Phenomenal Virtuality

PV

PHENOMENAL VIRTUALITY

PV PHENOMENAL VIRTUALITY

Primary Advisor

Anthony Rizzuto, PhD | Associate Professor

Secondary Advisor

Manole Voroneanu, M. Arch | Assistant Professor

This Final Project is presented to The Faculty of the School of Architecture by

Stephanie Baker in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Bachelor of Architecture

Thesis Coordinator

Christopher Welty, M. Arch | Assistant Professor

Thesis Coordinator

Elizabeth Martin, M. Arch LEED AP | Assistant Professor

Department Chair

Ameen Farooq, PhD | Professor and Chair [Architecture]

Southern Polytechnic State University Marietta, GA Spring 2012

In presenting this thesis as a partial fulfillment of the requirement of the Department of Architecture at Southern Polytechnic State University, I agree that the college library shall make it available for inspection and circulation in accordance with regulations governing materials of this type. It is understood that any copying from this document must be done in accordance with proper citations, and that any potential use of this thesis for financial gain will not be allowed without written permission of its author.

The author of this thesis is:

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Stephanie Baker 205 Sloan Street Roswell, GA 30075 The director of this thesis is: Dr. Ameen Farooq Department of Architecture Southern Polytechnic State University Marietta, GA 30060 Borrowers of this thesis not regularly enrolled as students at Southern Polytechnic State University are required to indicate acceptance of the preceding stipulations by signing below. Libraries borrowing this thesis or capstone paper for the use of their patrons are required to see that the borrower records here the information requested.

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TBL OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE

Abstract

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Definitions

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Introduction: The Flaneur

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Contemporary Age Defined

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Shaped by Culture and Society

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Pathologies of Modernity

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The Reality of the Virtual

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The Scenographic

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The Voyeuristic

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Case Studies

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Medaman - Medaman Statistics

LTL Architects Diller + Scofidio Graft

TBL OF CONTENTS CONTINUED CHAPTER TWO

Human Scale and View

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Wall Sections + Playing with Views

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Transparency vs. Opacity

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Study of Body in Space

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CHAPTER THREE

The Installation

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Diagrams, Renders, Section Details

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Application on Present Structures

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Construction Alternatives

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CHAPTER FOUR

Thesis Review Comments and Feedback

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Thesis Engagement Review

CH1 CHAPTER ONE

abstract: A dissection into the

pathologies of

modernity

and their societal and artistic trends has led to the research of their resulting production and design of spaces and ultimately the way in which our current society has

shaped the way we in-

teract phenomenally. would our like,

physical environment

What look

how would it be inhabited

if the same qualities and

of digital

characteristics

and technological interaction and

communication were implemented?

What

would be the result if we were to replicate characteristics of interaction through

digital filters into built form? voyeuristic nature of society aims to anThe proposal to engage the

phenomenal space could replicate the digital swer the question of how

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nature of interaction and inhabitation within our current society.

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DEFINITIONS For the purpose of this investigation the following definitions of virtual will be used. According to Merriam Webster the term ‘virtual’ is first defined as “being such in essence or effect though not formally recognized or admitted”. The following research and investigation aims at defining the state of mind affected by an application of a virtual experience upon an individual as ‘virtual consciousness’ and will be defined as the state of being characterized by sensation, emotion, volition, and thought through the negation of phenomenal conditions.

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INTRODUCTION

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The flâneur, first introduced by Walter Benjamin in his essay On Some Motifs In Baudelaire, is one who inserts himself within the space of society but actively removes himself from participation for the purpose of maintaining his role as an invisible observer. Benjamin suggests in his description of the flâneur that “Empathy is the nature of the intoxication to which the flâneur abandons himself in the crowd. He… enjoys the incomparable privilege of being himself and someone else as he sees fit. Like a roving soul in search of a body, he enters another person whenever he wishes” (Baudelaire 55).

Written during an acute junction in the development of the metropolis, Benjamin’s excerpts on the flâneur detail this state of being as a provision of modernity. But what of the notion of a contemporary flâneur? He engages not the arcades of Paris but a virtual world of his choice where he is afforded the ability to adopt alternate personas or Sims at will. This form of technological mediation is not limited to gaming but has become a common cipher in our everyday existence through the proliferation of media in the form of smart phones, social media and gaming.

