In attempting to understand the interactions between formal and informal communities, Cynthia Kurtz and Dave Snowden’s sense-making model the Cynefin framework challenges three key assumptions currently held within organizational theory: 1) ‘Order’ – that human interactions and markets possess fundamental cause and effect relationships; 2) ‘Rational choice’ – that rational decision making based on minimizing pain or maximizing pleasure (Skinner’s ‘operant conditioning’) can be manipulated through education and thus determine possible outcomes; and 3) ‘Intent’ – that individuals or communities acquiring capabilities show an intention to use that capability. While the above assumptions may be true in some cases, Snowden’s sense-making approach contends they are not true universally, despite the fact that the methods commonly used assume that they are. Data is frequently skewed by the fact that people not only have multiple identities of which they are often blind, but they do not follow rules or act on local patterns.

Snowden, D., & Kurtz, C. F. (2003). The new dynamics of strategy: Sense-Making in a complex and complicated world. IBM Systems Journal, 42(3), 35-45.

In A biased history of CAAD¹ Alexander Koutamanis traces a bibliographic history of CAAD, positing that it emerges from two distinct ambitions: 1) a bottom-up technology-driven evolution of architectural computer graphics; and 2) a top-down domain of theory-minded design automation; including a subcategory of the previous two emphasizing computerization of analysis and evaluation. Results of the analysis are summarized in the above timeline, indicating parallel approaches during the broad adoption of CAAD in the 1980s, and a diversification during the democratic and populist 1990s, ranging from support, computational theory and collaborative projects with other specialisms. Algorithmic Architecture² by Kostas Terzidis shares a similar point that architectural computing is framed by two conditions: 1) bottom-up design realized through abstracted high level programming, i.e. computerization processes already conceptualized in the designer’s mind which are entered, manipulated or stored on a computer; and 2) top-down design realized through little or lower level programming, i.e. computation processes which apply scripting languages available in 3D packages like Maya Embedded Language (MEL), 3dMaxScript and FormZ 4.0.  While valid arguments can be made for all architects to have a broader understanding of computation in general, I would argue that the algorithmic approach is merely a shift towards an extreme formalist grammar. In fact on closer inspection, much of the recent work conceived using such methods has a recognizably visual bias of surface over space. In contrast to web and product design which seems more concerned with how things feel rather than look, architectural theory on the other hand remains trapped in a formalist cul-de-sac, conditioned by an increasingly formulaic geometricism. While I would agree with Terzidis that CAAD’s graphical interface incurs significant constraints on ideation (a view many design educators would share) a paradigm shift is unlikely unless a radical new way of interfacing with computer graphics is developed. Until this happens, computational architecture will remain largely faithful to its formalist roots.

1. Koutamanis, A. (2005). A biased history of CAAD. In Digital Design: The Quest for New Paradigms, 23nd eCAADe Conference Proceedings, Lisbon, September

2. Terzidis, K. (2006). Algorithmic architecture. Architectural Press

Emerging from a 1990s inquiry into the effects of emotion on cognitive health, CBU‘s Philip Barnard and John Teasdale constructed a macro-theory of mental architecture – Interacting Cognitive Subsystems¹ or ICS (above left). Accounting ‘for all the intricacies of human cognition and affect’, ICS is a highly parallel and modular structure comprising of nine interactive systems which have been further distilled into four subsystems – ‘acoustic’, ‘body state’, ‘effectors’ and ‘visual’ (above right).

In a recent series of tests into the affective qualities of images, Nick Halper et al. attempted to clarify the cognitive processing of ‘invariants’ (Gibson’s notion of stable entities) by applying ICS, making distinctions between propositional and implicational meaning – i.e. between semantic (facts about the world) and schematic (ideational and affective) content. In the experiments, participants were required to make rapid aesthetic judgements on selections of either high or low resolution images. While the earlier Fordham experiment similarly showed affective variance between cold and hot media, disseminating the effects via the ICS model potentially offers a more critical approach beyond the purely descriptive (see Gestaltism). For example – as Halper et al. explain, subsystems receive data from multiple sources but only invariants within the incoming representations become coherent. Transformations only function on coherent products and if these are absent, output becomes unusable. Transformation disengages and thus operates either on data most recently copied or from deeper within the experiential record.²

