Rejecting Materiality [compounding Virtuality with Artificiality: VACH proposal]

The definition of what senses are, due to the differing understandings of what a sense is, can not be well defined. Nevertheless, can be said that a sense is a faculty to by which out-side stimuli are perceived. This is the nervous system codifying all the information perceived by the so-called senses in electrical-chemical impulses and sends this electrical-chemical information to the brain, which decodifies this information through a process called transduction. In this moment our consciousness —and the whole body — just believes in what the brain is decoding, if there is mixed or missing information (Mental disorder, drugs, etc) our consciousness just understands it as correct and keeps going on. Only in extreme situations the brain decides to shutdown the system and then becomes a faint. Taking advantage of this consciousness-confidence on brain’s decodings is possible to hack the perception bringing up on-will real illusions.

For instance, Let’s take the so-called sense of the sight for this proposal. In order to have information about the depth and of course the location of objects in the surrounding space, sight is a compound of two images which are overlapped by the brain, which in turn gives to our perception just a constructed image with depth information. So what is there and what is not, is more about what the brain decodes as reality than the reality in it-self.

Now, let’s take three interesting matters into this idea of hacking the perception to develop the proposal which in fact is a compound of ideas. First let’s take the example of the immaterial museum developed by AMID, please go to the link or check the Verb Natures Boogazine of ACTAR, second the Materialization of Virtual reality and at last but not a least the Physical materialization of artificial environments.

...:::Virtual Materialization:::...

Virtual Reality is getting more real than ever. It’s not a thing of the future, or only available at a few laboratories. In the digital architecture world, virtual reality is pushing the boundaries of what is space and how we perceive it. Through simulation and immersion, we can feel a sense of actually being within a virtually constructed space.

Videogames are a good example in which we can actually feel for a moment that we are in a specific space, be it a sports stadium or through the streets of the archifamous San Andreas (Grand Theft Auto). In a way, we feel immersed.

One of the most powerful advantages of this is the possibility of not having to construct physically a building, for as long as it is available in a virtual environment, and as long as people can interact with it, the experience is achieved, at least partially. Architecture is moving towards this kind of practice made possible by digital technologies. Nowadays we can explore space and our relation to it without any physical or economic constraints, as long as we have the means to do it.

Virtual reality is changing the ways with which we approach the design and building processes. For example, Arup Acoustics, a company that offers acoustic consulting services since 1980, has deviced the SoundLab. It’s a small room where one can experience the acoustic characteristics of any space, built or unbuilt. With the SoundLab we can have a 3D auralitazion of a space, the equivalent of a 3D visual rendering. The impact of this is seen clearly in the way in which clients and designers now can incorporate these acoustical considerations in the early stages of the process. It reinforces the need for particular shape or material, providing the designer more freedom to experiment with complex geometries and materials. It takes the virtual reality to the next level, it’s the making real of the virtual.

...:::Artificial Materialization (also media interaction):::...

Virtual environments redefine the traditional conception of space references, working with a self referential and elusive presence defined by media interaction.

The interface of complex systems in digital architecture can be explained at three levels: ambiance, story and metaphor.

Ambiance is achieved in an artificial black volume, a non existing space, an artificial organism with a controlled climatic stage. It provides the user with sophisticated communication tools to have a fluid experience and includes the design of navigation systems to facilitate orientation, visual, tactile and auditory sensors, gps, radio antennas, microphones, etc.

The story is usually based on models of perceptions, cognition and behavior of human experience. This structured experience provides the user with the capacity to shape their experiences and spaces in a multi modal interactive environment (touch, movement, sound, light, etc).

Metaphor is the structure of the experiential journey. The metaphoric and conceptual foundation for the creation of virtual environments is usually based on the relationship man-physical object environment. The methodology of design interface using virtual symbolic images usually represents recognizable functional, representative and symbolic environments.

The virtual systems of creating artificial ambiances require a deep understanding of the invisible architectural experiences available to be constructed in the realm of fantasy. The creation of unpredictable impermanent architecture using digital technology reformulates the complex systems of perception to be explored in human experience.

..:::Proposal:::...

Imagine that when the user goes into the building —which can no longer be called building, let’s call it the Virtual-Artificial-Computer Hybrid. VACH from now on— The user gets a pair of glasses and a patch connected to the VACH,—the immaterial building project only proposes the patch connection— so the VACH and the user are connected interchanging information of location, temperature, heartbeats, what is the user watching, the height of the user, who is near the user, mini-GPS, etc. ,—much more further will be the implant of a micro-chip directly to the brain and connect this brain with the city not just with a single VACH—

Now, coordinated by the VACH the user receives on one eye the actual artificial environment while the other eye receives the virtual reality; this will become in a compound image of a real-virtual, artificial-hypernatural, reality. So the VACH will be allowed to give extra information of the reality, and also the artificial environment will be allowed to be incomplete—in a way— because the VACH will found the way to complete the perception-reality of the user using a combination of the real and the un-real. The boundaries between the real and the virtual will be so blured that the (re)materialization of the architecture will be a reject of the materializacion to acomplish a compound between the Virtuality with the Reality. Finally the VACH will ask the user..."(to) show you the world in my eyes"

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