Transliminal spaces - Fluid States North

Transliminal spaces
Proposal for PSi #21 Fluid States, Pantopia Telematic Encounters. Tórshavn.
In an increasingly technologicised society we may soon be to experience everyday objects encompassing adaptive motion behaviors. Roomba and various toy
robots are already here. Still, so far, most moving objects in our everyday life do
not contain any or very advanced technology.
Extending current technological trends into the future design of the spaces that
human beings occupy, we can not only speculate on how adaptive spaces can
change form and ambience over time. We can also begin to imagine that same
action and ambience as distributed across (long) distances; spatial
telematics. Thus what happens when two or more disparate spaces become
physically intertwined in relation to the human enactment of space across
time-space? How does our perception of physical space change, when action
and ambience is connected to another physical space? How can we exchange
human presence expressed though connected, adaptive spatial structures
situated in different places?
Already in 1986 Valentino Braitenberg [1] speculatively explored the human
experiential notions of 14 small, seemingly non-intelligent vehicles. Simple
connections between sensors and actuators caused the vehicles to “act” in ways
that human beings would interpret as e.g. shy, aggressive, loving and so forth.
If we speculatively extend that finding also include spatial structures equipped
with connected sensors and actuators, we might arrive at a different experiential
level of engaging with spaces.
Alva Noë [2] speaks of the enactive approach to perceptual experience. “The
world makes itself available to the perceiver through physical movement and
interaction…Perceptual experience acquires content thanks to our possession
of bodily skills…what we perceive is determined by what we do…we enact our
perceptual experience; we act it out”. But is it only living organisms that are in
possession of bodily skills? Could one imagine spaces as having bodies and
bodily skills - and how does that change our relationship to “objects” and namely
“objects that establish spatial qualities across time-space”?
Participation in PSi #21 Fluid States is highly motivated by our recent practicebased research, adhering to adaptive environments and telematics. Our
contribution takes the form of performative installations that are positioned in
between research and artistic practice. The venues, located in the container café
environment, provides an interesting as well challenging platform to experiment
with the notions of distributed spatial connectedness and how that affects our
engagements with such spaces. We seek to explore human presence and
experiential engagement with distributed adaptive spaces, through bespoke
performative sessions, carried out between the shared spaces of the two containers in Tórshavn and Nuuk, as well as in Copenhagen.
We therefore propose a cluster of connected, active spatial prototypes distributed across the venues of Tórshavn, Nuuk and Copenhagen. The layers of
connectedness spans from shared tracking of bodily movements in one space to
actuation of spatial prototypes in one space from another space. (see figures)
References
1.
2.
Braitenberg, V. Vehicles. Experiments in Synthetic Psychology.
Cambridge: MIT Press. 1984.
Noë, A. Action in Perception. Cambridge: MIT Press. 2006.
Applicant
Cameline Bolbroe
Ph.D. Fellow, Adaptive Architecture. Adaptive Environments Research Group. IT
University of Copenhagen.
Bio
Cameline Bolbroe works at the IT University of Copenhagen where she is a Ph.D.
Fellow in the Adaptive Environments Research Group. Here she conducts explorative practice-based research in adaptive architecture and teaches in digital aesthetics. Typically her research revolves around the making of full-scale prototypes
orchestrated both as design development tools and experiential environments.
For several years she has been a private contractor in the intersection between
liberal arts and architecture. Here she has engaged in collaborations with a
broad variety of architectural professionals and artists – involving all from devising artist’s tools from broom heads to residential architecture in central London,
UK.
In the capacity of founder Cameline facilitated the cross-disciplinary collaboration BlankBanquet expanding from the fields of art, dance, musical composition,
performance, architecture, art history and computer science. Utilising their diverse expertise they held workshops, initiated urban interventions and developed
interactive performances.
Cameline has a trans-disciplinary educational background in architectural design
from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture and in digital
aesthetics from The IT University of Copenhagen.
Affilliated
Kjell Yngve Petersen
Head of Section, InterSection and Adaptive Adaptive Environments Research
Group. IT University of Copenhagen.
Bio
Dr. Kjell Yngve Petersen is trained as actor and theatre director, and has produced theatre, opera, performance art, installations arts and media arts since
the early 1980s Research interests include the composition and design of intermedial performances and participatory installations, with special interest in realtime generative situations and mixed online/offline environments in which the
audience takes part in performing the artwork. His research has specific focus on
the development of new compositional models that integrate telemedia technology, and utilises emergent and performance-based methods to explore new
performance forms and expressions. His research engages with telepresence and
tele-ecologies, and involves the design of dynamic adaptive architectural light,
textures and acoustics. The research also involves close cooperation with industry
sectors, and international partners within research, arts and industry.
Jørn Lambertsen
Research Assistant, InterSection and Adaptive Environments Research Group.
Link
Link
SPACE 1: Enacted responsive kinetic prototypes
SPACE 2: Spatial tracking environment, session
SPACE 3: “Following” kinetic prototypes
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EXAMPLE SCENARIO