Like Fordham, Halper’s tests confirmed differences between visualization media and how they control meaning and influence judgement. Paradoxically however, while applications of ICS correctly highlight the crossmodal nature of visual perception and learning, the methods chosen to test participant feedback were largely modular (unimodal). Arguably, mapping crossmodal interaction will become an increasingly critical element for future research if such models are to be more sucessfully adopted in practice. As the most recent crossmodal studies remind us:

‘…visual processing does not appear to take place in a module independently of other sensory processes. It appears to interact vigorously with other sensory modalities in a wide variety of domains.’³

1. Philip Barnard and John Teasdale (1991) Interacting cognitive subsystems: A systematic approach to cognitive affective interaction and change. Cognition and Emotion, 5(1):1 39

2. David Duke, Philip Barnard, Nick Halper, Mara Mellin (2003) Rendering and affect. Computer Graphics Forum, 22 (3), pp. 359-368

3. Ladan Shams & Robyn Kim (2010) Crossmodal influences on visual perception. Physics of Life Reviews Vol. 7, Issue 3, pp. 269-284

‘Chaos, Trends and/or Rhythms Constituting Structures in Time’ by Franz Halberg (2001)

While recent studies by Stanford’s Martin Fischer highlight the benefits of employing 4D modeling in construction (improved communications for planning and production) the most common reasons for lack of adoption into practice is the steep learning curve, lack of analytical support and cost. Despite Fischer’s methodology ‘generating 4D models from 3d product models’ I would argue that valuable criteria remains missing from the project.

Currently, all 4D design systems are 3D platforms with procurement and scheduling plug-ins – essentially post-conceptual, thus limiting collaborative influence in the early stages of design. Without the ability to conceptualize ‘time’ as a critical dimension beyond the other 3, all environment design is fatally flawed from the earliest point of creative ideation. This is not however the fault of the architect – digital modeling platforms enforce a ‘bounded projection’ in how designers think and structure projects from a user-centred perspective. 4D models may be more easily understood by stakeholders, yet such benefits mask an critical point – buildings do not function solely as commodified entities, they must also adapt to provide stimulating and healthy environments over time to a broad range of people.

The physiological effects of ’time’ on humans has been known since the C18, with the latest studies linking chronobiological cycles to the human genome (Duboule, 2003). With the arrival of chronomic science (see Halberg‘s diagram above) and growth in evidence supporting the effects of electronic media on neurotransmitters like serotonin, noradrenaline, dopamine and tryptophan (natural psychotropics) an increasing number of researchers are now looking beyond traditional cognitive models to question the chronomic implications of media. My thesis begins with the assumption that chronomic science has the potential to counter traditional ‘closed’ systems of architectural design based on cybernetic homeostasis (the ‘superorganism’) by providing more ‘open’ tangible media frameworks instructed by biological rhythmicity.

Despite the extended and ubiquitous nature of cognition, the majority of educational facilities have remained places of specialization and standardization, i.e. one format for all. The above clip outlines what digital citizens are really gettig up to in class (tweeting, texting, etc.), suggesting discrepancies between academic management and socially enabled learning are often wildly underestimated.

If we accept that all built environments consist of multiple arrays of media ecologies (books, smartphones, laptops, lighting, hvac, etc.) and that such ecologies enable us to extend our own psychophysical potential, it follows that all environments are essentially networked extensions of the body. Thus, before challenging the separatist methods of architectural praxis, concepts of active externalism and the extended mind thesis (EMT) need to be examined if we are to more accuately define how environments shape cognition.

