Object/Subject Relationships

Diego Velasquez painting Las Meninas 1656

This blog furthers on how drawing type and technique can inform, or better inform, spatial experience with particular reference as to how viewing a drawing can inform a spatial composition. Las Meninas by Spanish painter Diego Velasquez, is a intricate and illusive layering of perspective within the drawing raises questions of where reality sits within the drawing itself. The phenomenology of the painting exists in relationship between viewer and the figures on the canvas. Although it may be flat, the painting draws the eye in, forcing the viewer to look beyond the singular perspective.

"the direction of the gaze dictates the flow of judgment: the viewer judges or adjudicates the presentation of the viewed but not vice versa. In other words, the viewer in his or her viewing is active and autonomous while the viewed is passive and subordinate. This I call the asynunctry principle. Our simple model of viewing can be represented as follows: ,

The Viewer Viewing - The Viewed - Subject Viewing Object"

"As we begin to survey Las Meninas, we become the viewer and the painting the viewed, according to our initial simple model. It can be represented as the following:

The Viewer Subject We - The Gaze - The Viewed Object The Painting"

Chang, BG 1986 'Representing Representation: A Visual Semiotics of Las Meninas', Journal of Communication Inquiry, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 3-13.

Object/subject relationships are very important in the reflection of drawing and spatial composition. Velasquez diverts and redirects the viewers gaze to engage with specific object/subject relationships amongst the painting. In this sense, looking at architectural drawing beyond a singular perspective to imagine what exists or what object/subject relationship exists in the space beyond can become a powerful tool to envisage and create a specific spatial experience. 

Drawing Type and Technique Vs. Experience of Space

To begin to realize how a space engages with sense we have to go beyond basic orthographic drawing. To realize a space with its full integrity we must think on all levels of the drawing type, technique and scale. Thinking beyond section, plan and singular perspective to gain access to the experiential qualities of a given space. Looking into a drawing rather than viewing a drawing is of concern when designing for visual and haptic sense.

Working between drawing type and scale also Recognizes the phenomenology of space that we design. Without actually ever being built we can architect a space with a phenomenological experience through transitioning drawing types because it allows for the thorough investigation of spatial composition. Whether it be material detail or how a space ‘feels’, working between scales of drawing type is imperative to design these spaces correctly.

Drawing type, technique and scale are imperative to addressing visual and haptic senses. Steven Holl tells that the body experiences space through a series of perspectives in which the building becomes a manifesto of overlapping perspective. Holl may be suggesting that to properly engage with our sense of space, we need to intertwine drawing types, constantly altering between each medium. This allows for a greater understanding of the inherent visual and tactile relationship within the spatial compositions that can be designed.

Working from plan to perspective is effective in realizing spatial composition and recognizes the scales of sublime and picturesque details. In plan the reference to materiality and hapticity of a given space is near impossible. In perspective however,  we gain a better understanding  of the two because the space is given a different dynamic of that space for which to analyze how our visual and haptic sense may interact.

Working from section to perspective also investigates the spatial composition and materiality of spaces; perhaps even more so than any other. this is because the height and width of space correlate immediately between each type of drawing, making it easier to design space that correctly references visual and haptic senses.

Designing for Haptic Happenings

This following report furthers on an earlier blog titled Visualhaptic Types, this is a possible interpretation of how we can alter the dynamics of space to enhance the haptic experience.

Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish museum is one piece of architecture that concentrates itself on sensory design.

JEWISH MUSEUM, DANIEL LIBESKIND, 2001

The dark chasm of space heightens the bodily senses. The body desperately tries to find itself in space and is deprived of clarity and sense. This notion deprivation is not only felt in the space but in the body.

The labyrinth of leaning pillars destabilizes and unbalances the body in space. The direct tactile reading within the pillars almost completely nullifies the need for the visual sense.  The cold, rough and robust concrete is transferred into the feeling of that space immediately because of the tactile reading of that space.

