Fluxitecture: a virtual installation for motion visualization

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Presentation Title:
  • Fluxitecture: a virtual installation for motion visualization

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Abstract:

  • Artist Statement

    Fluxitecture is a three dimensional virtual installation which takes to task the visualization of human motion, generating representations of spatial memory. One aspect of the project is the creation of a complex kinaesthetic tracking system, which moves between the concepts of space and duration through a set of simple rules.
    A second ambition is the creation of a complex design system through the adaptation of simple shapes evolving into progressive complexity, again through the tracking of human movement over time, thus articulating complex spatial ideas grounded in duration and memory.
    While Fluxitecture is a design matrix which can be adapted to many buildings, such as hospitals, shopping centres, museums or any type of space that can be walked inside, in this particular incarnation the physical counterpart is the information centre of Sabanci University, Istanbul. The three story high building is reconfigured as a virtual construct by the redefinition of the actual floor plans as a matrix. The resulting formation is a gridded set of building blocks, which serve the dichotomy of representing both virtual and physical elements. Architectural elements, such as walkways, columns and walls as well as the furniture was depicted by slight variations in the transparent grey texturing of the blocks. Elements that are context related, which can be categories of shelves, reading and study rooms or information desk in the library, are colour coded in different tones. All these architectural elements, static or mobile, are represented by the identical building block. The sum total of these blocks constitutes the virtual kinaesthetic matrix, thus visualizing spatial memory.
    The flux that emerges in the virtual space belongs to the actual path of an occupant moving in the physical structure. Building blocks under this path are triggered to elongate according to the amount of time that is spent on the corresponding area, thus ensuring the motion trail to be visible. When there is no motion on the physical area, blocks start to return to their original size. In this representation, the structure is in a constant state of alteration and the flux joins two conceptual identities: space and time.
    One of the primary concerns was the visualization of the kinaesthetic trails that cause structural changes or growth patterns in the virtual environment. The full colour spectrum was used to delineate a twenty-four hour time slot, where blocks in motion are slightly re-coloured according to the time of the motion in the day. Another feature of the building block is the low level of transparency in order to reduce three dimensional overlapping in the space. More importantly, the transparency becomes opaque when there are multiple crossing trails, which means multiple occupancy in the same area.
    Fluxitecture aspires to be not only about the demonstration or visualization of a given, specific data, such as the tracking of motion trails over specific time spans, but wishes to investigate the poetics of the relationships between time, space and memory.

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