The extended mind thesis simply questions where the mind stops and the world begins. Most of us would answer the skin or the skull. However, Clark and Chalmers suggest cognition is inextricably looped throughout the environment. Citing the behaviour of garden spiders who build intricate webs despite their blindness, a recent paper further supports Clark’s thesis, stating ‘it is easy to be misled into thinking that intelligent action is always the sole product of neural mechanism… always something that must reside in the ‘head’ of an agent… what the case of web construction teaches us is that agents may often co-opt a variety of far flung forces and factors into a problem-solving routine, and not all of these forces and factors need to be biological in nature.’

Realizing environments as extended cognitive networks presents a great challenge for the traditional schizm between design and facility management. A good example of this can be seen at Arup who operate over 10 specialist divisions including Advanced Technology, Lighting, Acoustics, Product and Theatre design. Despite a plethora of design and engineering expertise (incl. communications), no department currently facilitates the necesssary integration fundamental to servicing the interactive demands of media environments. A disappointing but not surprising revelation. Such effects have been recognized for decades, as John Dewey noted in his seminal book on aesthetics - Art as Experience:

‘Comparmentalization of occupations and interests bring about a separation of that mode of activity commonly called “practice” from insight, of imagination from executive doing. Each of these activities is then assigned its own place in which it must abide. Those who write the anatomy of experience then supppose that these divisions inhere in the very constitution of human nature.‘ Dewey, J., Art as Experience (1934) p.21

Countering the communications fallout between design and engineering, Munro’s model for Integral Architecture (right) extends traditional linear production (left) in favour of a more integrated approach, whereby four environmental divisions operate within one non-hierachical framework. The importance of how media ecosystems and user-experience are cultivated and nurtured can not be understated, indeed many examples of crossmodal immersion have already begun to emerge, within retail and leisure sectors, with financial, education and health sectors not far behind.

Whether internally or externally directed, the effects of spatial media have been shown to be considerable – e.g. recent studies reveal how changes in somatic media (from chairs to loungers) can dramatically shift brainwave activity from convergent to divergent thought. Projects like Googleplex Zurich show how successful motivational spaces can be in positively influencing staff production. However, to fully understand how spatial media may be applied to achieve ‘theta sound’, ‘alpha air’, ‘beta form’ or ‘gamma light’, real-time neurophysiological analyses will become increasingly necessary to support a field which is clearly still in its earliest phases of development. Nevertheless, some of the initial findings are quite compelling…

Acoustic media Research shows that architects primarily adopt three approaches; to absorb (ceiling tile), to block (panels, layout) and to cover-up (electronic sound masking). While all provide some reduction, electronic sound masking has been shown to be the most practical and effective. It follows that understanding the bioeffects of sound are key if architects wish to optimise cognitive performance, e.g. excessive use of hard reflective materials like glass, metal and epoxy would be ill-advised in spaces which demand cognitive attention and focus (gamma).

Chemical media Researching the effects of four primary aromatic groups (oriental, fresh, floral, woody), Aromachology provides evidence of enhanced levels of concentration and relaxation. Such chemicals are increasingly finding status among products like the Multisensory Kitchen by Zaha Hadid which use light patterns calibrated with the release of aromatics to synthesize traditional aromas. Applications of internal gardens and oxygenating systems have also been shown to provide effective treatment for people suffering from S.A.D.

Electric media While research into lighting and electronic devices have largely focused on perceptual and problem-solving tasks, recent investigations into light therapy has emerged in response to studies linking mood disorders like unipolar depression and SAD to circadian rhythm abnormalities. It follows that universal circadian phase-shifting and chronobiological factors are now viewed as responsible for a wide spectrum of disease. Philips dynamic lighting systems and ambient experience are pioneering applications to counter such effects.

Somatic media Despite the postural dominance of the office chair, multi-user ‘augmented forms’ forging social interaction and collaborative learning raise levels of user engagement. For example, fitness media like slides, trampolines and tredesks all provide essential opportunities to counter the sedentary nature of workstations. More importantly, sensory deprivation studies into ganzfeld by Carnegie Mellon and University of Vienna now support the benefits of sound therapy furniture like the AlphaLounger and the Energy Pod to remedy conditions of ‘digital fatigue’.

In evaluating the ability of spatial media to achieve cognitive equilibrium, a ranking can be calculated using the Spatial Analysis chart (below). Each case study potentially scores a maximum of 64 points depending on the presence or absence of specific media.