‘CLARA CLARA’, RICHARD SERRA, 1983

The spatial positioning of the sculpture forces the viewer to go beyond the visual and to touch the corten steel structure. This is due to the experiential quality and the phenomenological affect of the sculpture falling onto the occupant of the space.

A journal by Yves-Alain Bois writes, “the spectator constantly has the strange impression that one wall goes ‘faster’ than the other, that the right and left sides of his body are not synchronized”

Bois, YA 1984, A picturesque stroll around “Clara-Clara”, The MIT press, October, vol.29, pp. 32-62

These two spaces use forms of compression and release architecture to derive sensory connections. Either in a sublime way, such as the Jewish museum or in a finer picturesque way as Serra does, the push and pull of these spaces allows for connections between visual and haptic senses to be made. The direct correlation from visual to bodily sense is cons crewed by the sculpture affecting the way the space is ‘felt’. The dark compressed chasm of space in libeskind’s holocaust chamber takes away all bodily senses. In this space the body desperately tries to find itself and is deprived of clarity and sense. This notion deprivation is felt in the space causing the body to react into a hyper reading of the space. The visual and tactile senses are used primarily as a means of orienting the body in space. The analyses of these types of architecture facilitate ideas in how to enhance the design process and strategize these conceptual beginnings into realized endings. Particularly the use of compression and release architecture is a vital element in this design process.

Compression and release style of architecture is an important tool in the design process as it enables the change of visual perspectives with in a spatial composition that in turn allows for the space to be read from a haptic sense. If done so correctly the compression and release of a said space can portray feeling of tactile surfaces given the value of the visual perspectives effect on the body in space. The phenomenological affect of this can be as simple as corten steel having a cold, hard and therefore hostile feeling.

S1, S2, S3 are experiments of compression and release that investigate how the spatial composition of undulating spaces and surfaces alter the visual perspective to connect to tactile senses. The experimentation of several sections and plans such as these led to a conclusion in the design process.

Architecture moving above and below the datum at various scales (sublime and picturesque) to create moments of compression and release that deepen the experiential quality of space.

What is haptics?

This is quite a compelling little article on the science of haptics. Think about the way we experience space and design for it!

http://www.immersion.com/haptics-technology/what-is-haptics/

Visualhaptic Types

This is a study that focused on several buildings that engaged with sensory design, i chose to critique each space in terms of how it felt and engaged on a  material and visual level. Instead of focusing on a basic rudimentary building typology, i.e. museums, this study aims to find a pattern between various typologies where a separate typology occurs. This has evolved into a study of sensory design typologies.  The buildings and structures chosen form a wide range of types that address visual and tactile senses, either directly or through phenomena.

To decipher if a structure falls within this typology a criteria has been shaped, firstly analysing and measuring the use visual and haptic senses, this is coupled with an examination of the material and spatial composition of that space. These four factors are then used to summarise the phenomenology of the body that space.

The evaluation of how work together in different combinations these four factors use to address sensory design will be useful. 

Please feel free to add your own opinions and comments!! :)

Steven Holl addresses the phenomenology of the body in space with reference to his work, the Kaisma museum. "When one senses the body in space....the profile of the body and the scale of space is known and felt, and as you move through the space the phenomenological idea of the body moving through a series of perspectives is primary, the building is almost a manifesto for the phenomenological experience of space in overlapping perspectives."

http://www.stevenholl.com/project-detail.php?type=museums&id=18

Sullivan, WJ, Holl, S, Arkio, T, Acconci, V, Honkonen, V & Pallasmaa, J 2005, Steven Holl: the body in space, Insight Media [Distributor], [New York, N.Y.].

Sensory Design

"What if we designed for all our senses? Suppose, for a moment, that sound, touch, and odor were treated as the equals of site, and that emotion was important as cognition. What would our built environment be like if sensory response, sentiment, and memory were critical design factors, more vital than structure and program?"

Malnar, JM & Vodvarka, F 2004, Sensory design, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis