THE
DESIGN IMPLICATIONS OF TIME-BASED INTERACTIVE MEDIA
School of Arts, Culture and
Environment. The University of Edinburgh
ABSTRACT
Time is central to architectural design, but has not been
fully investigated through computational media. The works of Heidegger [[1]], Bergson[[2]], Virilio[[3]] and Deleuze[[4]] suggest that the study of the elusive concept of time has
more to contribute to an understanding of the human condition than space. One
can argue that contemporary society is being governed increasingly by temporal
structures, as the space of the town square is replaced by time-based
broadcasting and digital communications. We present three digital media
projects that start with the problematic of time, and examine the implications
for architectural design of working with media where time is a primary
consideration. In turn, the projects address “real-time” interaction, “evolution”
over time, and time-space perturbation.
Keywords. evolution; phenomenology of
space and time; time-based architecture
Smooth simultaneity
In
his discussion of new (digital) media, Lev Manovich (1996) notes similarities
in Walter Benjamin [[5]] and Paul Virilio’s[[6]]
approach to “the intervention of technology into human nature.” (Manovich, 1996)[[7]] He points out that
both Benjamin and Virilio equate our perception of the natural with spatial
distance between the observer and the observed. Technology (film for Benjamin
and telecommunications for Virilio) reduces this distance. The fact that
anything can be transmitted anywhere at the “speed of light” makes the notion
of distance redundant. This condition assumes the collapse of the spatial
dimension altogether. Distance and the inevitability of time delay that once
provided the opportunity for assimilation and reflection supposedly cease to
exist. With instant communication comes instant reaction time, a feedback loop
that ultimately can only be handled by computers. Whereas the collapse of
distance is, for Benjamin, marked by the development of film and its ability to
represent different spaces at the same time, Virilio transfers the collapse of
space to telecommunications. The richness of our perceptual field is
diminished, removing what Benjamin calls “aura”. The “collapse” of distance
implies a condition which conflates the observer with the observed, the human
with the machine, the subject with the object, transforming previously discrete
dualities into a blur.
Time-fractured
Perhaps
this fusion and collapse in space and time accounts for one aspect of our
experience with new media. On the other hand our media-saturated experiential
field sometimes presents the character of a fracturing, a kaleidoscopic
confusion of media and images (Tschumi, 1994). The troubling of distance
through film and telecommunications can also be seen as aggravating the gap,
instilling a separator in the observer-observed continuum, fragmenting our
experience, or perhaps giving expression to the already fragmentary nature of
human experience.
Arguably, spatial and temporal
discontinuities are best appropriated when space and time are processed in
relation to each other. For example, film can use time to render spaces disjoint.
Instead of the broad sweeping panorama (smooth), filmmakers cut from one scene to another. Instead
of conveying a scene as one continuous time sequence they introduce an element
of temporal disruption by switching from one spatial location to another. We
note Alexander Sokurov’s “The Russian Ark”, filmed as one continuous 90 minute
take, and spanning several centuries, where the “cut” is achieved at the
threshold, the doorway, the passage, or the gaze that lingers (on a painting),
and from which we awake to a new time frame. Of course cuts can be used to
convey a sense of the smooth. Perhaps in a film and MTV-enculturated world cuts
are everywhere. Whatever the “impression,” be it of smooth or distressed, the
effect takes place at the cut, the conflation, and this is time-abetted. In any
case, it is a temporal plus spatial control that gives new media its power to
explore discontinuity.
Temporal 3D Environments
What
kind of spatial exploration results from digital tools that celebrate and
exploit the time aspect? How does the designer gain access to the unmaking of
smooth space, the fabrication of distressed geometries? How does the designer
play with fractured and disturbed unities? Time-based media provide an
opportunity to play with the smooth and the rough, the continuous and the
fragmented, and thereby explore discontinuities within our experiential field.
Real-time three-dimensional
technologies have only recently become part of the designer’s tool box. Digital
tools that are now commonplace suggest functions and processes that typically
become extensions of traditional design practice. An architect might use 3D
modelling software at various stages during the design process. The ability to
mould and shape surface and volume is provided as an extension to traditional
physical model making. The promise for photo-realistic visualisation comes as a
well-received technological “improvement” on drawings and perspectives. The
smooth ideal draws on metaphors of creation and process that pertain to
temporal-continuity (Lynn, 2003) whereas the distressed exploits intervention,
disruption, event-based discontinuities, the non-linear and the non-local
(Novak, 1996).
