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Papers by Greg Turner-Rahman

The International Journal of Architectonic, Spatial, and Environmental Design, 2021

The current coalescence of virtual reality, architecture, and experiential design is a vibrant sp... more The current coalescence of virtual reality, architecture, and experiential design is a vibrant space of theory and practice. As new technologies become even more efficient and affordable in the coming years, this intertextuality will only increase in focus. Both broader lay user adoption and transformations in architectural practice suggest a near-future in which our environments for living, work, and play are increasingly conceived virtually, constructed virtually, and also augmented virtually. This world has been a long time coming. There is a lineage of developments both technological and cultural that span the twentieth and twenty-first centuries which have steadily moved us away from an architectonic, programmatic spatial regime and towards the holistic construct of game engine software and the immersive nature of virtual interactions. We characterize this as an evolution of the human relationship to the image, which was changed irrevocably with the introduction of the cinema. This article briefly describes a shared post-cinema humanity: the intertwined history of animation, motion pictures, themed spaces, video games, and now the game engine and virtual reality (VR). We posit that beginning in the 1920s, four spatial regimes beyond traditional architecture have evolved: the filmic, thematic, electronic, and holistic. It is our desire that this preliminary framework will provoke new dialog around the intermingling of built and virtual spaces in the context of architectural displacement and cinematic subsumption.

The International Journal of the Constructed Environment, 2019

Discussions about our contemporary built environment tend to look at themed and virtual spaces as... more Discussions about our contemporary built environment tend to look at themed and virtual spaces as something irrelevant at best or, worse, as something disdainful. Yet entertainment, as a visual and experiential thrust, has consumed the built environment to the point that theming has taken an elevated role that has heightened our expectations for spaces. These spaces have always conveyed narrative; there have always been themes. Thematic design, however, is a form of visual storytelling executed primarily in consumer spaces that is at once popular, profitable, prolific, and above all, problematic. We explore how key developments in the evolution of early cinema and animation push beyond the screen to influence the built environment and examine a similar path within the virtual worlds of digital gaming. We outline the origins of contemporary themed spaces, both physical and virtual, to pinpoint the influences that promulgate a predominately story-based vision of space. To that end we speculate on the increasing bleed between physical and virtual worlds in which architecture is no longer a primary consideration in placemaking.

The Fibreculture Journal, 2005

Books by Greg Turner-Rahman

Virtual Interiorities: Book One: When Worlds Collide, 2022

This chapter introduces and explores the notion of pervasive story spaces that result from a conf... more This chapter introduces and explores the notion of pervasive story spaces that result from a confluence of specific display and virtual production technologies. The discussion outlines precursors such as ambient video, long-form television shows, and ASMR environments.

The International Journal of Architectonic, Spatial, and Environmental Design, 2021

The current coalescence of virtual reality, architecture, and experiential design is a vibrant sp... more The current coalescence of virtual reality, architecture, and experiential design is a vibrant space of theory and practice. As new technologies become even more efficient and affordable in the coming years, this intertextuality will only increase in focus. Both broader lay user adoption and transformations in architectural practice suggest a near-future in which our environments for living, work, and play are increasingly conceived virtually, constructed virtually, and also augmented virtually. This world has been a long time coming. There is a lineage of developments both technological and cultural that span the twentieth and twenty-first centuries which have steadily moved us away from an architectonic, programmatic spatial regime and towards the holistic construct of game engine software and the immersive nature of virtual interactions. We characterize this as an evolution of the human relationship to the image, which was changed irrevocably with the introduction of the cinema. This article briefly describes a shared post-cinema humanity: the intertwined history of animation, motion pictures, themed spaces, video games, and now the game engine and virtual reality (VR). We posit that beginning in the 1920s, four spatial regimes beyond traditional architecture have evolved: the filmic, thematic, electronic, and holistic. It is our desire that this preliminary framework will provoke new dialog around the intermingling of built and virtual spaces in the context of architectural displacement and cinematic subsumption.

The International Journal of the Constructed Environment, 2019

Discussions about our contemporary built environment tend to look at themed and virtual spaces as... more Discussions about our contemporary built environment tend to look at themed and virtual spaces as something irrelevant at best or, worse, as something disdainful. Yet entertainment, as a visual and experiential thrust, has consumed the built environment to the point that theming has taken an elevated role that has heightened our expectations for spaces. These spaces have always conveyed narrative; there have always been themes. Thematic design, however, is a form of visual storytelling executed primarily in consumer spaces that is at once popular, profitable, prolific, and above all, problematic. We explore how key developments in the evolution of early cinema and animation push beyond the screen to influence the built environment and examine a similar path within the virtual worlds of digital gaming. We outline the origins of contemporary themed spaces, both physical and virtual, to pinpoint the influences that promulgate a predominately story-based vision of space. To that end we speculate on the increasing bleed between physical and virtual worlds in which architecture is no longer a primary consideration in placemaking.

The Fibreculture Journal, 2005

Virtual Interiorities: Book One: When Worlds Collide, 2022

This chapter introduces and explores the notion of pervasive story spaces that result from a conf... more This chapter introduces and explores the notion of pervasive story spaces that result from a confluence of specific display and virtual production technologies. The discussion outlines precursors such as ambient video, long-form television shows, and ASMR environments.