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Spatial Thinking: visualising spatial thinking in architecture and neuroscience

Friday 12 February 2010, 10am-5pm
UCL Bartlett School of Architecture, Wates House, Room G02

Architecture &: Interdisciplinary Seminars
Spatial Thinking: visualising spatial thinking in architecture and neuroscience
Organisers: Peg Rawes, Kate Jeffery

The neuroscientific study of how space is constructed by the brain,and the concept of space as seen in architecture, offer some interesting correspondences. For both, the experience of space is a 'real' event for
the individual, yet there are many unanswered questions about how these experiences of space may be represented. How does the cognitive representation of space shape subjective experience in a built environment? How do cognitive and emotional perceptions of space intersect? How are neuroscientific and architectural understandings of space, time and memory linked?

Speakers:
Ruth Conroy Dalton (Lecturer in Architectural Morphology and Theory,
Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, UCL)
Stephen Gage (Bartlett School of Architecture, Professor of Innovative Technology UCL)
Kate Jeffery (Professor, Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, UCL)
Niall McLaughlin (Director, Niall McLaughlin Architects)
John O'Keefe (Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL)
Peg Rawes (Senior Lecturer, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL)
Hugo Spiers (Wellcome Trust Advanced Training Fellow, UCL)

Morning and afternoon refreshments will be provided, and drinks following the seminar.

All welcome but booking is essential. Please contact a.araujo@ucl.ac.uk to reserve a place.

Trauma [test 001]

LINK

The end sequence of the test uses a sculpted fabric that starts off as a point cloud data set [split by the noise and Z threshold in Decode]. The object tunes in to the correct frequency.

3D projection [test 001]

AIM

Use projection mapping techniques on objects within a 3D scene and transfer into 3Phase.

Software

Maya 2009, Photoshop CS4, 3Phase.

3Phase Projection Patterns

METHOD

Create Block objects in Maya with default shader.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planar Texture Projection of 3Phase patterns onto objects.

Input rendered Maya images into 3Phase

 

RESULT

Ended up quite flat very little Z depth.

 
[Credit to Kyle Mcdonald for the 3Phase software.]

BinaryMillenium

http://binarymillenium.com/2010/01/structured-light-for-3d-scanning.html

There seems to be some very accessible, and very new technology out there to produce point cloud structures.
I see these as temporal images such as those that might be collated in the brain as memories lots of disparate traces of images that can be brought together to create a larger landscape of images.

Cannot wait to start experimenting.

FLUX FILMS

http://www.ubu.com/film/fluxfilm.html

On the Move: Visualising Action

http://www.suebond.co.uk/events/default.php?eventid=345

Venue:	Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, 39a Canonbury Square, London, N1 2AN, UNITED KINGDOM
Opens:	Wednesday 13 January 2010
Closes:	Sunday 18 April 2010
Website:	www.estorickcollection.com
Public Info:	Tel. +44 (0)20 7704 9522
Summary:	Curated by Jonathan Miller, this exhibition will draw on a wide range of material in many different media to provide an eye-opening exploration of the representation and analysis of movement in the visual arts and sciences.
Opening Times:	Wednesday to Saturday 11.00 to 18.00 hours. Sunday 12.00 to 17.00 hours Late night opening Thursdays until 20.00 hours. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Shop: open gallery hours. Library: by appointment only.
Admission Prices:	£5.00, concessions £3.50, includes permanent collection and temporary exhibitions. Free to under-16s and students on production of a valid NUS card. Library, by appointment only, £2.50 per visit.

Structural Light 3D scanning

Structured light scanning involves projecting a known pattern of light onto a scene, and recovering scene
geometry by analyzing distortions of the pattern.

Radiohead - House of Cards
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nTFjVm9sTQ

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”

Philip K Dick
"How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later"
1978.

HUXLEY's Doors of Perception

"The perspective looked rather odd, and the walls of the room no longer seemed to meet in right angles. But these were not the really important facts. The really important facts were that spatial relationships had ceased to matter very much and that my mind was perceiving the world in terms of other than spatial categories.

Place and distance cease to be of much interest. The mind does its Perceiving in terms of intensity of existence, profundity of significance, relationships within a pattern. I saw the books, but was not at all concerned with their positions in space.

My actual experience had been, was still, of an indefinite duration or alternatively of a perpetual present made up of one continually changing apocalypse.  And along with indifference to space there went an even more complete indifference to time.

