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In this exercise, i created a scene from class using a real images and then creating a 3d space using the images as a kind of  background.

I titled it, “I’m trapped in class.”

I am currently also exploring this technique and how we can use it to merge virtual reality and reality to embed layers of meaning in a space.

AR technology allows us to change the way space is perceived, giving a different texture to how we feel about a place.

My goal is to create an augmentation that will enhance the qualities of the space, perhaps even explain how we understand space itself and explain our relationship with the space.

In an attempt to understand space better, i happen to come across a reading recommended by a ex-Prof of mine, Space and Place The Perspective of Experience by Yi-Fu Tuan. I highly recommend this reading as it provide invaluable insight to my own understanding of  space.

 

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When we begin dealing with virtual and augmented reality, recreating this sense of space is essential. For a long time we have been consuming moving images on a static screen, the sense of space can be created through use of lighting, colors and even types of shots.  Using different types of shots to capture the space we see, we begin to change our understanding of how space is perceived.

In Ways of Seeing ,John Berger puts it as such,

 “Photography, in particular the movie camera, changed this. What you saw depended on your place in time and space. The camera changed the way artists saw. Impressionists saw the visible in continuous change [as the light changed so did the appearance of the object] and Cubists no longer recognised a single vantage point [so, for example, they would paint a face with an eye seen from one vantage point and the nose from another.”

Our perception of an image is limited to the way our eye sees it. As explain in my other post, our stereoscopic vision enables us to see things with the perception of depth. A camera would hence remove that perception. A Cubist painting would focus on the idea of having multiple perspectives. All of this attempts to capture what we see in a single moment in time, yet obscuring the other two senses need for us to perceive space , Kinesthesia and touch.

The word kinesthesia or kinæsthesia (kinesthetic sense) strictly means movement sense, but has been used inconsistently to refer either to proprioception alone or to the brain’s integration of proprioceptive and vestibular inputs.

I believe what AR does for the way we perceive photos through lens is what the Cubist movement did for painting. ( Though I am open to opposition.) Not only is it important that we can now perceive an image with a sense of movement , we can even use multiple images to create movement, recreate sound and simulate reality. The context of which has been explored not only in games but also works of art such as Jeffrey Shaw’s Golden Calf.

 

In this short exercise, my goal is not so much as to push the limitations of the technology, but to explore deeper what this technology can create.

One topic that interest me greatly is Emotions.

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Looking deeper into the reading, Yi-Fu Tuan described relationship of space and how our mind creates the association with it to ‘enormous horizon’. Beyond the physical distance, our mind is able to create and feel an emotion that we associate with the space. Being in a vast space makes us feel small in contrast. Walking in an empty space can create a sense of isolation and loneliness. Being in a corner feels tight and uncomfortable. Being in a crowd with faces we do not recognize can make us feel distant. How fast or slow we move through space also creates an emotion.

 

Question.

( How )Can we create a relationship with a space? What would the space be? What is the movement allowed in the space?  Can we convey an idea of the space? Can we understand space better so as to make use of it better ? How does our understanding of space change the way we create works?

If i had not done the reading I did, or attended the lectures I did, would I have created the same works I do? 

More importantly, what did I learn and how do i apply it.