Until recently, EEG studies into the cognitive effects of spatial media have been limited, however based on current research into acoustic, chemical, electric and somatic media (ACES), the above diagram provides a framework for examining design potentials for what may be described as architectural mindfields.

Clay Shirkey discusses Cognitive Surplus¹ at TED

After 20 years of research, the core argument presented in The Master and his Emissary by Iain McGilchrist seems wildly out of sync with modern times. Nowhere throughout this incredibly referenced book have the effects of communications media (e.g., Innis, McLuhan) been addressed. While philosophers still debate the levels of influence screen media impart upon human consciousness, few would doubt we live in a highly pervasive pop culture. Sadly, McGilchrist’s analysis of how the dominance of brain lateralization has shaped human culture suffers from what McLuhan coined the rear-view mirror, i.e. we evaluate present environmental media via nostalgic metaphors of the past. Their effects therefore remain invisible to us.

Since the 1960s explosion of entertainment technologies, media ecologists have been examining the considerable shifts in cognitive perception, with many reporting a gradual feminization of the male psyche (70s sexual liberation, 80s androgyny, 90s metrosexuality). So where exactly has McGilchrist been residing? If the latest studies into the effects of social networks (Zac, 2009) and cognitive surplus are correct (Leadbeater, 2009; Shirkey, 2010) McGilchrist should be championing a left-brain renaissance rather than lamenting right-brain obsolescence. Such phenomenological analyses result in a philosophical dead-end, as McLuhan noted in his posthumous Laws of Media:

There is in Heidegger still no sense of interplay between figure and ground; the attention has just been shifted from one to the other wihout trying to take the new thing on its own terms. That is, ground cannot be dealt with conceptually or abstractly: it is ceaselessly changing, dynamic, discontinuous and heterogenous, a mossaic of intervals and contours. As von Bekesy discovered, the appropriate form of awareness is acoustic-tactile-kinetic and alive to the stress and coercion that each exerts on the other.³

1. Clay Shirkey, Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age (Allen Lane, 2010)

2. Charles Leadbeater, We-think: The Power of Mass Creativity (Profile, 2008)

3. Marshall & Eric McLuhan, Laws of Media: The New Science (UTP, 1988)  p.63

 
Philips Design Probe has teamed up with restaurant Arzak to create Multi-Sensorial Gastronomy – a series of crockery that transforms the experience of eating. The term ‘molecular gastronomy’ defines a cuisine where chefs take inspiration from science and research. Beyond merely serving food on crisp, white plates, this bone china series is designed to react to food. As liquid is poured into the Lunar Eclipse bowl, a glow begins to appear from the bottom. Light begins to appear as soon as food makes contact with both the Fama and Tapa de Luz plate. 

The series involves the integration of lighting, conductive printing, selective fragrance discharge, micro-vibration and electro stimulus among other sensory stimuli that all create an altered and interactive dining experience. The hope is that the project will generate discussion and debate about the fusion of technology and food in the future.

 
Light Pollution by cestomano

Research into the effects of artificial lighting on human circadian rhythms has shown increasing incidents of fatigue, depression and lowered immunity. Clearly humans are not well adapted to the new pressures of the 24-hour workplace. Disruptions in lighting also cause problems with Growth Hormone (GH) and melatonin levels which seriously affect how our bodies age and fight cancers. But perhaps more dramatically, any disturbance of cortisol can cause stress, high blood pressure and obesity, indicating that “light pollution”  has completely altered our experience of the environment on both aesthetic (e.g. luminous fog)  and biological levels:

“Light intrusion, even if dim, is likely to have measurable effects on sleep disruption and melatonin suppression. Even if these effects are relatively small from night to night, continuous chronic circadian, sleep and hormonal disruption may have longer-term health risks”

In a statement from the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), the use of bluish-white outdoor lighting increasingly threatens human and animal life. While Philips Dynamic Lighting is an attempt to counteract the effects of static lighting scenarios, responsibility for population health must surely reside with city planning departments and ultimately Government.