THE EVOLUTION OF FORM
The first project
is a generative system for “real-time” 3-D modelling using a procedural
programming language (C++) with access to OpenGL 3D graphics primitives.
Generative models can be used to simulate 3D architectural spaces to successive
levels of detail, thereby contributing to an understanding of design as a process
of evolutionary refinement. The project raises questions of evolution and
continuity through algorithmic events.
This project develops a generative method to
explore time-based 3D modelling for abstract spaces. The algorithm starts with
a simple “key” parameter from which a “self-generative” complex form develops.
The system is based on a “growing tree code” via an L-grammar [[8]].
Almost all elements in the structure are generated to the next stage by
following the “growing tree code” process. The recursive algorithm selects its
branches in this derivational structure according to “the law of possibility.”
Some elements grow faster than others, and some atrophy. The derivation of the
elements is governed by one constant key parameter.
Figure 1.2
Anti-clockwise radius of gyration
Figure 1.3 Positioned
primary elements and vertical structures by random code
In the
examples shown here, a single element, which we call a “virtual brick,” is to
be located in a certain position and forms the basis of an assembly. This
assembly is then transformed into a complex spatial structure. This is a
flexible, multi-cloning assembly which can be of any scale and extent. Colour,
scale and the position of elements are all determined by the initial selection
of the key parameter. Forms of great diversity can be generated. Figures 2-4 to
6 show the derivation of forms using different key parameter values.
a) test 1 and 2.
b) test 3 and 4
Figure 1.4 Linear form Structure: test 1, 2, 3, 4
Figure 1.5 Example of a
full composition
As we see, a single block of
computer code and variation of a single key parameter results in large
differences in the composition. The compositional possibilities can be explored
repeatedly over a short period of time. The project raises the issue of
evolutionary derivation as a smooth or disjointed algorithmic process. Though
the algorithmic process is smooth, successive runs of the program show
discontinuities. Further discontinuity is introduced by the intervention of
human agency, and multi-user agency in an immersive environment. These are the
subjects of further research.
PERTURBING
THE CONTINUUM
In
our second project, we developed an event-based system using a set of
programmable objects which are an extension to MAX/MSP [[9]]
graphic programming environment-Jitter [[10]].
Jitter is a collection of 130 or so standard objects which deal with time-based
graphic content. Subsets of these objects are dedicated to video processing,
data manipulation, and 3D Open-GL programming and rendering. The Max/MSP/Jitter
user community is mainly composed of artists, musicians and programmers who
develop applications for audio and video processing, interactive installations
and audio-visual performance.
Max/MSP presents the user with
a graphic interface in which boxes with inputs and outputs are connected
(following the metaphor of circuit design). Each set of boxes (patches) can contain
any number of nested boxes (sub-patches) and communicate with them at various
rates. Its design is primarily for time-based applications and therefore
follows a strategy of rapid prototyping which to some extent by-passes
compilation and de-bugging, hence exposing the error, the accident, the
interference, and makes them available for exploitation. The (application)
design process that is implied in Max/MSP/Jitter tends to be attractive to
non-programmers and to some extent forces a visualisation of decision-making
processes and erratic connectivity. The clusters of boxes and connecting lines
effectively represent a kind of multi-dimensional flow diagram that underlies
the computational process. One of the central aspects of Jitter is the fact
that all data structures are represented as configurable matrixes of specified
data types, dimensions and sizes. A great part of Jitter’s possibilities in the
realm of processing and mapping relies precisely on this fundamental entity.
The values of a pixel array on a screen of 400 by 400 would take the form of a
4 dimensional (RGBA) integer, 400 by 400 matrix. Figure 3 shows an by
connecting/disconnecting, re-configuring in a time-dependent way, and
experimenting while examining the visual or kinaesthetic result.
Figure 2.1 Example of environment with which the designer
interacts
EVENT AND
NARRATIVE SPACE
The time-based medium of Macromedia
Director’s Shockwave 3D [[11]]
exposes a series of 3D primitives, user behaviours, 3D animation strategies and
a real-time physics simulation engine (Havok). Shockwave 3D has been used by
designers of computer games that, due to Shockwave’s standard specifications
and increased computational power of
the average PC, can distribute and play their environments on-line.
