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INDESEM_international
design seminar _ TU-DELFT
MAY 2003
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LAB[au] Manuel Abendroth
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..INDESEM
2003 fast forward, a driving perception _ publication ..see
the pages by LAb[au]
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When entering into electronic environments we perceive space through specific points of view: externally we perceive space on the flat surface of the screen, and internally through electronic eyes, cameras, both conditioning our understanding of e.space. Conceiving electronic space is thus working on specific modalities of perception, external or internal, and its direct correlation to cognitive processes – mental space. It focus on the kinematic setting of space according to specific techniques of camera settings, movement patterns and montage techniques in relation to electronic space constructs. Motion is the key parameter to produce the feeling of ‘insideness’, as a relation between subjects and objects, in real, filmic or electronic space. E.motion space thus focus on the perceptive and cognitive settings of 3D environments according to their cinematic construct – the camera, its movements and the techniques of montage _ it is the conception of space between architecture, cinema and IC technologies. The workshop deals on the specificities in the conception and production of electronic space as a new field of investigation in spatial constructs, e.space||net.space, combining codes / language drawn from communication and information sciences - cognitive science with that of process methodologies - design and spatial constructs - architecture. In this manner it focus on the inherent logics of computation and communication technologies in the visualization and formalization of inFORMation processes in textual, graphical, spatial and multi-dimensional representations. As a starting point of the workshop a schematic 3D model of the general area to study is proposed to the participants in order to enlarge transform the mimic representation into a specific representation of urban structures, a space within the electronic media while combining it to graphics, visuals, video and sound structures to be experienced in a real-time multi-user device. In
this manner the students by forming groups will realize a vision of
the city confronting it to cinematic constructs of space drawn from
architecture, cinema, video games and IC technologies in general. Using
different medias thus will allow to introduce and to experience the
parameter of time in the conception of space. The aim of the workshop
is the representation of urban structures according to dynamic space-time
parameters using 3d sound, animated objects, animated textures....,
in order to represent urban space in relation to motion, flows, congestion…enlarging
the way we perceive space but also the one how we conceive it and thus
question in general the concept of space. LOGO POEM.TXT ...
THE CAR IS A MACHINE./ IT'S DESIGNED./ IT'S DESIGNED SENSATION. ...
A COMPUTER IS A MACHINE. ...
TEXT IS A CODE. ...
THE LOGO IS A VISUAL CODE OF PATTERNS.
...
FROM SENSE TO SENSE IS TO SHAPE PERCETION AND
MEANING ... THE LOGO CITY -------------------------------------------------------------------------- X X X THE LOGO_CITY // A DRIVING PERCEPTION ----------------- the project is based on the principle to construct a continuous fly in real time through electronic space where the perception of the environments changes according to camera viewpoints _ camera positions _ movement / speed _ 3d sounds and animated objects. The workshop thus focused on the experience of different parameters influencing not only the perception of space through movement but also its signification _ the Logo_city in its patterns appears most of the time as abstract scape _ landscapes where only the combination of certain of the mentioned parameter reveals its specific signification. ----------------- example: the dutch cow The fragments of the cow are placed in perspective to give an entire view but where the change of position leads to an abstract vertical tower like scape. its the construction - deconstruction of meaning through movement. ----------------- example: the dutch railway_tower from the highway the shape of the building becomes an arrow indicating the driving direction where from another viewpoint the tower give a traditional form of a tower _ which turns into a landmark and a road sign playing with the sensation of movement. ----------------- example: the animated TIME -SPACE STRIP the animated logo is based on objects placed in equal distance where the passing by leads to an effect like animted frames _ motion. In this manner the starting and end of the driving sequence is constituted by a logo in form of a clock _ time ( a day in a second 24 frames / s) and a turning globe _ around the world in a second = 24 frames / s. This idea give a vision of movement_ space - time in motion. The different examples constitute small sequences within the conceived driving strip while the sound patterns reinforce the fealing of speed _ a whipe out like fly through e.space _ to produce a sensation out of movement.
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Technology based on the transmission and computation of information influences organization models (modes of production, work and knowledge) and affects the communication process (code, symbol) and the social relations as well as their spatialisation. The investigation in information design is thus based on the question of the recent technological progress and how it influences the definition of architecture, its methods and purposes. < / De.SIGN > Triggered by technological advances, new codes (semantics) and methods (practice) appear often revealed by the term that is used to qualify them. For example the word ‘design’ came up in the beginning of the last century according to the shift of pre-industrial to industrial society The emergence of the concept of ’design’ around the Bauhaus and particularly El Lissitzky had the intended purpose of qualifying artistic concerns in relation to the technological and social changes in order to reintroduce them in the concept of architecture itself. Nowadays the technological progress of computation and communication technologies provide us with an incremental potential in terms of tools and control which itself leads to the raise of new disciplines, methods and tasks. < / META > In Computer Science, Meta is a common prefix that means ‘about’. For example, metadata is data that describes other data (data about data). One could describe any computer programming as a meta-language for interacting with a computer. Generally speaking ‘meta’ defines the semantics of the data value, as well as the data needed to build any kind of representation. In consequence technology delivers not only content but also through its codes and structures, a specific meaning. This specific meaning is described by the ‘meta information’ defining a relation between technology, structure and sign. These considerations and specificities of Information technologies show that as far as design is concerned, one has actually to design the meta-level, i.e. the codes the information will be processed both in technical and representational aspects. < / MetaDeSIGN _ inFORMation Architecture > Architecture and Urbanism are structural and functional disciplines involved in the spatial and temporal organization of social, economic, political…structures through which they also constitute a semantic system of signs and codes. All these aspects define them as organizational disciplines that process, analyse and structure data while improving it with a specific significance - meaning. For example the process of conception and realisation of a form (building) in relation to its functions or the organisation of infrastructural flows, signaletics and urban structures, already give an understanding of the complexity between structures, systems – sign and language. Information flows in its processes of computation, communication and storage are spatial and temporal forms of organisations of data based on semantic units and systems, language while improving them with functionality and representation. Therefore a series of relations can be drawn between the practice and methods of architecture and information design in the structuring and visualization of information – like it is present in the development of cartographies, diagrams and maps, graphical user interfaces and hardware interfaces as in the development of the spatial construct itself, like networks and electronic space. The comparison between communication modes, its structures (indexing + linking) and processes (computation + communication) and spatial constructs (architecture and urbanism) is thus based on its organizational principles binding high level of abstraction within specific modalities of perception and cognition in the construct of meaning – semantic level. As a consequence, the investigation in information architecture and electronic space constructs focuses on the formalizations of communication and computation processes according to social, semantic and spatial structures (architecture) as on the level of language (code, structure). MetaDesign thus is about the setting of codes / language drawn from concepts of communication and information sciences - cognitive science with that of process methods, design and spatial constructs – architecture. In order to illustrate the implication IC-technologies have in the practice of architecture, not only on the level of new tools of conception but also in new constructs of space itself, three different projects _ three different considerations by lab[au] are presented: 1.