Lockley, S., “Blinded by the Light?” (CfDS handbook, 2009)

The Chimaera & the Sphinx from the Dying Dreamer by Malin Zim

One of the earliest explorations into transformation design emerges from Against Nature À rebours by Joris-Karl Huysmans. Rebelling against the naturalism of contemporaries like Emile Zola, Huysmans’ main character Des Esseintes believes nature “has had her day” and that “the time has surely come for artifice to take her place whenever possible.”  In response to the lack of aesthetic intensity in real world, Des Esseintes artificially manufactures a mind-altering virtual palette of artefacts in which to stimulate hyperesthetic experience, albeit without the social connectivity of twenty-first century cyberspace.

Interestingly, Des Esseintes does not acquire hyperaesthetic artefacts for social status, the transformative experience of the artefact is more important than the object itself. Further, Huysmans extends space beyond the visual and acoustic by allocating navigational functions to aromatics and haptic elements, mimicking the crossmodal effects of synesthetic cognition. By presenting artifice as the totally immersive reality of choice, Huysmans pioneers a manual for hyperesthetic experience. For Huysmans, it is cognitive manipulation that gives rise to flights of imagination, and imagination that controls human evolution itself.

Established in Paris in 2000, Electronic Shadow is a hybrid design platform whose practice is based on research and innovation. Their approach allows unique propositions which merge space, image, material and light in the most diverse contexts from art and architecture to design and scenography. Media technologies becomes totally invisible – no screens or visible interfaces are visible, visitors only need touch the walls or move their bodies and the habitation will respond to them.

Many virtual environments reduce the observer to a disembodied state within a Cartesian space that is clear for miles around and empty. Although Charlotte Davies‘s virtual environment Osmose (1995) has been exhibited only six times in North America and Europe, it has received more attention in the international discussion of media art than perhaps any other work. Only a few thousand visitors have experienced the installation, but many times that number of art aficionados have avidly followed the debate on aesthetics, phenomenology, and reception of virtual art that has homed in on this particular work.

  
Space is the notion that connects a multiplicity of elements in McLuhan’s large and diverse ouevre. McLuhan made constant reference to space throughout his career and the various dimensions of this thought are articulated through notions of spatial biases, sensations and modes of production. It was space furthermore which anchored the systems of ideas that connected McLuhan to artists and theorists with whose work his own is most productively situated. McLuhan in Space by Richard Cavell

While McLuhan’s later work experienced luke warm reception, his reappraisal in recent times shows his views on media and communications have lost none of its punch. McLuhan’s 1969 Playboy interview offers his ideas up in a most lucid fashion. In true maverick style, McLuhan rarely ‘positioned’ or ‘framed’ his views - his perspective was always in a state of flux. As McLuhan realized, there can no points of view in a society where media promotes their own hyperesthetic models of lifestyle experience.

The utopian Mind Expander (1969) by Haus Rucker Co, both neural sanctuary and atopic habitat, promises to deliver us from the corporate matrix. In Empire of the Senses David Howes introduces an extended model of cognition for the cultural reader: “while the paradigm of embodiment implies an integration of mind and body, the emergent paradigm of emplacement suggests the sensuous interrelationship of body-mind-environment.” Echoing Andy Clarke’s work on the Extended Mind a decade earlier, Howes also reminds us of its counter imperative – displacement. Historically, architectural discourse has favoured textual analysis, an approach which has arguably offered up some of the least endearing environments on the planet. For better or worse, these spaces are now the dominating forces in contemporary corporate life – the non-places in which we permanently dwell; the terminal, the mall and the office.

Singleton House Richard Neutra, 1959

Form Follows Libido is a facinating book by architectural theorist Sylvia Lavin which documents how some architects directed the abstraction of high modernism away from a neutral formalism toward the production of more erotic, affective environments. Focusing on California-based Richard Neutra (1892-1970) she explores the genesis of these new mood-inducing environments set against a background of fetishized domestic architecture and popularist therapeutic culture of 50′s America. She reveals how Neutra’s redirection of modernism constituted not a lyrical regression to sentimentality but a deliberate advance of architectural theory and technique to engage the unconscious mind, fueled by the ideas of psychoanalysis that were disseminated at the time.

