Capturing the essence of motion from ALee20 on Vimeo.

This is a visual material that I have created as a content for my thesis exhibition. Through out this year I’ve been trying to communicate how technical environment could shape and transform human action or the aesthetic practices in space. I am in the process of developing a hybrid chain reaction system as a communication medium. My goal of this practice is creating a critical design that would generate new modes of understanding space and draw more discussions. My belief is that technology is changing the way in which people perceive space and shift the relations of power structure to a different manner. My thesis project would illustrate how a user may experience media and products that exist in technological environment, in a way that is influenced by predetermined rules. However, through this practice, I would also discuss how a user would influence the system and simultaneously become part of the system as well.

Joseph Simon lived in an old apartment in a small town in New Jersey. Joseph was a man who lived a life of loneliness. Joseph’s only companion nowadays was his wife’s dog Willow.  

Everyday for 12 years ever since his wife passed away, Joseph would wake up at 6:00 AM to walk his dog Willow to a park that was near a factory. It has been nearly 50 years since Joseph lived in the town but he had never learned what was made in this factory.

Every winter season for 12 years ever since his wife passed away, Joseph would use an old heater that his wife have bought him for his 21st birthday. During winter seasons whenever they came back from the park, Joseph would turn on the heater and Willow would often crawl next to it. Willow particularly loved the buzzing noise the heater made and greatly took pleasure in imagining himself chasing little beetles in summer times.

Every Sunday evening for 12 years ever since his wife passed away, Joseph would spend most time in his room reading the unfinished novel that his wife have been writing as a hobby. It was a story about a mysterious city and a woman who came from a world of simulated reality. Joseph was never quite sure how the story would have ended but always found it amusing just to imagine possible endings.

Although Joseph Simon often felt boredom from the simple and regular pattern in his solitary life at the old apartment in this small town, for him this unit was more than just a house. For Joseph, the house was the sanctuary from the harsh world, and a place that held valuable memory of his beloved wife.

However, yesterday everything changed.

Yesterday precisely at 8:15 PM there was a blackout at Joseph Simon’s house. Joseph Simon’s old heater had been running for 12 hours and it caused the blackout.

It was 8:32 PM yesterday when the light came back on. Joseph was scared that his old heater might cause another blackout and went to bed without turning on the heater. 

Today at 6:00 AM in the morning Joseph woke up to walk his wife’s dog Willow. What Joseph had not understood about the blackout was that it caused a chain of events that would change his life forever.

At that moment during the blackout, 5646 miles away from Joseph’s room, at a large house in the middle of a city was a 12-year-old kid named Lee who was sending a message to his friend, Mary using the internet. Lee was telling Mary that his father would be shutting down one of his factories in New Jersey.

Meanwhile, Mary who lived in the unit right next to Joseph’s apartment was never able to receive Lee’s last message because of the blackout. During the blackout, Mary’s dad, Charles was coming home back from work. Charles was the manager of the factory that was located near the park where Joseph would walk his dog occasionally.

Because of the blackout, Mrs. Smith who lived right below Mary’s unit went outside to buy a candle and a lighter. On her way back home she accidentally dropped one of her candles. The candle that had slipped out from Mrs. Smith’s shopping bag rolled down the street and finally stopped as it was stuck between empty bottles of whisky that Charles and Charles’s coworkers have been drinking after work.   

That very night at Joseph’s room, Willow barely was able to sleep. Without the soft buzzing noise of the old heater that Willow was so much fond of, he just couldn’t go to sleep that particular night.

Today at 6:01 AM in the morning, Willow prepared himself to be walked by his friend Joseph. Willow watched Joseph changing his clothes and brushing his teeth. Willow never was able to figure out why human beings took so much time brushing their teeth but found it fascinating how the gentle strokes of the toothbrush could create such amazing sounds. As Willow saw Joseph grabbing the dog lace he knew it was time for his performance. Even though Willow felt tired he jumped and wagged his tail with effort to indicate that he was ready to be walked.

Joseph and Willow was on their way to the park. As usual, Willow was sniffing his way to the park when he realized there was an odd scent, somewhat like whisky. Willow put his nose closely to the whisky bottles that were thrown away by Charles and Charles’s coworkers the night before. As Willow’s nose accidentally hit one of the whisky bottles, the candlestick that Mrs. Smith dropped was no longer stuck between those bottles. The candlestick started to role down the street. Despite lack of sleep, Willow felt a sudden rush of excitement to see the remarkably interesting white object rolling down in front of him. Willow decides to chase the candle stick. 

That morning at 6:15 AM Charles went to work a bit earlier than usual without realizing that he would be laid off that evening. Today during afternoon, he would also hear the shutting down of his factory. Suddenly, Charles saw a dog jump into the road. Charles hit the break and turned his handle only to hit the poor old man who was running after his dog Willow.