A small typing table stood in the center of the room; beyond it, from my point of view, was a wicker chair and beyond that a desk. The three pieces formed an intricate pattern of horizontals, uprights and diagonals - a pattern all the more interesting for not being interpreted in terms of spatial relationships. Table, chair and desk came together in a composition that was like something by Braque or Juan Gris, a still life recognizably related to the objective world, but rendered without depth, without any attempt at photographic realism. I was looking at my furniture, not as the utilitarian who has to sit on chairs, to write at desks and tables, and not as the cameraman or scientific recorder, but as the pure aesthete whose concern is only with forms and their relationships within the field of vision or the picture space.

But as I looked, this purely aesthetic, Cubist's-eye view gave place to what I can only describe as the sacramental vision of reality."

Vertigo Zoom

Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo used this camera effect.

The Dolly Zoom
Recreating the camera effect by "pulling in" and keeping the foreground framed.

The Final Effect

Remapping Time

Michel Gondry's 1995 music video Like A Rolling Stone.

Working with the frame Blend effect in After Effects.

Finished effect

The [Casio EX F1] TIME MACHINE

CASIO A trusted name when it comes to cheap electronics.

First known in my head as making electronic time pieces but have been making components for cameras for just as long - their recent advance into consumer cameras is technological evolution. They did use Pentax lenses in their first line up. However Casio's most recent camera advancement blows away the competition, at least for a few weeks or months. But let it be known as the first. The "F1".


HYBRID DIGITAL VIDEO AND STILLS CAMERA
The Casio EX F1 is so feature rich that you will not find these settings on other cameras that the digital PDF manual on my computer was useless when out on location. Normally I find cameras fairly intuitve to pick up and shoot / change settings etc... I bit the bullet and spent an evening reading the manual.


General Handling
Since the camera does both Stills and Video the controls are designed with efficiency and are subsequently it is easy to change the various "desktop" settings [ie Image Size RAW+Jpeg  / ISO / WB / EV / fps] without having to scroll through a menu system. Two dials on the top of the camera simpify the camera settings; one dial for Camera Mode [Auto / M / A / S / BS (best shot)] to single frame or continuous capture modes; the other dial for chosing the Shooting Mode [Continuous Modes / Single Frame]. The video has it's own dial to chose High Defnition / STD / High Speed Modes with the REC button in easy reach.

All tests were carried out with default settings on the Casio EX F1 with a full battery pack and an 8GB 30MB/s Class 6 SDHC High Performance SanDisk Extreme III memory card.


Camera Settings
A typical digital camera with x12 optical zoom features that you would expect to find on other compact digital cameras - maybe not as feature full as a digital SLR.


Burst Capture
Having turned the dial to Continuous Shutter Mode we can now have some fun selecting different rates of capture. The camera buffers 60 frames at Full 6MP Resolution. My concept for my recent film uses the well known Bullet Time effect used by Michel Gondry in the Rolling Stones video "Like a Rolling Stone". The camera saves 60 frames over a period of time that you can define - from 60seconds [1fps] down to 1 second [60 fps]. This is easily found and changed on the same "desktop" settings.


Video Settings
Full HD [1080i / 60fields per sec]
At Full HD the video playback on screen seemed OK to start with but ended up having a fair amount of artifacts even with the camera on a steadycam setup or tripod. The main problem seems to be that the interlaced fields produce noise.

HD [720p / 30fps]
Is adequate for my requirements and has no frame drop out and much less noise.


High Speed [512x384px / 300 fps]
In comparison with the 600 fps and 1200 fps which are fun but are far too compressed to use in video prodcution, the 300 fps setting produced a usable image. The sequences are slightly pixelated in comparison to the HD modes but using Streamclip I was able to get export it into a usable format.
 
Convergence
CASIO have broken the boundary between camera stills and video by having a 60 frame burst capture rate in camera mode and a good attempt at 300 fps High Speed video.

Can it be recommended?
I am really confused by it - really unsure whether it is a camera I can get along with but it does have it all -  it is packed with features - it is the first one of a kind. And in so being THE FIRST the Casio EX F1 strides well above other prosumer cameras.

Convergence of Technology [RED One and the Casio EX F1]

The cinematic paradigm has taken another leap forward recently with the RED One cine camera which was among the first to shoot video as RAW data, and with a 35mm motion picture sized imager (called 4K as its longest dimension is 4000 pixels).