“Eight million Americans a year cool their heels in psychiatric waiting rooms. Design can help lower this nervous overhead.” Richard Neutra, 1954

Espace Pur by Marc Hottinger & Lucien Iseli

Espace Pur is an air ionizer that uses dust as pixels and that displays patterns thanks to it, in a very slow motion way. It cleans and purifies the air in architectural spaces. It increases the level of oxygen’s negative ions contained in the ambient air. Once installed, the air’s oxygenation becomes nearly the same as in the mountains. The more there are negative ions, the more the air is purified. The installation of the “anti-dust screen” can take place in flats, hospitals, offices, and everywhere where air needs to be cleaned. The aim of the project is therefore to capture dust and organize it on wall panels in order to build pictures that will gently appear on the wall. The panels are displaying compositions of weed that are on the one hand harmful plants but on the second hand have beneficial aspect on the health.

Just as the scent of the skin changes with emotion, Smart Second Skin interacts with human emotions whereby the aroma dimension becomes an integral part of the wearers wellness sensory experience. The dress mimics the body’s circulation system, the senses and scent glands. The interactive fabric emits a selection of scents depending on your mood. Aromatic messages are actively ‘pulsed’ electronically through a cabling system, to key points of the body in order to activate the smell centre. The project is from the Science Fashion Lab which brings together the disciplines of Analytical Chemistry, nanotechnology, perfumery and fashion design.

Whiteplane_2 (2006) by Alex Bradley and Charles Poulet.

Using ambisonics and large-scale planes of shimmering LED light, the audience sits, stands or lies as the space around them is rewritten with flickering vistas, floating panoramas and tactile surfaces. Consistently surprising and confounding expectations, Whiteplane_2 has been described as ‘a spectacular triumph’ and ‘heart-achingly beautiful’. The installation will also feature a cutting-edge ‘live ambisonics’ performance on the opening night, during which the artists will take the work to new audio/visual heights and extremes. A unique sonic-illumination in 3D.

REAL FAKE: Sissel Tolaas from Grafikdesign und Fotografie on Vimeo.

Sensorium, a 2006 exhibition at the MIT List Visual Arts Center, explored various ways in which artists address the influence of technology on the senses. In ‘Fear I,’ above, Norwegian artist Sissel Tolaas embedded synthesized human sweat pheromones into the white paint on the gallery’s walls. The smells derive from the body odor of frightened men. Visitors rub the walls to release the smells.

Kapsel by Eventscape is a multisensory mobile enviroment that can be set up in an office, hospital or school to create an oasis of relaxation and calm. Kapsel allows designers to create customisable environments without the use of traditional building materials. Using lightweight tubular frames allows knockdown environments to be skinned in any material with no restrictions on size or form. By integrating full colour graphics, light, sound and scent, the audience is totally immersed in a multisensory environment, stimulating therapeutic mind and body processes.

Megan Lane reports on how cities are now being redesigned as gyms. Stairs for cardio training. Wider footpaths instead of treadmills. She comments that it’s not just that we eat more and do less. We live in what experts call an “obesogenic” environment – our surroundings encourage inactivity. For the first time since infectious disease was conquered, children’s lifespan is shortening. But it’s not about illness, it’s lifestyle. Planners are now looking at wider footpaths and attractively landscaped pedestrianised areas to lure walkers. Stairs and ramps works different muscles and helps the motor-neuron development of very young children, says Jennie Butterworth, of Learning Through Landscapes. “Aylesbury is a good example of a town that promotes activity,” says Polly Turton, from CABE. “It’s spent a lot on cycle paths and pedestrian provision.”

