virtual projection_version2

A more precise animation, sections are interpreted as snapshots, or discrete moments in time. In much the same way as a series of spatial sections can determine the form or sequence of a buidling, these "time sections" reveal the form and path of the bodies in motion. The concept of action and mimicry is further explored, as the two movements act in separate "time sections" and follow slightly different paths.

virtual projection_version1

Catherine Ingraham's essay comments on the inevitability of frame to influence the way in which one perceives or imagines a "scape." Here, a consecutive and animate frames engage the camera as it moves through them, transforming the perception of each subsequent frame. The frames were conceived as as series of sections that are in constant flux - each with its own unique transformation.

lines and linearity

scenario: A child (who is too short) cannot see himself in the mirror until his mother props him up. This metaphor, used by Jacques Lacan to explain his mirror stage theory, is used by Ingraham to describe the relationship of architecture to both the human body and psyche. Until the boy is able to see himself in the mirror, he has neither knowledge of his own image or a sense of himself as "other" sited in the world. Only by being propped up is he put in the appropriate time (the time it takes light to travel between his eyes and the mirror) and space (the physical distance between the boy and the mirror) to understand these complex relationships. According to Ingraham, architecture is the prop that allows the mind to perceive the body.

"One might say that the architect tries to supply the insufficiency of the fragmented whole - the self and the body - by sketching the scaffolding as a web to keep us forever propped upright in front of our own image. Or, rather, the architect tries to hold us, using the force of lines, at the moment of meconnaissance, the mis-recognition that inaugurates our belief in the possibility of space and inhabitation."

Ingraham contrasts this view with one that spawned from the humanistic thought that man is inescapably separate from the world, but able to understand it through representation. Representation, however, necessitates translation, "connection and adequation," which are linear processes which assume that "mimesis (imitation of the world) is possible."

The problem here is that the world is always viewed through a frame (physical, psychological, cultural, etc.) that belies the notion that there is a linear connection between the perceiver and the perceived. Speaking architecturally, the line can be thought of as "lines of passage and division, the 'threshold' or boundary condition. . ." A more sophisticated view of threshold and boundary, reveal that a line is wholly inadequate to describe these conditions that can and should be engaged, not merely passed through.

Therein lies the fundamental difficulty with linear constructs. A line is without dimension and cannot be defined - it is a descriptor or an "apparatus." It is in the morphing ("bastardization) of pure, dimensionless lines into pairs that space is created. This is similar to the morphing of pure geometries into "impure" shapes, while still maintaining the essence of the original (a shape that maintains the roundness of a circle).



A pure line can only be passed through, but not engaged in the direction of its defining characterstic (its linearity) until it is morphed into two lines (It is a wonder then, that while walls are typically drawn as two lines, the thought of inhabiting the space within is not more common).

animation_revamp

Because of the aforementioned problems with EIAS, I decided to switch to FormZ. Here's an updated and vastly improved animation.

_warped space

dystopianism - a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding.

In Warped Space, Vidler successfully juxtaposes neoformations in architecture with the purer forms of functionalism to reveal striking and important differences in their respective zeitgeists.

Modernism was interested in standardization and efficiency in regards to its use of new technologies. The formal results of this line of thought are evident and resulted in a search for utopian, idealized spaces and relationships.

Firms like Morphosis are specifically challenging monochrome modernism and post-modern excess.

(I find it particularly ironic, then, that the people who architects such as Morphosis and Koolhaas are criticizing are the very people paying for these projects - dramatic buildings specifically calling out the excesses of corporatism)

Further, modernism’s interpretation of the human form was entirely about dimension and form (see Corbu’s Modular Man). The architecture of modernity, according to Vidler, is investigating the space of the mind, or “[the bodies] introjected projection.” (quote Morpheus from in the Matrix, “the digital projection of your virtual self”) Our “virtual selves,” as brought to us in neoformations, come complete with all of our fears, prejudices and “neurosis” included. The formal result is buildings like Coop Himmelblau’s UFA Cinema Center in Dresden, which, love it or hate it, is a challenging image of the contemporary human condition.

proj1b_test animation

This animation was created to experiment with Electric Image. It is an animation of model created for proj1a and, as described in the previous post, each frame attempts to create a figure/ground condition, framed views of the "void," and spatial and visual ambiguity.