The Casio EX F1 joins the market at the consumer end of the spectrum with the ability to shoot Full HD as well as capturing RAW stills. It has a 36 to 432mm (equiv) lens with an aperture of f/2.7 to f/4.6. It shoots 6 MP images with a Sony designed and built CMOS sensor (7.18 x 5.32mm). The lens has a 35mm multiplier factor of  x5.

It outperforms many of the Prosumer Digital SLRs in speed and burst capture rate. [Ok so maybe not the Pixel image density]. It sells itself as the fastest Digital Camera and has all the gadgets an architecture student would need for a project based upon space and time - with the enviable ability to capture at a high frame rate to slow down real time.



I have had the use of the Casio EX F1 for nearly a week now and feel accustomed to it and its features.

FEATURES

Full HD video
captures at 60 fileds per sec @ 1920x1080 pixels

HD video
captures at 30frames per sec @ 1280x720 pixels

Variable Capture Rate
captures 60frames in 1second to 60frames in 60seconds @ Full Resolution [6MP: 2816 x 2112 pixels]
  
High Speed video
captures from 300frames @ 512x394 pixels to 1200 frames per sec @ 336x96 pixels

more info::


http://www.casio-europe.com/euro/exilim/exilimhighspeed/exf1/


tests to follow shortly

What is Concealed behind the Veneer of the Real?

On the theme of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - I have revisited one of my favourite films - Jacob's Ladder. The director - Adrian Lyne - took inspiration from the photographs of Joel-Peter Witkin. JPW is an American photographer whom constructs photographs of the realism of the human condition. The truth of the subject is provocative and just as frightening as the notion behind Jacob's Ladder : Jacob Singer's nightmare is that he isn't dreaming.

Joel-Peter Witkin's photography relates to life and death by depicting life in its most extreme conditions - it brings home the impossibility of the everyday - what one person finds extreme another person finds pleasurable and maybe banal - and left wanting more.

Joel-Peter Witkin's photographs can be found at:
http://www.davidknipper.com/famous_person/love.htm
http://www.edelmangallery.com/witkin.htm
http://www.correnticalde.com/joelpeterwitkin/Witkin_01.shtml

Joel-Peter Witkin - Los Angeles Death - 1976


 

Joel-Peter Witkin - Mother and Child [with Retractor Screaming] - 1979

Joel-Peter Witkin - Shoe Fucker and Woman Who Believes She's Becoming a Camera
- 2003

Death Proof - Quentin Tarantino - 2007

A pre-arranged "accident" involving stuntman Mike and the girls car.
The actual accident is rerun as if each person had an individual experience
Each followed a particular pattern.

• Stuntman Mike pulls the switch.
• We see the headlights light up the face of the actress.
• The crash is seen from within or without the car.
• The moment of impact we are back inside the car.
• We end up with the inevitable death.

Finally we follow Stuntman Mike's car through the other side of the "accident".

Fade to black > Edit > cut to Stuntman Mike in hospital - having survived...

Rolling Stones "Like a Rolling Stone" 1995 [Michel Gondry]

Michel Gondry's use of stills / snapshots within the Rolling Stones "Like A Rolling Stone" help to portray a slowing down of time / freezing time mimicing the Bob Dylan lyrics of the song that narrate the slowing down of someone's life in a socially complete world - they had it all but now they are ""on their own / with no direction home / like a complete unknown / like a rolling stone.""

HOLE IN A WALL

Arthur Rimbaud linking of space through culture.
[click here]
An interesting concept of linking holes in the wall to other holes in other places in which to connect with the people within that place. All the portals look the same but the view through the portal will give a different experience depending on which connection you should choose, the time / weather / and the people?
Could one make any meaningful relationships through such a public portal?

TEST 001 - still images from the three perspectives

cyclist POV
[focus on the road]

cyclist POV

[inevitable]

driver POV
[oblivious]

pedestrian POV
[overview+sudden realization]

TEST 001 [cyclist_cycle_driver_vehicle_pedestrian]

A car door opens into the path of the cyclist.
The inevitable is going to happen.

CREATE A COMPOSITE SPATIAL EXPERIENCE OF THE WORLD AT THAT MOMENT


CYCLIST
Acceptance
Adrenalin sets in and the scene becomes hypersensetive.
Instead of panic a sense of unbelievable CALM.
STOP FRAME ANIMATION / POV / ANAMORPHIC PROJECTION

The periphery becomes blurred.
Focus on the detail

DRIVER
Unaware
Obliviously going through parking routine - thinking of getting home and having a cup of tea - preparing food.
Mobile phone text message.
Opens car door without looking.