The manner and characteristic of interaction along with systems of design in our contemporary era is the result of our exploration and acceptance of a new form of space - virtual space. This idea of ‘virtual’ is the perception of occupying a space or situation that one does not physically occupy. An example is that of the engagement of a computer simulated world in a video game. A player is absorbed into an alternate world and engages that world through the use of digital media while the consciousness of their physical environment is dissolved.

On Some Motifs in Baudelaire Walter Benjamin

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MEDAMAN MEDAMAN A Japanese improvisational group parodys Walter Benjamin’s flaneur in public parks and civic spaces within Tokyo. The pair of performers collectively make up the “eyes” of the observing flaneur but remain disengaged with others in the spaces. They remain silent and still. When they decide to relocate they move in sync and deliberately gesture each move with cautious rhythm to maintain unity as a single entity. Their performance is meant to remind a disengaged culture to re-engage what is meant to be public and interactive within urban spaces; to get back into the city and interact as urban centers were designed to encourage.

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CONTEMPORARY AGE DEFINED Most of our behavior today is due to keeping abreast with the constant emergence of new technologies and our endless exposure to the influence of media. Previous epochs and their societal and psychological characteristics have helped to shape our current technologically driven society. This race for new gadgets, games, systems, programs and software has begun to change the way in which we interact with the built world. The growing engagement with technology appears to have produced a growing disengagement with built form. New architectural designs cater to the use and dependence on technology and digital media but methods of producing similar virtual experiences within phenomenal space has been overlooked. If, perceptually, we are able to negate our physical awareness of space due to the absorption into a virtual experience through technology, then phenomenal space can elicit the same virtual experience through architectural design.

The contemporary epoch we are absorbed within is defined by interaction with its technological advances and ease of media and digital communication. The philosopher Slavoj Zizek has defined our era as being socially hysterical due to the way technology has impacted the impressions of ourselves. Digital technologies and media have become an extension of our personalities and help to shape the way we see ourselves and others in a virtual sense.

Medaman Medaman

Improvisation Group [Tokyo]

Contemporary Flaneur

Interaction Through Technological Filter

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STATISTICAL SOCIAL DATA A collection of statistics and data on the use and dependence of our current culture with technology and digital gadgets.

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SHAPED BY CULTURE AND SOCIETY The development of an architectural style or epoch results from being shaped by a culture or society. Looking at a basic macro level a city is born from the built environment that man constructs from his initial necessity of shelter and survival. Later it matures to become its true definition through “the ability of humans to step outside of their subjective beings and to treat themselves as objects, thereby transforming a biological organism into a social person” (Richardson, 217). In Lewis Mumford’s The Culture of Cities he explains that “cities are a product of time” and “in the city, time becomes visible: buildings and monuments and public ways leave an imprint on the minds even of the ignorant or the indifferent” (1). As man developed his knowledge through necessity he was able to develop unique systems of relationships with others creating societies. These societies, comprised of individuals with special skill sets, fostered the importance of permanence. The greater a group of people became the more permanent structures became to provide shelter for them.

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The qualification of a society is that it is social, where individuals contribute to the overall needs of a larger community. Mumford writes: “Cities arise out of a man’s social needs and multiply both their modes and methods of expression” (2). Only after a man is sheltered and his basic needs met does he begin to require a need for social interaction. These places where members of a society congregate become structural expressions of thought and emotion. The social constructs of our current era are almost exclusively digitally filtered fostering a new expression of structure and form.

The manner in which individuals function within a community is dependent upon the ways that community provides opportunities for individuals to gain a sense of belonging. When a society gives no room for an individual to belong he then cannot live in it, work in it or contribute to it. The “city” fails in its purpose. Interestingly, architecture’s ability to provide a sense of belonging has been challenged by technology and although it is inhabited and spatial programs are implemented into it, the fulfillment of our current need for belonging is shifted. We belong within a world provided to us by a device (smartphone, video game, social network, and digital media). The mapping of modernism and its resulting architectural styles through the shaping of culture and society has led to this investigation of the ‘now’.

