MArch Report 08|09
When organizing a tea party, or in this case a report, it is best to consult the experts. During her adventures in Wonderland, Alice exclaimed, “If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” [Alice, 1951] The dichotomy of alternates, what is and what isn’t, is fascinating. By creating a dialogue between virtual and actual, Mirror Mirror examines how space is perceived in a contemporary light. It accomplishes this by grasping traditional methods of viewing space and upgrading said methods with the aid of contemporary technology. Old-school meets New-skool with the utilization of Augmented Reality and Head Tracking.
Back in the Fall of ’08 the project began with three prescribed settings [cliff/forest/swamp]. Mythologies, by Roland Barthes, was on the nightstand at the time and the concept of semiotics was applied to the site analyses. The original three landscapes were never conceived with a narrative backbone. Instead semiotics intervened by allowing the idea of each landscape to dictate its aesthetic; meaning, by deriving a hierarchical set for each [cliff, forest and swamp], signs and symbols pertaining to each site were gathered from around the world. After slicing, distorting, pasting and scaling, three imaginary landscapes were born. In order to further analyze each as a prospective site, I referenced the composing images back onto their geographic origins. Instead of a site being one stationary location, a site is now redefined as a collective, fixed through the lens of a camera and uploaded into cyberspace.
The imaginary forest, cliff and swamp were ribbons of landscape taken before, during and after an agent of change. For the purpose of this report it is enough to state that this agent is no longer part of the project. Instead the project continued with the images themselves as a starting point for an investigation into the perception of space. Exploring the spatial quality of these landscapes became important; one way of doing so was to introduce new methods of visualization with the aid of technology such as Augmented Reality and Wii Remote [Wiimote] Head Tracking. These applications have been selected because of their ability to add unforseen factors to the project. By using Head Tracking and Augmented Reality the system between actual and virtual becomes immediate. To properly understand Augmented Reality a comparison with Virtual Reality is necessary. The user in Virtual Reality undergoes a complete immersion into a virtual environment; whereas Augmented Reality is the superimposition of information or virtual objects over the real world. Augmented Reality operates by recognizing prescribed symbols in a real-time video feed. Over these symbols a virtual object is then projected. Now imagine an object in a room with its own symbol. The Augmented Reality reads the space behind the object and superimposes it over the object. No longer visible within the virtual world, the object is now camouflaged or transformed. It would seem plausible that if what was on the screen was fed back via a projector into the real room the object would be camouflaged in reality. Since Augmented Reality works with a live video feed, an object in motion would be hidden as long as the camera could capture the space behind it.
Parallel to the use of Augmented Reality is the Wiimote Head Tracking hack. The Wiimote is the primary controller in a Nintendo game. What sets this hand-held device apart from its predecessors is its accelerometer and optical sensor technology that allows advanced motion sensing capability to manipulate and interact with a screen. Traditionally the player holds the controller and points it at the direction of the screen. Above the screen sits a sensor bar that emits infra-red light. The Wiimote picks up only infra-red light, thus communicating the player with the game. The controller has generated many a hack, one of these being the Head Tracking device. Developed by Johnny Lee while at MIT, the Wii Remote is reversed in orientation and instead searches for the user’s position in space. The user now wears the infra-red emitter, which the controller locates in space. As the user moves in space the Wiimote relays location to the screen and the display moves in sync with the user. The hack uses the Fishbowl software to operate. Fishbowl’s extroverted system allows the display to become three dimensional; by moving around the room, images in Fishbowl can move slide past each other, space is perceived in all three axis.
Working with Augmented Reality and Head Tracking has rooted the project in its dependency upon the image. Rather than accept the fact as a negative, the image is analyzed in representation as a positive through collection and hierarchy; Augmented Reality and Head Tracking allow a composite reading of space via multiple images. These technologies situate the project between actual and virtual reality. Without digressing into the particulars of why Mirror Mirror is not virtual or actual, it sits between the two. The project seeks to dialogue between the two perceived spaces creating a layer that blends the two together.
