI. 126 ‘Timeline’ demonstrates a rare revolution and advancement in how we use social networks through - as implied by its name – prioritising the phenomenal zone of memory in our online experience. It answers Pallasmaa’s argument for architecture to ‘slow down experience, halt time, and defend the natural slowness and diversity of experience.’ 127 Tacitly, the application could therefore harness powerful phenomenological connotations in the context of progressing towards new perceptions.

126 127

http://www.facebook.com/about/timeline [Accessed: Dec 2011] Pallasmaa, pp. 149-150.

56

THE ‘TRANSLUCENT VESSEL’ The notion of artifact as translucent vessel brings forth the possibility of latent content, which can be defined as expression neither intended by the author nor read in by the recipient, but conveyed by the cultural context under which the artifact has been produced and received. Thus an author's intent is not the sole arbiter of meaning. 128 One of the downfalls of Tran’s work was the somewhat prescribed nature of his proposal; the users were not in full control of what and how they wished to interpret and perceive. They were grouped into common interests and to some extent treated as machine components in the system similar to Forrester’s treatment of the global ecosystem. McCullough’s interpretation of Gombrich’s ‘Art and Illusion’ suggests architecture as the ‘Translucent Vessel’, which introduces the more adaptive and user-specific notion of latent content. 129 Coined originally by Sigmund Freud in ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’ at the turn of the twentieth century, this latent content can be described as the underlying psychological meaning portrayed by symbols in dreams; the symbols in our case being phenomenological zones and the dream as the overall experience in architecture. 130 Linked to Tran’s work however is the importance of proximity and context that is intrinsic to the idea of the translucent vessel. Further similarities appear in Brian Eno’s vision for the future experience of music, as well as to Barthes’ ‘Death of the Author’ explored in chapter two. Namely, it is this ‘cultural context’ that sets out the way in which an artefact (architecture) is perceived by means of latent content, and not by the prescribed, autographic proposition of the architect.

Much like Calvino’s depiction of the 55 cities of Venice in ‘Invisible Cities’ 131, the Translucent Vessel invites multiple and individual interpretations specific to each user provided that the framework of the (digital) architecture has the capacity to do so. The role of the architect therefore

can

here

be

reconsidered,

and

tailored

more

towards

comprehending a systematic framework that can accommodate latent content. This was accomplished to some extent in Mikami’s installation, where – despite the placelessness of the globalised data - the phenomenological zone of memory becomes the latent content and each 128

McCullough, Abstracting Craft, p.204.

Ibid.

130 Freud, Sigmund, The Interpretation of Dreams. New Ed edn (Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 1997), p. 480.

131 Calvino, Italo, Invisible Cities (London: Vintage, 1997) 129

58

user completes their own architectural perception. Fundamentally, what is of interest is the hermeneutics of the ‘Translucent Vessel’ and the consequent relationship between agent (user) and structure (architecture).

59

ce s pa cti val per

nce

s pe

sta cum cir

enmeshed experience

site

me

io

ort

mo

p pro

ry

n&

le

sca

colour

time

lig

ail

ht

det

nd

spa lity

tia

sou

&

sha

do

w

t igh

n of

water

DIGITAL ETHER Undeniably, the digital is becoming increasingly omnipresent in our lives, as seen through the internet and wireless technology, forming a cloud of information or rather ether which we inhabit. The conception of the ‘Luminiferous Ether’ in late nineteenth century physics as the carrier of light is a suitable analogy to the ‘digital ether’, where in this case light is replaced by data. In the spirit of this discourse, Freud’s Victorian ‘latent content’ may now be considered as the ‘digital ether’; a fluid of data that ubiquitously surrounds us whether perceived consciously in the foreground or subconsciously in the background. 132 Therefore, from our five conventional senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch, emerges a sixth perception; the perception of the digital ether. Poet Richard Brautigan fantasizes rather satirically of how we may perceive the ubiquity of computing and this ‘digital ether’ in his ironically poignant poem ‘All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace’: I like to think (and the sooner the better!) of a cybernetic meadow where mammals and computers live together in mutually programming harmony like pure water touching clear sky.