“All forms of life modify their contexts… Ever since man became a numerous species he has affected his environment notably” (White 1203).

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PATHOLOGIES OF MODERNITY

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PATHOLOGIES OF MODERNITY The research of the pathologies of modernity and their corresponding societal psychological disorders led to the investigation of the nature of the contemporary epoch and the idea of designing physical space that would mimic the experiential nature of technological virtuality. The following is not meant to be understood as a lengthy dissection into the science of psychology but rather a discovery of social psychological trends and their subsequent impacts on space and design.

To begin defining and organizing a system of understanding of the following pathologies it is necessary to first clearly differentiate between diagnosing an individual with a psychological disorder as compared to a psychological diagnosis of a society or collection of individuals. . The disorder of schizophrenia in an individual, for instance, is characterized by a disorganized social behavior in which a person becomes paranoid often due to an onslaught of visual and auditory hallucinations. Psychology Today describes symptoms of a schizophrenic as “thinking that other people are reading one’s mind, controlling one’s thoughts, or plotting harm, which may leave a person feeling fearful and withdrawn.”

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In comparison, a societal schizophrenia is the trend of a group of individuals to take on a multiplicity of roles or identities within society. Jonathan Raban is quoted as saying a city is a “place where people [are] relatively free to act as, and become what, they [please]” and that there is “something liberating about the possibility of playing many diverse roles [but] something also stressful and deeply unsettling about it.” The flaneur from Walter Benjamin’s essay On Some Motifs In Baudelaire could be used as an exam-

ple of the postmodern trend for society to take on a set of different ‘masks’ while participating in the greater whole of society as an observer. The schizophrenic tendency in the postmodern era is a transformation of a conglomerate of individuals to adopt a multiplicity of attitudes and identities.

The postmodern epoch is a flight from that which is modern. “No one exactly agrees as to what is meant by the term, except, perhaps, that ‘postmodernism’ represents some kind of reaction to, or departure from, ‘modernity’. Since the meaning of modernism is also very confused, the reaction or departure known as ‘postmodernism’ is doubly so” (Harvey, 7). The modernist era is an attempt at turning to a linear and standardized process of knowledge and social orders.

A paranoid social state is what is most often attributed to the modernist era. In psychology, a paranoid individual is termed as being in a state of irrational fear or anxiety that often leads to delusions and beliefs of threat or persecution towards oneself. Modernist social paranoia characterizes itself through its rationalistic and lucid tendencies, like that of Le Corbusier’s designs for urban planning. The modernist era is one that is systematized and ordered socially so as not to allow deviation or any outlier in its preset social norms.

Within our contemporary epoch we are found to be hysterical according to philosopher Slavoj Žižek. In comparison to a social or mass hysteria a hysterical individual is one who is diagnosed as being without self-control due to an overwhelming development of fear. Often, this fear is cultivated from severe incidents or conflicts from one’s past. In contrast, hysteria is de-

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fined by Žižek through cyberspace that the contemporary social tendency is for people to act and react toward one another through a new form of ‘space’ via the example of email. “Cyberspace often functions in the hysterical way, which is exactly this radical uncertainty: I don’t know whom my [email] will reach. I don’t know what the other wants from me and thus I try in advance to reflect this uncertainty” (Žižek, 4).

Now that a general understanding exists on the contrast between an individual and societal psychological disorder it is fair to begin to dissect the modernist epoch and its paranoia. “Generally perceived as positivistic, technocentric, and rationalistic, universal modernism has been identified with the belief in linear progress, absolute truths, the rational planning of ideal social orders, and the standardization of knowledge and production” (PRECIS 6 – 1987, 7-24). This era is found to be a society’s attempt to manufacture social order and subsequently design and space.

Modernism is based on the idea that knowledge and design is linear similar to the idea of the tree of knowledge, where every branch of thought or discipline stems from a greater root of precedent.

All branches have a single common ancestor from which they evolved or grew. Any process of understanding or development of design has its master origin within a linear train of thought.