POV / FAST FRAME RATE 
BLUR AND SLOW ON KEY ROUTINE MOMENTS


PEDESTRIAN
Enables us to get an overview of the situation during the event.
Abstracted from the action oversees the event on the opposite side of the street.

Knows the driver - recognises the car.
Doesn't initially see the cyclist [periphery vision blurred].
Stops between the parked cars
POV / REAL TIME
until the realization that there will be an accident.

An oncoming car inhibits the passerby from crossing the road to have a word with the neighbor.

Watches the event unfold.
Adrenal Empathy 

POV / SLOW MOTION / BLURRED

TESTING THE REAL THROUGH TRAUMATIC EVENT ENVIRONMENTS

AIM
HOW DO WE ATTEMPT TO REPRESENT THE REAL?

METHOD
Through a series of filmic investigations based on traumatic events I will explore the rules and laws that we apply to our experience of the real within spatial parameters.

How do we experience space, interpret and then represent the event during times of stress and duress?

What are the parameters that one maps onto space during those experiences and how does that effect our sense of perception?

Do cognitive transformations and neural functions enhance our experience during times at the moment of extreme fear, anxiety or excitement?

ADRENALINE

When tension runs high and adrenaline is secreted into your body some crazy things can happen — sometimes called the fight-or-flight response:

Adrenaline: a hormone and chemical neurotransmitter (4-[1-hydroxy-2-(methylamino)-ethyl]-1,2-benzenediol) produced in the adrenal medulla. It causes bronchodilation, vasoconstriction, CNS stimulation and mydriasis.

• Your heart rate increases. And specifically, your body starts sending blood to all your big muscles and diverts it away from “non-critical” parts of your body, like your brain, immune system, and digestive system.
• Your pupils dilate and you get tunnel vision. Quite literally, adrenaline also reduces your peripheral vision, which together with your big, wide pupils helps you focus on what lies ahead.
• Your body gets ready. In addition to the rising heart rate, your body starts turning lots more stuff into sugar, raising your blood sugar level and filling you with energy.

 

Time as a Malleable Force

Crank - 2006 [dirs Neveldine+Taylor]
Jason Statham is running out of time due to an injection of horse tranquilizers [Time slows]. As an antidote to the precarious situation he finds himself in he must reenergize his body with adrenalin fueled action [Time speeds up]. We follow him on his highs and lows as the directors use an interesting array of techniques to show these two extremes as he bends and stretches time as he is consumed by the tranquilizer and then overcomes the situation by kickstarting his heart by consuming copious quantities of adrenalin and other stimulants.


Camera
pov / shaky hand camera / slowmo - high speed frame rate / fast action - low frame count / depth of field - blurred then focused - then blurred

Visual Effects
vignette / periphery vision rippling / a 3D pulsing heart / image saturation

Sound
blood rushing / heart pounding or slowing / phone ringtone starts off normal and fades to simulate Statham's heartbeat [like a battery running out].

Statham does his part too and portrays the fiendish adrenalin fueled gangster with the stereotypical dry British wit and cunning.

TV Drug of the Nation

QUESTION
Given a word what sort of image does it generate?


When you hear / read the word television what do you mentally see?


please add your experience of your television to the comments

Proprioception - our sixth sense

Proprioception is our sixth sense that controls our spontaneous movements of our muscles. It is a part of a larger set of senses called Kinesthetics. Our inner ear senses our body's orientation in space - without this one would be left without the ability to move. One becomes utterly dependent upon one's vision - in the dark one would collapse - walking forwards one has to look at one's feet creating an unusual looking posture - all movement has to be predetermined - carefully choreographed - a kind of performance.

Suspension of Dimension

An accident.
Time slows down and through the acceptance of one's position there is a beauty through suspension of dimension.

The Office as a vehicle to transport ideas of abstraction and memory.

The office block will be placeholder for the film's activity being the typical place of work for the majority.

Offices are typically places which lack any character. Within the walls of the office block each individual slots into the controlled and dictated routine of the company. To keep one's job one must keep to company guidelines and policy which further inhibits there becomes no room for self.

Obsessively working late leaves the office worker further removed from his colleagues and immediate surroundings.

During sleep we lose our ability to react to our surroundings and therefore lose consciousness. Our body becomes paralyzed to the exterior world. The interconnected neural and nerve network that gives us our self awreness through our waking life no longer functions.