Author: Sachin Anshuman | Published by: Episode Publishers

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COMPUTATIONAL MEDIA AND THE ISSUE OF SPATIALITY

Based on phenomenological literature and recent interest of HCI in embodied paradigm, this paper discusses spatiality through a set of operative principles adapted from literature around phenomenology that theorise engagement in media.
As computational media and interactive systems become integral parts of architectural spatiality including automated double-skin facades, large display screens, interactive installations, to increasing proliferation of context-aware and ubiquitous devices in built-spaces, it is important to understand how they address the issue of space; and how would this in turn inform understanding of media in spatial settings. What can we learn from the behavioural praxis of networked communities, CSCW networks, user practices on web-based communication, and indulgence in videogames for how they pertain to the issue of space and our engagement in them that remains predominantly spatial.
Relevance of pragmatics and phenomenology to HCI and computer science is a relatively new field that exposes the limits of empiricist traditions on which technologies have continued to grow. It sets out new departures for computer science and interaction design based on phenomenological guidelines.
We explore five clusters of themes, namely Intentionality, Affordance & Coupling, Augmentation & Esctasis, Ontology & Metaphor, Repetition & Ritual to understand embodied paradigm. Through applying these themes to specific aspects of Tangible computing, CSCW, Context-Aware systems, Ubiquitous computing and Videogames, we demonstrate how these themes encapsulate the essence of embodiment, through which, the notion of space and meaning in a given domain can be read and addressed.

Author: Sachin Anshuman | Published by: ITAEC

Recent trends to integrating dynamism and response in Computer Aided Architectural Design have been in vogue. Striving attempts to attach dynamic forces to vector objects and thereby breeding amorphous elements and responsive environments are demonstrated through numerous design proposals in recent times, where design concepts are represented as active system of forces affecting CAD objects; turning them into responsive amorphous organisms.
Intended responsivity, intelligence or dynamism are faced with obvious compromises once such active forms are detoured from the simulations to be translated into built objects, which largely remain inert. On the other hand, recent concepts in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and pervasive computing, have demonstrated relevance in physical objects and spaces; turning them into elements of physical interface to mediate particular human actions, aspects of communication, entertainment and aesthetic expression.
While responsiveness grows as a concern amongst architects, allowing HCI features and computational schemes to become integral processes and parameters within architectural design may provide design processes with new approaches to architectural production. This may in turn alter the resultant architectural schemes and their performative apparatus.
This paper reviews relevant developments that contribute to such potential to inform physically responsive environments and scopes of their integration in heterogeneous architectural design processes

Author: Sachin Anshuman | Published by: ACADIA

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RESPONSIVENESS AND SOCIAL EXPRESSION;
SEEKING HUMAN EMBODIMENT IN INTELLIGENT FAÇADES

This paper is based on a comparative analysis of some twenty-six intelligent building facades and sixteen large media-facades from a socio-psychological perspective. It is not difficult to observe how deployment of computational technologies have engendered new possibilities for architectural production to which surface-centeredness lies at that heart of spatial production during design, production and envelope automation processes. While surfaces play a critical role in contemporary social production (information display, communication and interaction), it is important to understand how the relationships between augmented building surfaces and its subjects unfold. We target double-skin automated facades as a distinct field within building-services and automation industry, and discuss how the developments within this area are over-occupied with seamless climate control and energy efficiency themes, resulting into socially inert mechanical membranes. Our thesis is that at the centre of the development of automated façade lies the industrial automation attitude that renders the eventual product socially less engaging and machinic. We illustrate examples of interactive media-façades to demonstrate how architects and interaction designers have used similar technology to turn building surfaces into socially engaging architectural elements. We seek opportunities to extend performative aspects of otherwise function driven double-skin façades for public expression, informal social engagement and context embodiment. Towards the end of the paper, we propose a possible conceptual model to address the emergent issues.

Through this paper we intend to bring forth emergent concerns to designing building membrane where technology and performance should be addressed through a broader cultural position, establishing a continual dialogue between the surface, function and its larger human context.