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One of the most notable architects and designers during this era is Le Corbusier. His plan (above) for “the city of tomorrow” is an excellent example of the modernist notion of idealized order and systematized living. The buildings in his master plan are a series of almost carbon copied masses taking over entire city blocks. The size of his buildings neglects the human scale and creates a monolithic, rigid and cold city space. J.F. Batellier’s Sans Retour, Ni Consigne below depicts an image of how the

modernist movement neglected the former city character for a mass-production type of city structure as understood by David Harvey: The image of ‘creative destruction’ is very important to understanding modernity precisely because it derived from the practical dilemmas that faced the implementation of the modernist project. How could a new world be created, after all, without destroying much that had gone before? You simply cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs, as a whole line of modernist thinkers from Goethe to Mao have noted” (16).

The modern movement created the notion of a universal system of thought and beliefs for which society then responded by molding itself to modernist rules.

This epoch is defined as being paranoid or exhibiting a state of social paranoia. At the turn of the 19th century began an influx of innovation in technology, production, communication and transportation. With the Industrial Revolution began a new fascination with mass production and consumerism. The modern era has undergone many shifts in political trends, a series of international wars and economic crises. A general sway toward a system of order and rationality befit the overall public in an effort to grasp some sort of constant in an epoch of variables. In an attempt to escape chaotic times the modern era boasts a new system of living. It is still debated as to whether modernism developed its characteristics through the onslaught of paranoid behavior or rather paranoia within society was created through a universal and systematized order in which people were expected to live.

The postmodern movement is the escape or deviation from that which is modern. An overwhelming fear developed that society and its city were “falling victim to the totalitarianism of

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planners, bureaucrats, and corporate elites” (Raban, 5.) Postmodernism is the turn from modern ideals and set parameters of living and thinking. The ideas of a linear system of thought and knowledge are replaced with a theory proposed

by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guatarri where the tree of knowledge is replaced with that of a rhizome where “in nature, roots are taproots with a more multiple, lateral, and circular system of ramification, rather than a dichotomous one” (5).

It is in the effort of society to disassociate itself from modernity that postmodernity is born and sets forth new attitudes of social, political and design trends: Post-modernism signals the death of such ‘metanarritives’ whose secretly terroristic function was to ground and legitimate the illusion of a ‘universal’ human history. We are now in the process of wakening from the nightmare of modernity, with its manipulative reason and fetish of the totality, into the laid-back pluralism of the post-modern, that heterogeneous range of lifestyles and language games which has renounced the nostalgic urge to totalize and legitimate itself… Science and philosophy must jettison their grandiose metaphysical claims and view themselves more modestly as just another set of narratives (Eagleton, 9).

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Many people sought liberation from their former socially acceptable packaged landscape. From postmodernism came a wide range of movements including feminist groups, racial minority groups, gay rights groups, etc. Postmodernism gave society permission to define for itself what or who it was. It is within this freedom that created a sense of schizophrenia. As people were in a state of self-discovery and new methods of media and communication infiltrated the homes of society, people began taking on a multiplicity of identities.

The postmodern artist Cindy Sherman photographs herself (right) in a series of different settings, costumes and attitudes to depict the trend of society’s adoption of multiple roles and characters. In the photographs below she places herself in a kitchen, a space where women are traditionally thought to inhabit by nature and purpose, and a city. Each of the photographs shows a different expression; tells a different story. She is shedding light upon the adoption of multiple identities and even gives permission to follow in her path.

Similarly, Walter Benjamin describes the qualities of the flâneur within the city. As stated previously he walks among the people of a society but only for the purpose of observing their actions and appearances. The postmodern idea is that the greater whole of society has become a collection of flâneur where individuals appear to participate in social spaces through the use of social ‘masks’.

People take on multiple identities depending on their location or interaction with other flâneur.

The development of people identifying themselves in multiple roles and arenas creates this schizophrenic tendency among postmodern society. The general public begins to lose itself in a series of identities. From the rejection and “distrust” of the modernist era “postmodernism, by way of contrast, privileges heterogeneity and difference as liberative forces in the redefinition of cultural discourse. Fragmentation, interdeterminacy, and intense distrust of all universal or ‘totalizing’ discourses” (Harvey, 8).