I like to think (right now, please!) of a cybernetic forest filled with pines and electronics where deer stroll peacefully past computers as if they were flowers with spinning blossoms.

I like to think (it has to be!) of a cybernetic ecology where we are free of our labors and joined back to nature, returned to our mammal brothers and sisters, and all watched over by machines of loving grace. 133

132

‘Luminiferous Ether’ as described in: The Secret Life of Chaos, dir. by Stacey, Nic (BBC, 2010) 133 Brautigan, Richard, The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster (London: Cape, 1970) 61

The notion of being ‘watched over’ by this digital ether undoubtedly has been of great concern and fascination in our culture and evokes the rather nihilistic notion of George Orwell’s ‘Big Brother’. 134 However, given that the ether is not abused for such political dictatorship, its power can be used to mediate phenomenological perceptions of architecture. Richard Feynman hypothesised ‘One-Electron Universe’ theory in his Nobel Lecture of December 1965, where only a single electron propagates the whole universe by weaving in and out of space and time, like Baudrillard’s Möbius topology, visible only when crossing the intersection we call the ‘present’. 135 Comparatively, we may perceive the digital ether as the thread that carries and runs through the phenomenal zones to form the tapestry of ‘present’ architectural experience.

134

As expressed in: Mitchell, William J., City of Bits : Space, Place, and the Infobahn (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1995) Specifically ‘Surveillance / Electronic Panopticon’, available online at: http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-books/City_of_Bits/Bit_Biz/SurveillanceElectronicPanopticon.html [Accessed: Dec 2011] 135 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/feynman-lecture.html [Accessed: Dec 2011] 62

FILTERING As expressed in the explorations of a ‘collective intelligence’, and to avoid this ‘Big Brother’ delusion of being watched over, the notion of filtering should be introduced. Filtering would also ensure the purity of the incomprehensible amount of data capable of occupying the digital ether.

Furthermore, like Tran’s appropriation of proximity and context, the proposed ‘translucent vessel’ of architecture has the potential to do this. One can imagine a framework like Georges Perec’s ‘The Machine’ as he envisions a machine-self consisting of three processors and a system control that dissects the language of Goerthe’s poem ‘The Ramblers Lullaby II’. 136 Throughout the piece we see interplay between the poetic (or rather phenomenological) and the digital programming protocols. Fundamentally one can, as Derix stresses, ‘observe the search struggle’ while the machine filters through various deconstructive tools. 137 Despite Perec’s slight tonguein-cheek style, this way of distilling the source material shows strong potential in what we are seeing as the escalating amalgamation of physical and virtual architectural worlds; by means of filtering the jargon and purifying the perception of architecture.

FIG URE 27: GEORGES PEREC – THE MACHINE (EXTRACT)

136

Perec, Georges, 'The Machine', in The Review of Contemporary Fiction, 24.Spring 2009 (2009), pp.33-93.

137 Derix, p.4.

64

SYNECDOCHE noun (sɪˈnɛkdəki) a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in England lost by six wickets (meaning ‘ the English cricket team’) 138 Expanding further from the notion of filtering architecture, and from the somewhat paradoxical dualisms between scales seen throughout the discourse, emerges the perception of a synecdoche. From the representation of bits and ubiquitous collective networks in chapter two, to the dissection of phenomenological zones and the thread that runs through them in chapter three, the part-whole dialectic is clearly a common theme throughout the discourse and of the modern ‘parametric’ era, which is perhaps best portrayed by this notion of a synecdoche. 139 Indeed, architectural discipline itself can be considered a synecdoche for its parts and whole (physics, philosophy, culture, politics, nature, aesthetics...). Below is an attempt to formulate some of these dialectics:

AUTOG RAP HIC | ALLO GRAPHIC AGENCY | ST RUCT URE NATURE | NURT URE LOCAL | G LOBAL (glocalization) SITUATED | U BIQ UIT OUS INDIV IDUAL | NETWO RK (social networking) ADAPT ATION | REJECTION (Dele uze) SIMULAC RA | S IMULA TION (Bau dri ll ard) VARIABLE | FEEDBACK LO OP ( parametri c thi nki ng) VIRTU AL (digital) | REAL (mat e rial)

138

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/synecdoche?q=synecdoche [Accessed: Dec 2011] Snodgrass, Adrian and Richard Coyne, Interpretation in Architecture: Design as a Way of Thinking. 1 edn (Oxon: Routledge, 2006), pp. 19-20.

139

66

This rhetoric was explored poignantly in Charlie Kaufman’s magnum opus ‘Synecdoche, New York’, where central protagonist Caden, a theatre director (the part) represents the complexities of all human behaviour (the whole) whilst developing his major work in which a replicated reality of New York (the whole) exists within a warehouse (the part). 140 The film is replete with symbolic thinking and reciprocal timeframes, comparable to those discussed in both chapters two and three, yet it is these synecdoches which ultimately escalate dramatically into a recursive and destructive hyper-reality. 141 Undoubtedly, this is an extreme representation of an ontological crisis, yet any creative subject is prone to such epistemological thinking if endeavoured. 142 The question is how we may begin to deal with and perceive the inevitable synecdoches that arise? One may conjecture that they are self-governing, treated like the ‘Invisible Hand’ of economics or Heidegger’s notion of ‘letting-be’; we lay faith in an overriding system. 143,144 Perhaps we embrace the complexities of a ‘glocalized’, dystopian world as expressed in Factory Fifteen’s ‘Golden Age: Somewhere’. 145 Alternatively, we return to the notion of the digital ether and achieving balance through heuristics, where synecdoches can be mediated through the digital medium to ensure that what we perceive is not ontologically ambiguous and nihilistic.

Now, this interconnection, or this adapting of all created things to each one, and of each one to all the others, means that each simple substance has relationships which express all the others, and that it is therefore a perpetual living mirror of the universe. 146

140

Synecdoche, New York, dir. by Kaufman, Charlie (Sony Pictures Classics, 2008) Ibid.

142 Snodgrass, & Coyne, p. 20.

143 All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace, dir. by Curtis, Adam (BBC, 2011) 144 Snodgrass, & Coyne, pp. 211-218.

145 http://factoryfifteen.com/7936/152396/home/golden-age-somewhere [Accessed Oct: 2011] ‘Within 'Somewhere' We are transported to a time where the boundaries between what is real and what is simulated are blurred. We live online and download places to relax, parks and shopping malls. We can even interact with our friends as if they were in the same room with simulated tele-presence. Everyone is connected and immersed in nanorobotic replications of any kind of object or furnishings, downlodable on credit based systems. Distance and time become as alien as the 'offline' The local becomes the global and the global becomes the local.

Consumer based capitalism has changed forever. A truly 'glocolised' world. The singularity is near. The film places us into this vision, observing an average inhabitant within the ever changing environment of the latest SimuHouse. From a painting to a park and from a telephone call to a shopping mall. That is until there is a leek in the system and everything malfunctions.

The film concludes with the house being forced to reset, giving the character and viewer a stark reminder that nothing is 'real' even her dog, which re-materialises in front of her.’

146 Ibid.

141

67

cti val per

nce

s pe

sta cum cir

s pa

ce

enmeshed experience

site

HEAR

ING

L EL SM

me

io

ort

mo

p pro

ry

n&

le

sca

colour

TOUCH

time

TAST E

lig

ail

ht

SIGH T

lity

tia

sou

spa

nd

det

&

sha

do

w

t igh

n of

water

DIGITAL PHENOMENOLOGY One may speculate that this notion of a synecdoche and the fundamental predicament of the discourse’s post-structural undertones is its somewhat inconclusive endeavour. Conversely, as a means of concluding the dissertation, I believe our perception of architecture is now directed toward and encapsulated by digital phenomenology. Fundamentally, digital phenomenology speculates that our perception of architecture should now be considered post-phenomenological.

