From wall-paintings to electronic technologies: the search for an ideal hybrid space (original) (raw)
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Drawing the Digital: From 'Virtual' Experiences of Spaces to 'Real' Drawings
Drawing Futures: Speculations in Contemporary Drawing for Art and Architecture (UCL Press), 2016
Over the latter half of the twentieth century the proliferation of images has affected deeply the way we approach and engage with our surroundings, contributing to an increasingly mediated experience of reality. We ‘place’ ourselves in this world not only through real but also through simulated spaces and representations. In the emergence of architectural space as a space of congested representations and the privileging of the image as simulation rather than representation, architectural drawing conventions are faced with the inadequacy of their codes in articulating new perceptions of spaces. Most importantly however, what is challenged is the operation of drawing as not image or object, but as a distinct projective spatiality that mediates between the tangible reality of figuration and the projected spatiality of speculation. The increasing shift from physical experience to visually consumed impressions¬¬ of spaces can be traced back to the explorations and technological advancements of early modernity that brought to the fore the interrelation between space and time. In this context it can be considered as derived not by the digital mediations and manifestations of spaces but rather by a wider visual culture which can be, through Gilles Deleuze’s writing on cinema (Deleuze, 1983, 1985), as well as Jonathan Beller’s concept of the ‘Cinematic Mode of Production’ considered as ‘cinematic’ (Beller, 2002). As both Deleuze and Beller suggest, the cinematic does not simply entail the production of imagery but also the consequent production of consciousness and perception as ideology, challenging thus the interrelation between notions of reality, language and virtuality. This paper will look into the ways that the effects of virtuality that emerge in, and are operative for, the performativity of drawing as a ‘space of representation’ (Dorrian and Hawker, 2002) are contested by the effects of virtuality produced out of the cinematic, as the former seem to facilitate while the latter seem to bypass the production of spatial concepts. In light of the range of representational, recording, image and form producing possibilities offered by digital media – described by Beller as successors of the cinematic – this paper considers the current ‘digital turn’ of architecture as the architectural counterpart of the representational experimentations of modernist artists. This turn is situated in relation to the Cartographic and Geographic turns of architecture and architectural representation, as introduced respectively by Mark Dorrian (2005) and David Gissen (2008). In these latter turns, the pressure initially exerted upon architectural practice by the so-called crisis of representation, drawn out of the philosophical and political debates of the 1960s (Tschumi, 1996) is considered through opposing strategies of representation and simulation. The chapter finally argues that what is at stake in the digital not-yet-turn but challenge of architecture, is neither the skeuomorphic imitation of drawing’s analogue techniques, nor the production of iconic imagery, but rather the ‘domestication’ (Ingraham, 1998) of the medium as a new field of performance for architectural thinking-through-drawing through the (re)consideration of convention as a ground capable of facilitating both semiotic integrity and performance.
The notion of space under the influenece of technological change
Present society can be considered as media and technology oriented, whereas technology has changed the society in such a way, where our basic habits are dependent on the machinery and electronics. Along with that the emergence of ‘high-tech’ materials and structural techniques shifted the boundaries of the space design, the space is no longer shaped by the structure and material, but both can be designed simultaneously as a new type of space and the new type of formation. That gives a designer a certain freedom in interpretation of the notion of space that will serve for contemporary and future society. The problem that is faced in the following essay, is to what extend the notion of space is changing, when being designed to house contemporary society and, what are the consequences of that changes. For this purpose, the designs of Serpentine Pavilion by Peter Zumthor and Toyo Ito are analyzed through Lefebvre’s philosophical theory on a space. The spaces are accessed through three principles: “logical coherence”, “practical constancy” and “self-regulation”. This assessment helps to evaluate the spatial qualities attained through the two different approaches to the spatial design. Whereas the vernacular approach, quite logically follows the notions described by Lefebvre, in a way that the produced space relates to the human physical and sociological nature. The technological approach is looked at through the prism of space fluidity, as a principle of Toyo Ito design, Whereas space fluidity is achieved through the availability of technological advancements and, at the same time, further encourages technological development. The fluid space is designed for freedom of movement and freedom of options, and through that, attains the qualities of virtual reality. Even though the approach to the space as a formation of and for current society brings the evaluation of architectural space according to social changes and also promotes evaluation of the technology, this kind of space is at a danger of becoming an abstraction through the ignorance towards the human nature.