Lightscapes_displacement maps <> Datascapes 2.
GameVillage <> hypertextu(r)al environments 3.
space_navigable music <> hyperspace
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go.to lab.files |
 statement for the publication by lab[au]: "Is it valuable to use 'driving perception' as a point of view for designing the highway and its surroundings, or do more traditional methods of urban planning lead to better results?" “Driving perception” neither is a method nor does it exclude any traditional methods of urban planning. As its main intention seems to merge the extra parameter of speed to the usual set of parameters as location, views, etc. it proves itself as being already well implemented and tested as would such structures and programs as gas station, inter-modal exchange nodes, shopping malls, fast foods, varieties of signs and advertisement boards demonstrate. On a purely pragmatic level, “Speed-wise” structures are common, from the big blue box of Ikea, to the gigantic floating McDonalds sign or the train station of Frankfurt airport and its tail, in matter of perception and speed their sole intention is to be seen. Yet it shows that designing a building or an area is mainly about shaping information and its communication process, especially in “driving perception” concerns. From Le Corbusier’s “vers une architecture” to Venturi’s analyses of modern architectural signforms, Kevin Lynch’s landscape design in movement or recent projects of Neil Denari, the car-culture has taken its place in the theoretical and methodical discourse of modern architecture. The car as a cultural artifact is the myth and place of the contemporary man like it is expressed in modern culture from Russ Meyer’s fantasies to Prodigies drilling sounds of high speed to modern architecture. Thinking and experimenting on “driving perception” by the use of new design tools, like the computer, allowing real time visualizations and simulation and thus integrating the parameter of time or speed in the design, like one can see in the projects of Greg Lynn or Bernhard Franken, don’t change anything in the general state: the car, the environment, the signs and the perception it shapes aren’t all about speed (by extension time-shaping) but is much more integrated into the fundamental framing of man and technology issues. Machines of sensations The technological developments of the past thirty years are at the base of the shift from the industrial to the postindustrial information society. The notion of body, matter, space and time are increasingly defined by the unit of inFORMation, its structures, processes (computation and communication) and systems introducing new parameters of space and time - presence, such as immersion (real/virtual) and interaction (real-time/entropy), of materiality, such as nano technologies or smart memory materials, and of biological type such as gene technologies. From sense (aesthesis) to sense (semiotics), perceptive and cognitive (meaning extraction) capacities (abilities) are enhanced by technology. In other words, technologies are not external or alien objects, but rather extensions that complement integrally our sensitive and cognitive apparatus. As media, they conditions not only communication modes but also the way we perceive and conceive our environment - the way we ‘think about’ and ‘act in’ space – impacting directly the architecture field. What architecture has to face nowadays is the same for design, an object or a space is less a shape, a shell and its matter as it is information completed by the processes and programs it includes which ones we have to design as well. From mobility to connectivity The car is the object of technological progress and its industry is among the most globalized of all; it is the object which expresses our contemporary technological and economical state. As car industry is proofing the design limits it reached in terms of speed, control, comfort, and safety, it is addressing less and less the issue of moving faster, cheaper, safer with a car but rather the purpose and efficiency of moving and the way we are dealing with it. With GPS and telecommunication networks, a car is not anymore this nowhere isolated box and its environment extends well further than the area defined by the road. Moving from A to B is defining a set of related information about A, about B and about anything that stands in between, cell phones annihilate distance and the transit state, leading to the conception of the car as a complete interactive machine, an interface and a tool for information access where the driver is an active person in the global networked space, on the so-called “info highways”. The days of cultural sightseeing and of popup ads are near, you will not ignore anymore that this city is known for porcelain manufacturing, that in this village has been shot some of the scenes of a Russ Meyer’s movie, that this lovely chair is in promotion in the Ikea’s blue box or that lovely house standing in the fields at some kilometers from the highway is to sale. Information will be everywhere, communication with your boss and your friends will be a constant, this defines the new state of mobility-connectivity. In this manner the architect has to integrate in his design the technological state and thus the way we perceive space and act through technologies inside it. In summary it is quite obvious that according to the ongoing technological progress the architect has to find out new methods and concepts to deal with our technological state. To think about the car and the highway is just one, but an interesting example, of how we will perceive and conceive the mediated space we are popping through. How we will shape new spaces of connectivity, efficiency and most of all sens_ation.
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