Journey

My previous post is an example of a modern take on our recording and exploration of time. The image of Bristol's suspension bridge can use lengthy exposures to show us an image related to the passing of time.

The next film showing a man race a car is so quick that watchng it gives us a genuine appreciation of speed and its influence on our appreciation of the passage of time. His relationship with the track and obstacles is hard wired to his association of his movement through space with his perception of time.




If we then watch people making images of painting with light we feel a different emotional response to time and space.

Making Future Magic: iPad light painting from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

As I watch the films and analyse the photo my sense of time is altered so much that I believe I begin to observe my surroundings in a new light. If I was in fact the man driving the car or indeed the man who drew the models that were turned into a light painting I could reflect on that instant and remember how fast or slow I was perceiving the passing of time. If I were to swap the places of either subject and suddenly transport them into each alternate situation, their concept of physical surroundings and in turn their emotional response to what is immediately happening would be so massively altered as to result in instant disaster. The man driving the car would fail to understand how it is possible to see something that only exists in another dimension of time and space, just as the man painting with light would crash the car.

If I imagine walking to the shop to buy food and imagine how I feel on that journey I remember how I felt in relation to what I experienced. This encompasses all five senses but can be recalled in emotional association to our surroundings at that time. This means that an architectural aspect of this journey could be an emotional response within a person. If I imagine walking through Leith I can literally feel emotional memory through spacial association. If this is different to my actual feelings at that time I believe the differences are so minute as to be negligible. This warrants a belief in the possibility of architectural intervention on an emotional level.

I am reminded in such thought of the russian futurist idea of a newspapers building having a space above its door for the latest headlines. With the advent of augmented reality



maybe our buildings finish might not be how most people view our buildings. Maybe they usually use a friends perception or the "official" version. How would an architect react to this. Should we take a step back and design faceless facades that accommodate the maximum amount of visual space or can it physically respond to a new way of seeing and experiencing time?

Will a new barometer of a buildings success be its 'real' perception. Will an architect boast that his building has been walked past with the least amount of augmented reality applied to it. What would an image of this streetscape or journey look like?