The postmodern city becomes a collection of stages in which people are given opportunities to act out the inhibitions they would otherwise not be allowed to do. Raban suggests that this acting out results in a progression of “stress” and feelings that are “deeply unsettling”. This shift in emotion tends toward a schizophrenic state

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where society begins to become overwhelmed in maintaining its adoption of multiplicities.

The idea of the rhizome and multiplicities introduced by Deleuze and Guatarri is of note since this theory, which opposes that of a linear progression of knowledge, asserts a system of knowledge and design that hold true even into the contemporary epoch. The philosophers suggest that their system of knowledge “may be broken, shattered at a given spot, but it will start up again on one of its old lines, or on new lines” (9). The contemporary era hosts the social disorder of hysteria in which Žižek predominantly theorizes. His theories are among a very few as the current epoch develops.

There is much debate on whether we have entered into a new movement as many still believe we have not left the postmodern or even modern epoch. Regardless of the debate on epoch identity the theory that the contemporary era is hysterical is based largely on social interaction within a new form of space: cyberspace.

We have left a physical space of inhabitation for that of a virtual one. Like the postmodernist interaction through filters of ‘masks’ people now interact through a technological filter.

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Žižek explains through an example of the use of email society generates a sense of hysteria due to the removal of human interaction and the lack of knowledge of the entities involved in interaction: You can never be sure who is reading your input or in what way. You are aware of this situation all the time and try to anticipate the other’s reactions. Also, important additional features of faceto-face communication like gestures or tone of voice are missing (Žižek).

Along with the hysteria associated with email is also the widespread allocation of information through media as a whole. As a society adopts a system of belief or concern media, in turn, reflects those trends back into the public arena. The chart below is a study of acts passed by Congress and the subsequent trend for society to reflect those concerns into film.

broke the barriers and rules that modernism inflicted upon the general public in an effort to produce its own system of thought and design.

People were all of a sudden allowed to take on multiple roles within society creating multiplicities of identities and schizophrenic behavior. With the development of technology and rapid progression of media our current state is beginning to define itself separate from that Hysteria lies in the dissemination of information of postmodernism. Contemporary society rethrough multiple mediums and the uncertainty flects a general hysteria through its overuse of of validity of the sources which furnish the in- filters and media as a means of communication. formation. This idea also passes into the realm of people using virtual space for their personal use. Once information is inputted into a technological system it can never be exported, meaning that any information, past or present, can be manipulated, stored, or used for any purpose other than that which the information was originally inputted for. Žižek explains: Do you know the function ‘undelete’ in computers? The problem with [the] computer is not that something can be erased; you worked all afternoon and then have a power failure and it’s gone.

Okay, these things can happen. But you know that it’s something even more horrible that you cannot really erase it (3).

The contemporary hysteria we find today is a result of our exploration and acceptance of a new form of space. Virtual space has been around for a very short time and our use of and reaction to it, along with our recent emergence from a schizophrenic era, influences a societal hysteric. Postmodernism and the contemporary culture are still in an overlap as people are taking the stages they act out their performances on in the physical city into a virtual world.

The pathology of modernity appears to have started from a paranoid utilitarian society resulting in a later escape from it. Postmodernism

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THE REALITY OF THE VIRTUAL Slavoj Žižek defines ‘virtual’ within the categories of imaginary-virtual, symbolic-virtual and real-virtual. Imaginary-virtual is defined as an “image which determines how we interact with people.

[We] erase, we behave as if whole strata of the other person are not there”. The situation of interacting with an individual and consciously removing from the mind the knowledge that he or she performs actions reasoned socially unsuitable becomes part of a virtual image that “has reality in the sense that it nonetheless structures the way [we deal with one another]”.

Symbolic-virtual is similarly real in its effect on an individual or society. It is only operative at a symbolic level. The example used is that of a father-figure and the power of his authority through the use of a virtual threat upon a child: In order for paternal authority to be operative and to be experienced as actual, effective authority it has to remain virtual in the sense of a threat. If it is fully actualized as a realized threat it undermines itself as authority and experienced as a sign of impotence.