Many of the key protagonists in phenomenological thinking proposed their ideas in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, when it was easy to negate the potentials of technology, particularly with regard to the implications of the work of Forrester for instance. Post-phenomenology on the other hand embraces these potentials whilst acknowledging the rigorous, albeit subjective style of analysis, known as ‘variational theory’ that is seen through the history of conventional phenomenology. 147 Therefore - in spirit of mediation between qualitative and quantitative variables that is intrinsic to the discourse – postphenomenology grounds our perception of architecture both pragmatically and subjectively. Don Ihde, post-phenomenologist and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the State University of New York, focuses on how emergent technologies may affect our phenomenological perceptions.

Specifically, he described that: …with the emergence of the philosophy of technology, it [post-phenomenology] finds a way to probe and analyze the role of technologies in social, personal, and cultural life that it undertakes by concrete— empirical—studies of technologies in the plural. 148

Ihde is particularly concerned with the changes of our ontological perception, or rather ‘interrelational ontology’ which is inevitable through current developments in technology and evident in the dissertation’s exemplar.

Furthermore,

Ihde

reinforces

the

perception

of

a

phenomenological tapestry that the digital ‘thread’ could weave, which ostensibly has been a recurring and underlying theme of this chapter:

147

Ihde, Don, Postphenomenology and Technoscience, Series: Suny Series in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences (New York: State University of New York Press, 2009), p.23.

148 Ibid.

69

In both pragmatism and phenomenology, one can discern what could be called an interrelational ontology. By this I mean that the human experiencer is to be found ontologically related to an environment or a world, but the interrelation is such that both are transformed within this relationality. In the Husserlian context, this is, of course, intentionality. In the context of his Ideas, and Cartesian Meditations, this is the famous “consciousness of _____,” or all consciousness is consciousness of “something.” I contend that the inclusion of technologies introduces something quite different into this relationality. Technologies can be the means by which “consciousness itself” is mediated.

Technologies may occupy the “of” and not just be some object domain. 149

149

Ibid.

70

CONCLUSION Due to the speculative and multidisciplinary nature of the dissertation’s subject, broader technical and theoretical research was required in order to fully understand the intersection between architecture, digital craft, and phenomenological philosophy. The dissertation structure and methodology was therefore appropriated as a vehicle to steer, tease out and speculate on the potential for new perceptions in architecture.

Throughout this discourse and critical evaluation a pressing need for a change in attitude toward the computer and the related ‘digital craft’ in practice becomes evident. Specifically, one must learn to treat the computer as the craftsman would treat his tools and materials, acknowledging the affordances of ‘digital craft’ and ultimately recognising its potential for mediation. For example, Derix demonstrates how phenomenologically and economically powerful such treatments of the digital craft can be, whilst anticipating

the

imminent

critical

change

in

practice

workflow.

Unfortunately – despite the potential of open-source ‘collective intelligence’ – this disposition is rather compromised by the lack of universal language in coding, or rather the representation of symbols (which is inherent in music for instance), as further emphasised by Derix’s suggestion for accessible APIs and SDKs. One strategy for overcoming this, as suggested, would be the filtering of jargon through architecture itself. This mediation is conceived of as the ‘thread’ discussed in chapter three, which would form the new phenomenological and evolutionary tapestry of architectural perception.

This critical evaluation also speculated on the polemic of hermeneutics, specifically regarding the relationship between individual user (agency) and architecture (structure). This was emphasised through the importance of CHI, play and the notion of architecture as ‘The Translucent Vessel’, demonstrated

earnestly

in

ANTIVJ’s

installation

‘3Destruct’.