At that precise moment Joseph Simon wished that he were at his home where he and his wife used to be so happy together. For him his home was more than just a house. It was a place where all the beautiful memories were tied into. For him, his house was where he could feel the warmth of his wife. It was…

Joseph Simon found himself standing in the middle of the mysterious city. There he found the woman from the world of simulated reality. In this dreamlike atmosphere the woman was his wife. Joseph was standing in the world between his real life and the impossible. 

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People’s notion of physical surroundings have changed drastically over the years due to the advancement of network technology and computation. For example, the computer in our generation is becoming more deeply integrated with our environment and is arguably, one of the most intuitive communication tools for connecting people all around the world. In many ways the new relationship between human and technological environment have not only influenced people’s everyday practices in space, but also blurred the boundary between the virtual and the physical world. 

The main focus of this project is to understand the emerging contexts in today’s cultural environment that is inextricably interlinked with technology. In the traditional sense, the practice of producing metaphors in space was primarily driven by the memories that tie us to that place. However, in contemporary culture, the way in which people engage with their surroundings have become remarkably complex. For instance, even media forms that use one of the most simple technologies, such as LED traffic signal lights, literally shapes the whole traffic flow of a city. Also, by using more advanced technology, such as a sensor network, there have been numerous explorations of creating systems that transfigure digital information into physical form or vise versa. For instance, Nike+ enables users to achieve interactive experience both in the digital environment and the physical world. In the same context, for decades, people have been deeply interested in creating technologies that would enable people to intuitively respond and interact with space, and as a result, produced various research projects to explore technical infrastructure of ubiquitous computing. As technology progresses, people become increasingly aware of their physical surroundings not only through the collectable memories of architectural experiences, but also through the digital experiences that take place in the tangible environment.   

This being the case, to fully understand the meaning of today and tomorrow’s technological environment, it is necessary to investigate the changing boundaries of virtuality and the meaning of spatial relations. The point is to develop a design approach that would lead to imaginative speculation regarding the space between simulated reality, the impossible, and actuality. To achieve this, the project will focus on designing a chain of events between physical objects and digital elements. This design practice will deal with the idea of simulated causality and provide new modes of interactive experiences to the user. The goal of this project is to learn how technological environment could shape and transform human action and even aesthetic practice in public or private space, to indicate pathways for further research.

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 physical 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. For generations, many have been deeply interested in how people’s spatial practice influenced the space. 

Michel de Certeau’s work, ‘The Practice of Everyday Life,’ introduces an idea of how an operation in space, such as walking in the city could change the cityscape by making traces of figures that could be realized as a forest of gestures. Equally, the perception of understanding people’s movement as part of the space could be experienced through film and animation that consists of the simultaneous transfiguration of the body and space. In some scenes of ‘Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance,’ a film directed by Godfrey Reggio, the movements of cars, shopping carts, and other practices in modern life are accelerated allowing the viewers to see the world changing its shape through the spatial texture created by people’s behavior. 

Oskar Schlemmer, artist architect and Bauhaus master, based his work of art on the idea of merging the human body with the space it occupied and defined-227. He used costumes as a vehicle to re-characterize the body as a space making being-231. By using the distinct motion patterns of the body and the costume, he explored how architecture, space and the occupiers were all linked. 

In very much the same way Schlemmer used costume to script an open relationship between body and space, technology and computation can possibly be theatrical elements that amplifies the notion of human beings being part of the spatial system. In his essay, Marshall McLuhan described an idea of media and technology being extensions of the human body-6. If the representation of everyday practices and space are inextricably interlinked as many theorists and artists have illustrated, people’s intuitive interaction with technology integrated in space could generate almost infinite variety of spatial relations. The mode of producing metaphors in space used to be constrained by the memories tied into a controlled environment where the architecture establishes the rules of people’s operations, whereas in a physical environment that has aspects of digital world, space would be scripted by the people perhaps through their gestures, occupancy and interactions with objects.

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.

Dear Phil and Elise,

How is your Halloween so far? 

Recently, I often find myself working on my thesis in my dreams when I am asleep. 

Normally, the results in the dreams aren’t that helpful to me in real life. However, after drinking some whisky at Becker’s Halloween Party yesterday night I had an amazing vision in my dream.  

I was brain storming with the MDP members for a project of creating tangible space that has virtual aspects within it.  

I was to make a digital domino system that would be interactive in physical space. I had a plan of applying one of Peter Eisenman’s architectural methodology of using mirrors. For me the mirrors were the tools that would be mimicking “COPY PASTE” duplication function in the digital world. 

• By using approximate sensor, the viewer would be able to make the projected domino collapse.

• The projected domino would bounce off mirror displays and then jump into an actual monitor screen. 

I am having a feeling that I might regret writing this email to you. I woke up a couple of hours ago and the more my first impression about this dream is fading out the more it seems silly. However, I believe that it might be an interesting starting point for the productive interaction class. I am sure that as I experiment I would come up with some meaningful results. Sorry to steal your precious time in this wonderful weekend. I’ll talk to you in school! 

Thank you.

Best,

Austin Lee

http://www.austinslee.com/_thesis/

31OCT09