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Žižek goes on to define real-virtual as “something you do out of an inner urge. You have to invent something new when you cannot do it otherwise. Do what appears within the given symbolic coordinates as impossible. Take the risk; change the coordinates.” It is this idea that has spawned the question of what digital and technological dependency will invent phenomenally as the coordinates of the nature of a digital-virtual world have to be changed to create a physical-virtual world. The constant within the system of coordinates that remains is the experience of virtual consciousness.

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THE SCENOGRAPHIC “…the concept of the trace is central in Benjamin’s articulation of how the interior is both formed by its inhabitant, as well as forming an impression of the inhabitant” (Rice 283).

The emergence of the internet, although originally intended for information sharing and research, brought about a new avenue for particular industries to promote sales and reach a much broader audience with their products.

The industry to lead the pack and remain on top for the majority of the internet’s existence is pornography. The nature of porn entertainment is scenographic in presentation. The use of the internet in this way has created a new method for its use with the majority of its users.

Today, social media sites have taken the number one spot for internet traffic over porn sites.

Sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn are all fundamentally stage sets for people to perform and interact within. Users gain “control” of internet property within each site and are given allowances to customize or decorate their space within the constraints of the site’s user settings. Once an individual has customized their ‘page’ a kind of public performance ensues for the enjoyment of other users/viewers.

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The numbers continue to grow with the use of social internet sites, video games, and video search engines (YouTube) as the number of handheld devices providing internet connections are created. Recently, YouTube passed Yahoo! as the second most widely used search engine online.

The site along with other recording devices on the market have made it easier than ever to make videos, edit them and upload them to a venue for global viewing. The current era has become obsessed with visual and interactive stimuli.

As studies mentioned previously have stated with the growing numbers of young children gaining access to virtual worlds through technology the state of the next generation will be dramatically different from the one our generation grew up within. The scenographic nature of digital technologies today has caused our culture to be less engaged with the scenographic nature of architecture.

The engagement of virtual spaces by the collection of contemporary flaneurs sets a virtual stage for their use, interaction and virtual play.

This involvement elicits a virtual consciousness wherein the mind of an individual is absorbed within the happenings of his or her virtual world.

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THE VOYEURISTIC “I’m convinced we all are voyeurs. It’s part of the detective thing. We want to know secrets and we want to know what goes on behind those windows. And not in a way that we would use to hurt anyone. There’s an entertainment value to it, but at the same time we want to know: What do humans do? Do they do the same things as I do? It’s a gaining of some sort of knowledge.” (David Lynch) The nature of voyeurism is traditionally considered to be the practice of spying on others engaging in private or intimate behavior. The spy in this scenario is characteristically secret in his or her actions leaving the ones being viewed left unaware. Voyeurism in our current culture has evolved with the growth of media and popular culture. The definition has come to include the fascination of becoming engaged with reality television. social media websites, blogs and so on. The difference being that the players involved are all aware of the existence of one another.

The characters in a reality show are cast with the knowledge of people viewing their actions and behavior. The unknown is how the viewer is choosing to respond to wat is being seen.

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CASE STUDIES

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LTL ARCHITECTS MSK Art Installation INSTALLATION: NEW YORK, NY 2009

LTL was commissioned by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to design a permanent art installation in the lobby of their new Upper East Side building. The lobby wall is 30’-6” wide, 12’-6” tall and 3’-6” deep. It has a perforated appearance that transitions from regular on the front plane to apparently random on the back plane. The openings are determined by an array of eye-level viewpoints that cluster in programmatic hot spots throughout the lobby, such that the optical geometry of visitors to the Center is used to carve out openings in the wall. The result is a wall that offers shifting alignments and distortions as one moves through the space.