Arquitectura y virtualidad : Architecture and virtuality
Author and the Hero in Aesthetic Creation». 12. I have a copy of the French edition published at the beginning of the twentieth century after a first publication in English in the scientific American review The Monist in 1898. The French title is: Des Fondements de la Géometrie. 13. See the web www.arquitectonics.com 14. See Temps et Recit, Memoire, Histoire et Oublie and Les Parcours de la Reconnaissance. All of them translated into a lot of languages. See basic writings and « interview » with Ricoeur in Barcelona, in the No. 4 of the review Arquitectonics. 15. I refer to the works by D. KIRSH, S. GALLAGHER and E. HUTCHINS in the USA. See the PhD thesis by the sociologist Dafne MUNTANYOLA SAURA: Un nou model intergrat del process cognitiu expert: el cas d'una unitat hospitalària, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 2008. 16. This «going back to the beginning» is the way Plato said should be analyzed in space and place (Timaeus). 17. These three kind of «figurations» are developed by Paul Ricoeur in the article published in the review Arquitectonics No. 4, with the title «Architecture et narrativité». Image 4. Robbie the Robot,
Editing: Chapter One: Architecture's Liminality: Virtual Spaces within the Built Fabric
Projected spaces have appeared throughout history upon the physical forms of reality to suggest virtual spaces. By using visual cues, innate to our lexicon of understanding the world around us, representations have the ability to suggest space that is not physical. Cultural Spatialization compounds over the historical timeline of societal spatial understanding. It responds to new visual stimuli that emerges with new methods of spatial representation. Visual Interplay allows for the exchange of perceptual qualities between the elements of reality and the virtual. This exploration identifies the visual cues used by the architectural fabric’s physical forms that define space. It also defines those used by visual-virtual representations or “projected spaces” that suggest virtual-spatial additions. Through an evaluation across the historical timeline of projected spaces, the potential cultural spatialization of today is identified. It suggests that present day built environment and visual virtual representations are not yet fully reflective of these capabilities. The breadth of modern spatial experiences is then categorized to bring to light modern cultural spatialization. By contextualizing the modern viewer in light of these discoveries, the architect will be able to sculpt the visual interplay made possible by the technology that assisted in elevating our cultural spatialization.
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Among many other fields, recent advances in information technologies also affected the agenda of architecture. This paper discusses the transforming process of spatial experience in 20th century by the influence of multimedia, regarding the user and user experience, in context of multi-modal interaction. The purpose of this paper is to map certain continuities and discontinuities within the "information" and the "interface "frame, parallel to this transformation. First, we will talk about the transformation on the discourse in'90's. After, this transformation process, both in spatial formation and theory will be examined chronologically through the examples of 21st century's architecture. With an emphasis on multi-modal interaction in space, we will discuss the categories of "mediators" of space orientation, departing from three main intertwined architectural "traces." These mediators are categorized also into three stages according to the progressive immersion of media in to the space. Not only we will try to stress the continuity of the "information transfer" quality of the space vs. the discontinuity of the "mediators"; but also both the physical and the theoretical change of spatial enclosure.
Interactive installations and the conception of space an introduction
Today we are living in the midst of an emerging new iconographic paradigm, that of the digital image. On one hand all information media and cultural objects can be transferred and encoded in digital form while on the other hand the relation of spectator with the image is no longer that of contemplation but of interactivity and transformation. These conditions brought into being a new equation between space and image, between image and spectator. In the case of interactive environments and installations a dynamic architectonic space is combined with the kinesis of the viewers' bodies, with the use of new materials and interfaces and three-dimensional screen structures. Human body, architectural space and image fuse together in the course of interactive multimedia events. They are syncronized in a new way, treated as a dynamic field of variables
The idea of Space, from Topology to Virtual Architecture
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The discovery (or invention) of non-Euclidean geometry, topology and the higher dimensions (from the fourth on), the new idea of space to summarize, is one of the most interesting examples of the profound repercussions that mathematical ideas will have on culture, art and architecture. The paper will discuss the elements necessary to give sense to the word Space, starting from the new geometries and topology to Max Bill and the virtual architecture (Biennal of Venice of 2004, 2008 & 2010).
The Body of Culture: Architecture and Presence In The Universe of Technical Images
PEP/COPPE/UFRJ, 2022
According to philosopher Vilém Flusser, the emergence of historical consciousness in the Western world was a product of a culture based on linear writing. This culture shaped by linear writing is the only one that can really be called “historical”—the cultures that preceded it were prehistorical, and our current culture, shaped by the technical images produced by apparatuses like smartphones, computers and tablets, is posthistorical. This increasingly abstract culture has engulfed almost all the media that made up the “body” of the previous culture, but while drawings, photographs, books, films and music have all become digital, architecture seems to be one of the last points of resilience of the material world. However, to which extent are the ways in which we relate to our buildings and cities—and especially the way we analyse and value these objects—still based in historical criteria? In the increasingly abstract universe of technical images, is the materiality of architecture an ahistorical presence connecting different worlds, or a problem to be overcome? This thesis will explore these questions with the intention to devise strategies to help contemporary architects to structure our existential space in terms that can be understood and appreciated in this new era, shaped by gestures that seem to lack any historical precedent.