From the three landscapes emerged the need for a physical testing ground. Apartment 35b was selected as a next site. By the canal in Little Venice, sits apartment 35b on the very top floor. Like any ordinary apartment 35b has within visible space an entire network of hidden spaces. Under floors and between walls are spaces that do not exist in everyday consciousness. These inaccessible depths hold the building’s organs and seem mysterious only when it comes time to repair damages. By measuring light with composite images a perception of depth and obstruction is formed. These sections when combined with Head Tracking gave an intro-scopic perception of space. Head Tracking places the collective sections within an environment where a viewer can look inside walls and under floors.
After the midterm review the entire Shaun Murray studio left for Plymouth to participate in a data visualization workshop. Architecture students met with other students from both the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, and Plymouth Digital Arts and Tech. Each group could make use of either an immersive theatre or a LED screen. Our group selected the immersive theatre. The task was to take data [i.e. room temperature, wind flow and student movement] from a campus building and translate it into an easy to read visualization; one that would dialogue between the building’s spatial composition and the data collected. After a few hours of brainstorming the data was then reduced to a hierarchy established by actual space. The data visualization began to take shape literally from this hierarchy. The goal was to make the visualization interactive, so that any user looking at the website’s live data feed could comprehend it. With the extraordinary talents of our Plymouth DAT programmer the group devised a series of russian dolls. First the building encompassed the three atriums which in turn held the lecture rooms. Each doll or globe would have a skin that reflected the appropriate data. So with changes in temperature it would pulse or change color.
This workshop marked a turning point within the Masters studio. No longer was the project bound to be an interactive projected space. From the workshop came a synthesis of information, technology and spatial connection. What first began as a visualization of a building’s data led to an unexpected abstraction of physical space. New virtual relationships of space came from actual room layouts. Mirror Mirror could develop meaning through the collection and combination of data within the actual and the virtual. If these hidden spaces were conduits to spaces beyond any immediate space a similar relationship could be developed. By using data such as sound, resonance, temperature or movement as input, space is perceived as constantly vibrating and fluctuating. Evidently, physical space was reorganized to amplify spatial connections and/or data readings. Apartment 35b’s hidden spaces could be amplified in this same manner. While investigating these hidden spaces its tenant gave the following testimonial:
“For some reason, I can always hear when my neighbor downstairs, a middle-aged fellow, invites his guest to his bachelor pad. The first time I heard Barry White while brushing my teeth, my curiosity was peaked and after poking about I realized that only when standing by the sink was I able to hear sounds emanating from below. I began to imagine how I could relate this back to the hidden spaces within my apartment, like pinching together visible spaces with hidden ones. Now I start to wonder wherever I am in the apartment what is happening to those spaces I cannot see but can hear. I press my ear to walls and floors, trying to connect groans and creaks with rooms beneath and beside me. The water pump in the attic roars to life whenever a faucet is opened. If I go to the bathroom at 4:00am I measure the time I wash my face so as not to have the beast upstairs wake the entire house. I know my apartment well enough but when I hear my neighbors moving about the acoustics change. I can hear conversations coming through where there should be closets and stairs, not rooms. Have they discovered new rooms or are they living in the walls?”
Like Gormenghast in your living room floor, Alice through the kitchen sink or “Schrödinger’s Cat as retold by Rem Koolhaas: a potentially unreal maze of interconnected architectural spaces enshrouding you on all sides like a halo. Saint Crawlspace.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alice in Wonderland,. 1951. [film] directed by Clyde Geronimi. USA: Walt Disney Pictures.
Baird, George,. 1969. “‘La Dimension Amoreuse’ in Architecture” from Charles Jencks and George Baird, Meaning in Architecture. In K.Michael Hays, ed. Architecture Theory since 1968. 3rd Edition. Massachusetts, U.S.A.: MIT Press in assoc. with Columbia Books of Architecture. pp 69.
Barthes, Roland., 1972. Mythologies. Edition du Seuil 1957. Great Britain: Vintage 200 Classics.
Lee, Johnny Chung,. 2008. Johnny Chung Lee: Projects. Carnegie Mellon University.
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Kelley, Kevin,.1994. Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines. U.S.A.:Fourth Estate.
Macey, David,. 2000. The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory. Great Britain: Penguin Books in assoc. with Clays Ltd.
Manaugh, Geoff,. 2008. Sounding Rooms. . California, USA: BLDGBLG Website.
Sotomayor, Camila E,. The Tea Party.
