Current Polemic

Exploring time as a possible condition of spatial experience and a definitive measure for the existence of atmospheric phenomena, this thesis seeks to unravel some of the mystic surrounding this immaterial quality. Through experiments situated in the realm of space-time and their ability to respond in dynamic capacities to user interaction, awareness of the temporal condition that space occupies and the role within it we as users play is brought to the foreground. It has become apparent that space is no longer static but instead defined through various interactions. Contemporary terminology within the field expresses these spatial conditions during conception as ‘fluid’, ‘responsive’, ‘adapting’, and ‘evolving’ to name just a few. These possibilities are generally contingent on human occupation as material states do not often afford the built environment such dramatic possibilities.

This condition is accepted because we no longer derive satisfaction as a detached observer. Our ever-increasing awareness of our temporal state as time is quantified, realized, and experienced in fractions of a second, is nearing or surpassing the threshold of our perceivable range. Its importance, while truly no less pressing despite this inability to truly witness its full breadth, carries a certain stigma due to these developments in observable and measurable application.

Looking at past and present methods of the representation of time through art and technology as well as our sensorial abilities to perceive it, this thesis attempts to frame a groundwork for ways in which temporal acuity can interweave itself into the design and actualization of our built environments. This interwoven connection presents a new and dynamic condition for the amplification of atmospheres within built space. Utilizing both design tactics to alter our emotional response to an environment and pairing those with methods of embodying motion and in turn temporality, truly ‘fluid’ design may be achievable in the realm of the experience.