I wanted to investigate the ways in which recent notion of space can generate new modes of people’s behaviors, gestures, and occupancy in their surroundings. To fully understand the meaning of tomorrow’s space, it was necessary to analyze the history of architectural illusions and identify special effects as a digital element. The point of this research was to discuss how technology influences people’s everyday practice, usage of common objects, and occupancy of their physical surroundings and change the meaning of spatial relations. These prototypes are my own reinterpretation of space of tomorrow, to indicate pathways for further research. 

I explored the relationship between human, computation and space by creating an animated domino system that includes a chain reaction between digital elements and physical objects. During the process, it was important to acknowledge the properties of digital information, such as synchronization and copying. In a digital-interface, copy and paste, undo, and changing scale were the typical functions that many people would often use. Initially, the goal of the project was to apply these digital characteristics to a physical environment and explore different modes of causality and effects. Methodology behind the work was to engage people with situations that would guide them to deliver simple interaction with the space. These gestures would generate different modes of spatial relationships, particularly related to some of the key aspects of the digital system. However, as the work progressed, I found the experimentation of the virtual relationships between physical objects were the significant point of the project. Having the digital and the physical interlinked in a very literal way seemed to lead to a direction where I could observe people’s behavior in space more accurately. My interest that was initially focused on mimicking the digital system in physical environment shifted towards creating a chain reaction system between the digital and the physical. How can computational environment introduce ideas of public space as an extension of private environment? What types of expression can be achieved through a surrounding structure that has digital quality? How does the body, physical objects, digital elements, and space affect one another? These were the questions that I wanted to find answers to during my process.   

My first exploration was creating an interactive system that enabled physical actuators to respond to projected dominos that represented the digital. I had it designed to have digital dominos to be knocked down by an actual domino. Digital dominos would also trigger physical devices and generate chain reactions. Another experiment included reflection of a domino being magnified to a significantly large scale. I used mirror to distort the original projection and used distance to modify the size of the digital image. The large scaled domino was also interactive to the user’s distance to a physical wall. 

The process for making these projects was meaningful to me in the sense that it opened up a different way of perceiving space as an expressive element. Building these prototypes was part of a continuing investigation of the ways in which people operate in an environment that could mimic the aspects of a digital system. Currently, I am very much intrigued by the way in which the virtual connections between the physical and the digital can generate new spatial relationships to people. My goal is not to find solutions or answers to the future environment, rather through this research, I hope to raise more interesting discussions regarding the space of tomorrow. 

One can imagine that in a world where physical atmosphere has digital affordances, people’s relationship to space would change drastically. Through computation, even our dwelling-place that seemed to be normally considered as a private space has gradually become part of a public space where everywhere is interlinked digitally. The general perception of space as a static environment is no longer the case. As technology advances, the evolution of the network system is shifting to a stage where every physical objects are connected to one another through the cloud. It is not hard to imagine that the flow between the digital and the real would soon become so fluid that it would be meaningless to distinguish the virtual from the real. Our surrounding structures having the aspects of a digital environment would mean that we would experience continuos moments when both the illusion and the real are joined. As a result, simulation of the digital experiences would be achieved in a tangible environment. In much the same way, even the patterns created by our spatial practice could have more potential than merely adding textures to the space that our body occupies. This is an exploration of understanding how our gestures, traces, occupancy, interaction with objects could generate new meanings to our surroundings. 

The world of technology we live in today enables us to stay connected to other people. Everyday, people would check emails, send text message to a friend, or simply visit their favorite social networking websites. In a way, geographical location is trivial to many of us as distant places can be interlinked instantaneously through pervasive networking technology. Our sensitivity to our surroundings have become significantly different compared to the times when the usage of computer was not as intuitive as now. The computer in our generation has not only become an essential medium for communications, but also a tool that allows us to visit an alternate universe and achieve a simulation of everyday life experiences. 

As the world is shifting to a more media saturated environment where computing technology is ubiquitous, the boundary between tangible environment and digital world is becoming more blurry. In this world where architectural space is deeply integrated with computation, our occupancy of space may have different meanings than what it used to be in a Victorian era. Traditional notion of a space relies on the memorable moments that tie us to that place. These memories can create illusions of sanctuary, daydreams about the place or other metaphors that would deeply influence the way in which people behave in the space-. In his book, ‘The Poetics of Space,’ Gaston Bachelard described our house as our corner of the world. He implies that our dwelling-place is recognized through our experiences of the architecture. A house is more of a shelter where our senses of intimacy and privacy could flourish as our memories accumulate within the space.  

However, it would be a different story if the physical space starts to have the aspects of a digital environment. The goal of this project is to explore how people’s behaviors and interaction with tangible objects in such a place would create new meanings.