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DILLER + SCOFIDIO PARA-SITE MOMA PROJECTS SERIES, NEW YORK, NY 1989

“The installation is modeled on Michel Serres’ three definitions of parasite: just as the biological parasite is physically opportunistic and feeds off its host organism, the installation steals its structural and electrical sustenance from its host site; just as the social parasite entertains its host to earn welcome at the dinner table, the installation offers the entertainment value of voyeurism to a public unwittingly drawn into an interrogation of vision; just as the technological parasite creates interference in an information network, the installation interrupts the system of the museum to interrogate it. The installation electronically links the projects room with three remote sites of circulation in the museum, linking self-conscious and unsuspecting viewers in a reflection about looking - the primary activity in the museum.”

Para-site (1989) - MOMA, NYC: this installation uses the metaphor of a parasite, both physical and socially, and turns the museum’s architecture into the “host”. Using live feed video, the installation offers the entertainment value of voyeurism; a reflection of looking-the primary activity in a museum.

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GRAFT W HOTEL AND RESIDENCES 123 WASHINGTON STREET, NY 2008-2009

The W New York-Downtown Hotel & Residences is a 57-story tower rising at the southern edge of New York City’s World Trade Center Memorial Site, one block from the planned Freedom Tower, at 123 Washington Street. The first luxury hotel and residential tower to be built in Lower Manhattan, it is also the first new project not part of the WTC complex to begin construction since 9/11. Graft developed all interior themes and the visual brand for this 57 storey high rise, including condominiums.

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CH2 CHAPTER TWO

HUMAN SCALE AND VIEW Using the angles of view from a perforated vertical wall without alteration studies were done maintaining the original views as a contant and the wall a variable. The first iteration of studies manipulates the wall by thickening its dimensions in areas and segmenting the wall where the perforations are located. The second iteration explores the angle in which the wall could be manipulated according the the views and perforations. Thirdly, the wall is divided into rotating sections that allow a person to engage the wall and gain a maximum viewing angle of the original constant. This provides a user with a limited amount of control in engagement.

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DIAGRAM 1: Walls are cut away at heigths and angles where individuals maintaining a certain distance from the wall are afforded views of others. These views are used as a constant in a system of variable wall constructions below.

DIAGRAM 2: Walls are thickened at the edge of the angle of view and tilted at each cut interval to exaggerate the original constant view.

DIAGRAM 3: Walls are thickened along the edge of the view angle like in Diagram 2 but the wall tilts at a maximum of two intervals instead of along every cut interval.

DIAGRAM 4: Walls are given a greater degree of thickness and the view angles are operable up to the maximum allowable edge determined by the original constant view angles.

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WALL SECTIONS + PLAYING WITH VIEWS This series of models explores the range or possible perforations or manipulation of wall sections that may engage a viewer. The first five models are a study on the engineering of a view based on specific angles, heights and measurements (30, 45, 60 and a constant viewing height of 5’6”). The last five models are a series of models without constants, created soley through playful manipulation. The resulting study and direction the models will take in the next study will yeild a play on “catching” voyeurs and disorienting their perception of what they may or may not be seeing.

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MODEL 1: An investigation of constraining the degrees of the view angle and dimensions of the perforation of the wall. A 45 degree angle downward dictates the view of a person 48” and above at the wall surface and a view of a person 72” and above two feet from the wall surface. An opening at 54” to 66” remains parallel to the floor surface.

MODEL 2: An investigation of constraining the degrees of the view angle and dimensions of the perforation of the wall. A 30 degree angle downward dictates the view of a person 48” and above at the wall surface and a view of a person 72” and above two feet from the wall surface. An opening at 54” to 66” remains parallel to the floor surface.

MODEL 3: An investigation of constraining the degrees of the view angle and dimensions of the perforation of the wall. A slit on one side at the height of 60 inches provides for the assumption of similar views from each perforation within. The first perforation directs one’s views upward at an angle of 45 degrees from a horizontal. The second perforation directs one’s view downward at an angle of 45 degrees from a horizontal.

MODEL 4: Investigating the nature of a view based on the shape or form of the view itself. The rectangular perforation through the wall elicits a greater degree of interest as the corners of the shape hint at the continuation of a view where the cylindrical shape is rigid and fixed restricting one’s view and direction.

MODEL 5: Investigating the nature of differing view directions and forms. Does the illusion of a direction of view encourage a viewer’s approach to the viewing area? What would result in two viewer’s experience of a single view when each side of the view is oriented and shaped differently?