I also had problems with the "polygonization" that would occure during the translation of models from Maya to FormZ. In the test animation, it ends up being interesting and ok, but in other models that ended up on Electric Image, the polygon forms interupted the smooth surfaces and resulted in "jumpy" animations.

I guess this week's beat down was administered not by the programs themselves, but in getting them to work together effectively.

proj1b_compositional frames

As a study of the solid/void condition as described by the relationship of an object to the frame through which it is viewed, this model creates a series of framed views, both into its interior spaces and of the surrounding "void." The rendered views show examples of this on two scales.




The animation was an investigation into the level of frustration one person can have with rendering, converting and ultimately re-converting and re-rendering. The story of this animation is long and painful (sort of like watching it). In the end, the best I could do was this extremely crude rendering (the result of significant quality loss in converting from an .img to a .mov and especially when linking the multiple pieces back together in Final Cut). Hopefully someone more knowledgeable in such things can offer some guidance.

That being said, the intent was to sculpt specifically framed views of the "not model." Each frame ia a collage of overlapping forms which, when viewed in the two-dimensional frame of an animation, create spatial and visual ambiguities.Unfortunately, the tracers created by the poor quality animation limit the it's ability to create truly dynamic figure/ground relationships between the model and the void, as well as within the mulitple layers of the model itself.

proj1a_revise

serendipity

if one were to scroll down to my first entry, he/she would read a question concerning the relevance of emergence in architecture. Enter Greg Lynn. His theories of parasitism, viscious bodies, monstrosities, and bodies are based on architectures built from the bottom up, a collaboration between seemingly disparate entities, rather than wholistic design that works from the top down.

project 1a models

In this model the spaces created between the two moving bodies are manipulated in only one dimension, leaving an orthographic view that is the same as the source drawing. The result is a series of planes whose interaction creates a cluster of complex spaces in between the multiple lines of intersection.




in this version, I've abstracted space into two dimensions, allowing time to be represented by the third dimension. The result is a time lapse depicting the evolution of the space between the two moving forms.




again, the forms have been reduced to two dimensions, allowing the third dimension to relate them temporally. This model investigates the relationship between action and mimicry as discussed with the drawings below. There is an interesting and obvious delay and distortion in the "mimic" surface.

Animate Form

Topology - a mathematical study into the nature of space - - One would guess that architecture would be the obvious next step . . .


I understand and share Lynn’s excitement about the potential for “virtual” environments to simulate a series of forces upon an object to determine its form. Lynn’s examples include boats, planes and other constructs whose design is integrally related to actual movement. While buildings are affected by many forces - physical, social, conceptual, etc. – it is their specific goal to not move(at least most of the time). They are the setting in which movement happens. So the question becomes, how does one incorporate motion and time into an intentionally immobile thing?

It makes sense that perhaps a building form is dependant upon circulation patterns, directed views or even structural forces (wind, earthquakes, gravity). Of these, only structural forces are universal and quantifiable. How are we then to validate forms that are generated by unquantifiable forces? Are our applied forces are invariably arbitrarily assigned?

Forces can be assigned by site conditions (marking a corner, framing a view, terminating an axis), social goals (sustainability, affordable housing) and contextual issues (vernacular style, local customs), amongst others. None of these design decisions are “arbitrary.” The weight assigned to certain “forces,” (i.e., how architects make decisions) has been determined by architects since architects have been architecting. The good ones have been able to correctly calibrate the multiple forces under which they are operating.

I also found Hans Jenny’s studies interesting in the way that the resultant forms were imbedded with “history” due to different rates at which the materials solidified. Similarly, Lynn’s discussion of landscape as both a stable and dynamic system creates an interesting model. Landscapes are at the same time evidence of historical forces as well as continually evolving.

project 1a - movement analysis

Jonathan and I were interested in the interaction of two bodies in space - namely the mimicry of one by the other. Our sequence is a study of the distortion that occurs in reenactment. These drawings analyze the forms of each body at important peaks throughout a sequence of movements.



A second version removes some of the intervals, creating more discrete moments.



Another series of drawings investigates the relationship between the two bodies . . .



. . . and the space that is created between them.

How it all begins . . .

See the original here.