Fundamentally, treating architecture as ‘The Translucent Vessel’ would provide enough hermeneutic scope and flexibility for user-specific perceptions; perhaps offering a paradigm for the phenomenal zone of memory. From this specificity and intimacy of McCullough’s emphasis on CHI, and Holl’s phenomenal zones, to Derix’s allusion to incorporating all stakeholders and the collective ‘intelligence’; the contemporary perception of architecture may be discerned as a synecdochical symbiosis between the individual and the many. However, the origin of architecture itself is now is the social, not the personal; it is a democratised architecture.

71

Ultimately the research and speculations of the discourse have encapsulated the notion of ‘digital phenomenology’, which pragmatically embraces the potentials of the digital medium in response to the subjectivity of phenomenology. This, in some respects answers the nihilistic speculations of post-structuralism as expressed by the likes of Baudrillard. Moreover, as an antithesis to the ‘parametric style’ - associated with emergent technologies and our current perception of architectural design development - ‘Towards New Perceptions’ ultimately advocates an architecture that is more pertinent to, and able to provide agency for, our contemporary, opensource collective culture.

72

CHAPTER FIVE: BIBLIOGRAPHY LITERARY RESOURCES

Alexander, Z. C., 'Metrics of Experience: August Endell's Phenomenology of Architecture', Grey Room.40 (2010), 50-83 Aranda, Benjamin and Chris Lasch, Tooling, Series: Pamphlet Architecture (New York Enfield: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006) Bachelard, Gaston and M. Jolas, The Poetics of Space (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1994) Ball, Philip, Critical Mass : How One Thing Leads to Another (London: Heinemann, 2003) Ballantyne, Andrew, Deleuze and Guattari for Architects, Series: Thinkers for Architects (London ; New York: Routledge, 2007) Baudrillard, Jean, Simulacra and Simulation, Series: Body, in Theory (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1994) Baudrillard, Jean, The Transparency of Evil : Essays on Extreme Phenomena (London ; New York: Verso, 1993) Baudrillard, Jean and Francesco Proto, Mass, Identity, Architecture : Architectural Writings of Jean Baudrillard (Chichester: Wiley Academy, 2006) Beigl, Michael and others, Disappearing Architecture : From Real to Virtual to Quantum (Basel ; Boston: Birkh채user, 2005) Bermudez, Julio and Albert C. Smith, 'Visualizing the Non-Visual Nature of Architecture', CAADRIA Proceedings, 2 (2005), 510-515 Bollinger, Klaus and others, 'Structured Becoming: Evolutionary Processes in Design Engineering', Architectural Design, 80.4 (2010), 34-39

73

Brautigan, Richard, The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster (London: Cape, 1970) Bruner, Jerome and others, 'On Craft, Creativity, and Surprise', in Play: Its Role in Development and Evolution (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976) Burry, Jane and Mark Burry, The New Mathematics of Architecture (London: Thames & Hudson, 2010) Calvino, Italo, Invisible Cities (London: Vintage, 1997) Chu, Karl, 'Metaphysics of Genetic Architecture and Computation', Architectural design, 76 (2006), 38-45 Colletti, Marjan, 'Digitalia – the Other Digital Practice', Architectural Design, 80.2 (2010), 16-23 Derix, Christian, 'Mediating Spatial Phenomena through Computational Heuristics', (2010) Ednie-Brown,

Pia,

'All-over,

over-All:

