Choreography of Sensations
Source: www.haque.co.uk
Topic: Choreography
Sort Desciption: The choreography of sensations: Three case studies of responsive environment interfaces Usman HAQUE Haque Design and Research, London, UK, info@haque.co.uk Abstract
Content Inside:
The choreography of sensations:
Three case studies of responsive
environment interfaces
Usman HAQUE
Haque Design and Research, London, UK, info@haque.co.uk
Abstract . Architecture (i.e. the built environment) has traditionally been thought of as solid, static and
permanent. Here we consider, instead, a soft, dynamic and fluid architecture created with smells, sounds and
electromagnetic fields. The concept of a "spatial operating system" is introduced, with implications for virtual
environment design. Suggestions are made for "soft" interfaces based on rich, suggestive outputs that
counter usual efforts to increase efficiency and verisimilitude. Three projects by the author are described to
illustrate how such environmental interfaces might be developed.
1. Introduction
It has been said, and many times reaffirmed, that architecture is "frozen music".[1] What a
melancholic and tragic way to describe a concept so inherently vivacious! It brings to mind
existence in a world of silence, beyond which float melodies that we will never hear because we
are imprisoned by stasis in time. This approach to architecture traps us by forcing us to think of
designing only solid, static structures.
Instead, let us consider an architecture that can only exist in time, an architecture that is a
choreography of sensations, an architecture that both changes over time and responds to
changes in time. Such a conception can never be frozen: it is responsive, dynamic and emotive. It
welcomes the interactions (and interruptions) of people who occupy such spaces. Rather than
employing traditional architectural materials like stone, steel and glass (which imply permanent,
inert structures) this approach to architecture employs more ephemeral materials like smell,
sound and electromagnetic waves.
Just as computer hardware needs software to make it useful, so too does architecture require
an ephemeral materiality to animate it. It is at this ...