We indicate
something of the potential of this time-based environment in our third project
that explores the character of the home as described in Bachelard’s (1964) Poetics of Space,
the home as a
cellar, a garret and a hut. The phenomenon of space
is closely linked to intimacy and memory in Bachelard’s writing. Certain parts
of the house, such as the attic, serve as “repositories” of memories. The house
also provides a person’s protypical spatial experience, a reference point from
which all other spatial experiences derive and with which they are compared.
The house is also understood episodically, in relation to sequences of events
(getting out of bed, bathing, dining, opening windows, etc). From this
perspective, our being-in-the-world is structured narratively. The house serves
as a space for Bachelard’s narrative, and a house is itself a narrative space.
To instantiate Bachelard’s
spatial narrative as a 3D computer model available for game-like navigation and
interaction introduces some startling incongruities. As users of this new space
we sense a familiarity with it, though we are perhaps struck by the mismatch
between the medium and our bodily awareness. Our physical presence is perhaps
reduced and moved into hardware and software. Our sense of recognition is
suspended and the spatial phenomenon reduced to concepts of digital
interaction.
The Shockwave 3D
environment works with concepts of the model, movement, interaction and frames.
It is possible to “jump” from one frame to another, in the manner of movement
from one frame, sequence, or episode in a film. It is also possible to overlay
frames, as in the case of film overlays. We have extended the frame metaphor to a
consideration of a room in the Architecture building [[12]],
data projecting a window as presented in the Shockwave 3D “attic” space onto a
window in the room (Figure 1.1).
The actual window is covered by a screen and an open window is projected (Figure 1.2 & 1.3).
Different interactions are
available, such as opening the virtual window or closing it, or opening a blind
— simple prototypical micro-event that we may have performed many times before,
and that frame our experience and structure our space for the moment.
Of course the familiar event
is rendered strange in this encounter as we see familiar objects projected. As
we encounter something foreign, we draw on the strength of the metaphoric
relations between image and space in order to make sense of our environment. The interaction of the user of this space and the
computer-mediated space draws on the power of metaphorical association. The
project highlights issues of familiarity, interaction, augmentation, the
virtual, narrative and metaphor. We expect that a phenomenological
understanding of such interventions helps develop understandings of digitally
mediated space.
The familiar, homely event of
opening a window is rendered strange, and consequently gives us a new
understanding of the spaces we inhabit. The next challenge is to test this
interaction with subjects to see what narratives of augmentation (metaphors)
emerge. The task will then be to examine multi-user interaction in the same
space, to see how such experiences are negotiated collectively, and through
digitally-mediated communications.
Figure3.1. Picture of house section showing projection.
Figure3.2 & 3.3. Pictures of architecture window projected as closed
window first, and open in the other one.
CONCLUSION
The conclusion of our study is that time considerations can
perturb the impetus towards smooth, seamless interaction and step-wise
derivation, contrary to developments which
seem to aim for techno-human environments that are integrated, seamless and
smooth. It also questions the recurrent digitally-inspired theme of an
architecture based on organic and smooth forms.
The practical application of the
outcomes of these explorations is a means of exploring and generating designs
and patterns, in a way that is algorithmic, interactive and time-based,
utilising computer animation and multi-user control. The challenges include
further developing languages for designing in new ways, and new languages of
interaction design. What are the best ways of interacting with such
capabilities? The interface is unlikely to be smooth and seamless.
One
of the most interesting ways for design practitioners to appropriate these
capabilities is to experiment with tools that are designed primarily for other
than architects and spatial designers. These include computer tools for
animators, artists, choreographers, film makers, and composers. There is also
benefit in collaborating with such practitioners, who bring different
conceptions of space, time and computer capability to bear on the design
process. This paper represents such a collaboration, in our case between
architectural designers and practitioners of the time-based media of musical
composition.
REFERENCES
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Semiotext(e)
COSMO3D REFERENCE MANUAL\Program
Files\Silicon Graphics\Optimizer\doc\developer\cosmo3dIndex.html
Karl S CHU; Modal Space. On the
http://synworld.t0.or.at/level2/soft_structures/allgemein/modal_space.htm
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