Biothing

and

Emergent

Composition', Architectural design, 76 (2006), 72-81 Ednie-Brown, Pia and Alisa Andrasek, 'Continuum: A Self-Engineering Creature-Culture', Architectural Design, 76.5 (2006), 18-25 Erdman, David and others, 'Parallel Processing: Design /Practice', Architectural Design, 76.5 (2006), 80-87 Frazer, John and Architectural Association (Great Britain). An Evolutionary Architecture (London: Architectural Association, 1995) Freud, Sigmund, The Interpretation of Dreams. New Ed edn (Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 1997) Goodman, Nelson, Languages of Art (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1976) Gramazio, Fabio and others, 'Encoding Material', Architectural Design, 80.4 (2010), 108-15 Grosz, E. A., Architecture from the Outside : Essays on Virtual and Real Space (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2001) 74

Haddad, E., 'Christian Norberg-Schulz's Phenomenological Project in Architecture', Architectural Theory Review, 15.1 (2010), 88-101 Heidegger, Martin and others, The Piety of Thinking : Essays, Series: Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (Bloomington ; London: Indiana University Press, 1976), Holl, Steven et al., Questions of Perception : Phenomenology of Architecture. [3rd] new edn (San Francisco, CA: William Stout Publishers, 2006) Holtzman, Steven R., Digital Mantras : The Languages of Abstract and Virtual Worlds (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1994) Hookway, Branden and Chris Perry, 'Responsive Systems|Appliance Architectures', Architectural Design, 76.5 (2006), 74-79 Ihde, Don, Postphenomenology and Technoscience, Series: Suny Series in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences (New York: State University of New York Press, 2009) Kelly, Kevin, 'Gossip In philosophy: Interview with Brian Eno', Wired, 3.5 (1995) Leach, Neil., Rethinking Architecture a Reader in Cultural Theory, (New York: Routledge, 1997) Leatherbarrow, David, Architecture Oriented Otherwise (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2009) Leatherbarrow, David, Uncommon Ground : Architecture, Technology, and Topography (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2000) Martin, Elizabeth, Architecture as a Translation of Music. 1 edn, Series: Pamphlet Architecture (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996) McCullough, Malcolm, Abstracting Craft : The Practiced Digital Hand (Cambridge, Mass ; London: MIT Press, 1996) McCullough,

Malcolm,

Digital

Ground

:

Architecture,

Pervasive

Computing, and Environmental Knowing (Cambridge, MA ; London: MIT Press, 2004)

75

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice and Colin Smith, Phenomenology of Perception, Series: Routledge Classics (London: Routledge, 2002) Mitchell, William J., City of Bits : Space, Place, and the Infobahn (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1995) Moussavi, Farshid, 'Parametric Software Is No Substitute for Parametric Thinking', Architecture Review, CCXXX.1376 (2011), 1 (p.39).

Nesbitt, Kate, Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture : An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995 (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996) Oxman, Rivka and Robert Oxman, 'New Structuralism: Design, Engineering and Architectural Technologies', Architectural Design, 80.4 (2010), 14-23 Pallasmaa, Juhani, The Eyes of the Skin : Architecture and the Senses (Chichester Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Academy ; John Wiley & Sons, 2005) Pallasmaa, Juhani, The Thinking Hand : Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture, Series: Ad Primers (Chichester: Hoboken Wiley, 2009) Perec, Georges, 'The Machine', The Review of Contemporary Fiction, 24.Spring 2009 (2009), 33-93 Perec, Georges and John Sturrock, Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, Series: Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics (London: Penguin, 1997) Piaget, Jean and Chaninah Maschler, Structuralism (London: Routledge and K. Paul, 1971) P茅rez G贸mez, Alberto and Louise Pelletier, Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1997) R Galloway, Alexander and Eugene Thacker, 'Language, Life, Code', Architectural Design, 76.5 (2006), 26-29 Rasmussen, Steen Eiler, Experiencing Architecture. Paperback edn (Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press, 1964) Reas, C. E. B., 'Process/Drawing', Architectural design, 76 (2006), 26-33