Mix House by Joel Sanders, Ben Rubin & KVL

Since the birth of printing and perspective, architecture has been ocularcentric Pallasmaa. The “quintessential icons of modernism” is the floor-to-ceiling window, the curtain wall. For Rubin these present acoustical problems. The Mix House attempts to re-introduce sound into the residence, to play with both visual and aural transparency. Created by Joel Sanders, Ben Rubin, Karen Van Lengen it explores the possibility of closely coordinating sound and vision with the goal of enhancing the individual’s audiovisual experience of the domestic landscape. Situated on a generic suburban plot, the dwelling is composed of two sound-gathering volumes with three audiovisual windows. The curved profile of each of these sonic windows is composed of two elements: a louvered glass window wall that regulates the sound of the air-borne ambient environment, and a parabolic dish that electronically targets domestic sounds and transmits them to an interior audio system controlled from the kitchen island. From here occupants are free to design original domestic soundscapes by mixing media sponsored sounds with the ambient noises of the neighborhood.

Christian Nold from FADE research on Vimeo.

Biomapping is a research project which explores new ways that we as individuals can make use of the information we can gather about our own bodies. The project envisages new tools that allows people to selectively share and interpret this information. The current version of the Bio Mapping system allows people to measure their Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) as a simple indicator of emotional arousal in conjunction with their geographical location. By sharing this data we can construct maps that visualise where we as a community feel stressed and excited.

The Weather Project was installed at the Tate Modern in 2003 as part of the popular Unilever series. The installation filled the open space of the gallery’s Turbine Hall with representations of the Sun and the sky. Olafur Eliasson used humidifiers to create a fine mist in the air via a mixture of sugar and water, as well as a semi-circular disc made up of hundreds of mono-frequency lamps which emitted pure yellow light. The ceiling of the hall was covered with a huge mirror, in which visitors could see themselves as tiny black shadows against a mass of orange light. Many visitors responded to this exhibition by lying on their backs and waving their hands.

Current sustainable design guidelines focused on the conservation of energy (e.g. eco-lighting) invariably reduce sensory bias to the purely visual. This is problematic as without attempting to employ cross-modal analyses, much design research fails to escape the reductionist methodologies of mainstream science. The shortcomings of unimodal analysis is perhaps best outlined in the latest research for neuroaesthetics, a visually-biased program which aims to uncover the mysteries of human creativity and art. In its current state, it misses the mark on two counts; first, not only are responses to art ‘creatively’ biased (via Gazzaniga’s ‘interpreter’) but second, if we accept that aesthetic appreciation involves the entire body, neuroimaging is an incredibly narrow window into the connections between body function and response. The neuroenthusiasta hype has gathered significant momentum in the past decade, with fields of neurolaw, neuroarthistory, neuromarketing and neuroeconomics all jumping on the proverbial bandwagon. Few would doubt the need for cross-fertilization between the two cultures, however researchers and policy makers would do well to remain skeptical of what Raymond Tallis (above) refers to as neuromythologies: ‘if you come across a new discipline with the prefix “neuro” and it is not to do with the nervous system itself, switch on your bullshit detector. If it has society in its sights, reach for your gun.’

Split-times Cafe by Philippe Rahm (2007)

So why focus environmental research on the pineal gland? Because despite the size and higher functioning of the neocortex, all cognitive responses to the built environment are initiated in the reptilian brain or brainstem, regulating instinctual functions essential for survival. The true function of the pineal gland has been contemplated for millenia; the Ancient Greeks believed it connect us to the Realms of Thought, Descartes coined it the Seat of the Soul. Studies now confirm that light and dark cycles trigger impulses from a region inside the hypothalamus called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) to the photosensitive pineal gland, inhibiting the production of melatonin. When light no longer stimulates the hypothalamus at night, pineal suppression ceases and melatonin is released. These processes have led some to suggest that melatonin may provide the trigger for psychedelic cognition:

‘The pineal gland is a chemical production factory, either producing melatonin or serotonin depending on the presence of absence of light. In this process, light source information is relayed from the eyes via the optic nerves and results in the activation of synthesizers that either produces melatonin in the absence of light or serotonin in the presence of light, becoming the brains largest producer of serotonin.’