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MODEL 6: Investigating the nature of views set into a wall at different dimensions. Does the dimension of setback encourage or discourage interest in a viewer?

MODEL 7: Investigating the experience of combining 5 views on one side of a wall with a single viewing opening on the other. A viewer is able to engage multiple views at once on the single view side where multiple viewers on the other side are afforded a similar view of the single viewer from multiple points.

MODEL 8: Investigating the result of providing two individuals multiple views including a view of each other. The direction of each view is unlikely predictable providing a viewer a sense of mystery.

MODEL 9: Investigating the result of providing each view two connecting view tunnels. Each view is connected to another leaving no single viewing tunnel with a single viewing result.

MODEL 10: Investigating the nature of providing a hidden viewing angle where a viewer on one side of a wall is able to observe another viewer without being discovered.

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TRANSPARENCY VS. OPACITY Sketches below illustrate a conceptual arrangement of spaces with several different viewing angles peircing through a series of “rooms”. These sketches explore the “what if” that might result from the realization of the diagrams. Potential high occupancy programmed spaces for the study of such an arrangement of views could include but are not limited to apartment buildings, hotels, educational centers, museums, etc.

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The use of transparency in previous case studies elicited a study of various levels of transparency and opacity within studies of views in wall sections.

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STUDY OF THE BODY IN SPACE Investigations are done to research how the human body might interact with or inhabit a wall installation. How could an installation be designed to encourage the use or interaction with a subject for the purpose of exposing a moment of view to the opposite side of the installation. Positions of “comfort� are predetermined by human proportions and positions of the body during moments of private leisure. How easliy can a person be enticed to predetermined position of comfort in order to gain a sense of power over knowledge or sight?

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MODEL 1: Walls are cut away at heigths and angles where individuals maintaining a certain distance from the wall are afforded views of others. These views are used as a constant in a system of variable wall constructions below.

MODEL 2: Walls are thickened at the edge of the angle of view and tilted at each cut interval to exaggerate the original constant view.

MODEL 3: Walls are thickened along the edge of the view angle like in Diagram 2 but the wall tilts at a maximum of two intervals instead of along every cut interval.

MODEL 4: Walls are given a greater degree of thickness and the view angles are operable up to the maximum allowable edge determined by the original constant view angles.

MODEL 5: Walls are given a greater degree of thickness and the view angles are operable up to the maximum allowable edge determined by the original constant view angles.

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CH3 CHAPTER THREE

THE INSTALLATION This installation proposes a similar voyeuristic experience to interacting with the private lives of people technologically. The one being viewed on one side is generally aware that they are being viewed. The person viewing them in unknown, the actual point in which they are being viewed is unknown and it is unknown if an opportunity to view their viewer from a different angle is available. This game of shifting view, positions, people and scenes mimicks the parameters we live within in our virtually conscious minds.

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DIAGRAMS, RENDERS, SECTION DETAILS The construction of the wall is proposed to be of glulam materials as a first iteration. The development of new and different methods of construction are the next step in the design process.

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FINLAND CULTURAL CENTER 3D renders of potential wall designs were implemented into a set of currently existing structures for the purpose of diagramming and the way in which a space would transform due to the wall’s installation.

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CONSTRUCTION ALTERNATIVES The following drawings and drafted details of wall components are the beginnings of designing the wall installation to respond to the physical interaction people have upon it. When the interaction ceases the wall returns to its original shape.

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CH4 CHAPTER FOUR

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THESIS REVIEW COMMENTS AND FEEDBACK Architecture is built around protecting private life. Phenomenal Virtuality proposes to remove the element of privacy protection.

The suggestion was made to be more provocative in showing what we are now experiencing such as a view into a bathroom.

The “wall� could begin to create a virtual community through movements created by individuals activating the wall subsequently affecting others.

Who are the people who use this space and why? Where would these types of walls be located or installed? Create specific scenarios.

How many people can inhabit the wall?

Consider a range of stimulation beyond the person (think environment as a whole); what else could inhabit these spaces? Water?

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