76

Rocker, Ingeborg, 'When Code Matters', Architectural design, 76 (2006), 16-25 Sakamoto, Tomoko and Albert Ferré, From Control to Design : Parametric/Algorithmic Architecture (Barcelona ; New York: Actar-D, 2008) Scheurer, Fabian, 'Materialising Complexity', Architectural Design, 80.4 (2010), 86-93 Schumacher, Patrik, 'Arguing for Elegance', Architectural Design, 77.1 (2007), 28-37 Schumacher, Patrik, 'Parametricism: A New Global Style for Architecture and Urban Design', Architectural Design, 79.4 (2009), 14-23 Scott Cohen, Preston, 'Elegance, Attenuation, and Geometry: Herta and Paul Amir Building, Tel Aviv Museum of Art', Architectural Design, 77.1 (2007), 54-61 Searle, John R., The Rediscovery of the Mind, Series: Representation and Mind (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1992) Sennett, Richard, The Craftsman (New Haven ; London: Yale University Press, 2008) Sharr, Adam, Heidegger for Architects, Series: Thinkers for Architects (London: Routledge, 2007) Silver, Michael, 'Building without Drawings: Automason Ver 1.0', Architectural design, 76 (2006), [46]-51 Small, David and John Rothenberg, 'Design Research on Responsive Display Prototypes: Integrating Sensing, Information and Computation Technologies', Architectural Design, 76.5 (2006), 46-49 Snodgrass, Adrian and Richard Coyne, Interpretation in Architecture: Design as a Way of Thinking. 1 edn (Oxon: Routledge, 2006) Spiller, Neil, 'Digital Solipsisim and the Paradox of the Great ‘Forgetting’', Architectural Design, 80.4 (2010), 130-34

77

Tanizaki, Jun ichir o, In Praise of Shadows, Series: Vintage Classics (London: Vintage, 2001) Terzidis, Kostas, Algorithmic Architecture (Oxford: Architectural Press, 2006) Thorsen,

Kjetil

TrĂŚdal

and

Robert

Greenwood,

'Relying

on

Interdependencies: Snøhetta in the Middle East', Architectural Design, 80.2 (2010), 88-95 Tierney, Therese, Abstract Space : Beneath the Media Surface (Abingdon: Taylor & Francis, 2007) Virilio, Paul, War and Cinema the Logistics of Perception, Series: Radical Thinkers (London: Verso, 2009) Weiser,

Mark,

'The

Computer

in

the

21st

Century',

Scientific

American, 265.3 (1991), 8 Woodbury, Robert, Elements of Parametric Design (London ; New York: Routledge, 2010)

78

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

ANTIVJ, 3DESTRUCT, http://www.antivj.com/3Destruct_v2/ [Accessed: Dec2011] ANTIVJ, A VISUAL LABEL, http://www.antivj.com/label/index.htm [Accessed: Dec2011] BROWN, MARK, ENGINEERS TAKE FIRST STEP TOWARDS AUGMENTED-REALITY CONTACT LENSES, http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-11/22/augmented-realitycontact [Accessed: Nov 2011] CALIFORNIA

INSTITUTE

FOR

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

AND

INFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY (CALIT2), 3D Virtual Reality Environment Developed at UC San Diego Helps Scientists Innovate, http://www.calit2.net/newsroom/release.php?id=1383 [Accessed: Sep 2011] DESIGNBOOM, SEIKO MIKAMI: DESIRE OF CODES INSTALLATION, http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/17565/seiko-mikamidesire-of-codes-installation.html [Accessed : Nov 2011] ETH (DFAB), GANTENBEIN VINEYARD FACADE, FLÄSCH, http://www.dfab.arch.ethz.ch/web/e/forschung/52.html [Accessed: Dec 2011] FACEBOOK, INTRODUCING TIMELINE, http://www.facebook.com/about/timeline [Accessed: Dec 2011] FACTORY FIFTEEN, GOLDEN AGE: SOMEWHERE, http://factoryfifteen.com/7936/152396/home/golden-age-somewhere [Accessed Oct: 2011] 79

FEYNMAN, RICHARD, NOBEL LECTURE 1965 : THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SPACETIME VIEW OF QUANTUM ELECTRODYNAMICS, http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/feynmanlecture.html [Accessed: Dec 2011] HYPOSURFACE, AEGIS HYPOSURFACE, http://hyposurface.org/ [Accessed : Jan 2012] INTEL, MOORE'S LAW AND INTEL INNOVATION, http://www.intel.com/about/companyinfo/museum/exhibits/moore.htm [Accessed: Oct 2011] KELLY, KEVIN, GOSSIP IN PHILOSOPHY: AN INTERVIE WITH BRIAN ENO, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.05/eno_pr.html [Accessed : Oct 2011] THE MACULA, ABOUT THE MACULA, http://www.themacula.com/index.php?/about/ [Accessed: Sep 2011] THE MACULA, NML, http://themacula.com/index.php?/projection/nml/ [Accessed: Sep 2011] MICROSOFT, PRODUCTIVITY FUTURE VISION, http://www.microsoft.com/office/vision/ [Accessed: Dec2011] MIKAMI, SEIKO, DESIRE OF CODES, http://doc.ycam.jp/ [Accessed : Nov 2011] MILLA DIGITAL, DIGITAL WATER PAVILION, http://www.dwp.qaop.net/ [Accessed: Sep 2011]

80

MITCHELL, WILLIAM, SURVEILLANCE / ELECTRONIC PANOPTICON, http://mitpress.mit.edu/ebooks/City_of_Bits/Bit_Biz/SurveillanceElectronicPanopticon.html [Accessed: Dec 2011] NEXT LIMIT, MAXWELL RENDER: TECHNOLOGY, http://www.maxwellrender.com/index.php/technology [Accessed: Dec 2011] OXFORD DICTIONARIES, PHENOMENOLOGY, http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/phenomenology?q=Phenomenology [Accessed: Dec 2011] OXFORD DICTIONARIES, SYNECDOCHE, http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/synecdoche?q=synecdoche [Accessed: Dec 2011] ROYAL MELBOURNE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (RMIT) : SPATIAL INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE (SPIAL), AEGIS HYPOSURFACE, http://www.sial.rmit.edu.au/Projects/Aegis_Hyposurface.php [Accessed : Jan 2012] TRAN, GREG, MEDIATING MEDIUMS, http://www.gregtran.com/index.php?/mediating-mediums/ [Accessed: Oct 2011] TRAN, GREG, MEDIATING MEDIUMS, http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/57431988?access_key=key1pyggugumvz9ujkdqftd [Accessed: Oct 2011] TRAN, GREG, MEDIATING MEDIUMS, http://vimeo.com/24860709 [Accessed: Oct 2011] TRIANGULATION BLOG, 3DESTRUCT 2011 BY ANTIVJ, http://www.triangulationblog.com/2011/12/3destruct-2011-by-antivj.html [Accessed: Dec2011]

81

UN STUDIO, GALLERIA CENTERCITY FAÇADE, http://www.unstudio.com/projects/galleria-cheonan [Accessed: Sep 2011] V&A MUSEUM, DECODE : DIGITAL DESIGN SENSATIONS, http://www.vam.ac.uk/microsites/decode/ [Accessed: Dec 2011] WOODBURY, ROBERT, ELEMENTS OF PARAMETRIC DESIGN, http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415779876/parametric.asp [Accessed: Dec 2011]

MEDIA RESOURCES

ALL WATCHED OVER BY MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE, dir. by Curtis, Adam (BBC, 2011) BRIAN ENO - ANOTHER GREEN WORLD, dir. by Roberts, Nicola (BBC, 2010) THE SECRET LIFE OF CHAOS, dir. by Stacey, Nic (BBC, 2010) SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK, dir. by Kaufman, Charlie (Sony Pictures Classics, 2008) ZEITGEIST: MOVING FORWARD, dir. by Joseph, Peter (2011)

82