In collaboration with the Centre for Chronobiology, Philippe Rahm (above) is one of the few architects exploring the potential of spatial media (coloured light, deionizing air filters) to manipulate circadian rhythm. It remains to be seen whether such art projects can cross over into the mainstream, inspiring architects to employ similar approaches to realtime situations.

Callaway, J (1988).Proposed Mechanism for the Visions of Dream Sleep. Medical Hypotheses. 26, 119-124.

Recent experiments in cross reality radically challenge traditional notions of naive realism and biophilia, with the sharing of digital artefacts (audio, images, video) reflecting a highly voyeuristic and technophilic desire ‘to watch’ and ‘be watched’. The ability of media to skew presence shows that while traditional 2D artworks may not support physical presence (with the exception of set designs and trompe l’oeil effects) immersive VR systems provide a more direct sense of user participation. This is achieved in two ways. First, by removing any mediating technologies so users can actively reconfigure their experience; second, by creating interactive multi-user platforms for shared content and user experience, e.g. as seen in the above ACME system by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

Three modes of presence: LBEs (location-based entertainment), SVEs (shared virtual environments) and MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons)

A meta-analysis into the experience of being-there by Riva & IjsselSteijn concluded that presence is always mediated physically (bodily, technological objects) and culturally and that ‘physical’ presence is no more ‘real’ than virtual immersion: “Experiencing presence requires the reproduction of the physical features of external reality; the possibility of interaction and free action, and the creation and sharing of the cultural web that makes meaningful – and therefore visible – both people and objects populating the environment.”¹ While human-like robots and avatars are created to instil a rich sense of copresence that mimics corporeal presence, paradoxically, such rich experiences are not always desirable. For example, the most addictive social networking activity is also the most disembodied – ‘texting’ or ‘online chat’ demands that low levels of ‘media richness’  are more advantageous (users often prefer to remain anonymous while connecting with others). This response may be due to that fact that until recently, many machines failed to engage humans emotionally, although this seems to be changing with rapid advances of affective computing (voice and facial recognition). Avoiding the singularity debate on whether computers will eventually have the capacity to acquire super-intelligence, research into copresence increasingly reveals that by making machines more human-like via affective computing, humans are becoming more machine-like: “…as computer technologies are more and more integrated into the fabric of social life, social reality becomes increasingly virtual, and virtual reality increasingly social.”² Despite issues of reality distraction and privacy, Brother Industries plans to produce Retinal Imaging Display (RID) glasses for augmented vision suggest it is only a matter of time before full immersion virtual reality and augmented reality will revolutionize our perception of nature.

In his essay Nature is not Green, Koert van Mensvoort reminds us that environments have become ‘hypernatural’ extensions of nature, “a simulation of a nature that never existed.” Even better than the real thing, hypernature is prettier, slicker and safer than before, thus “the more we learn to control trees, animals, atoms and the climate, the more they lose their natural character and enter into the realms of culture.”³ The key argument from a hypernaturist perspective is that rather than be concerned about the disappearance and destruction of the natural world, humans will adapt for positive gain. This will undoubtedly happen, as the history of human evolution reveals. However, certain biological adaptation will have a subliminally harmful effect on human life. For example, a study in the 1980s by Gary Evans discovered that people who live with air pollution over a considerable time frame become conditioned to the polluted air quality, unable to recognize it even exists, condition which Peter Hahn coins environmental generational amnesia.

Hahn’s ‘amnesia’ confirms the desensitizing effects of media McLuhan predicted more than four decades ago. Environmental ‘anesthesia’ or desensitization has shown that while humans have adapted to extremes in light, noise and air pollution, such adaption has also imparted negative stressors upon our biological systems. Thus, contrary to popular belief, not all human adaptation is beneficial, as we directly sense via our love/hate relationship of the hypernatural environment. We crave fast food, fast cars and fast living, yet despite their economic advantages we also must accept hypernature’s negative polluting and intoxicating effects on cognitive health.

1. G. Riva et al., “Being There: Concepts, effects and measurement of user presence in synthetic environments” (Ios Press, 2003) Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2. Zhao, S., “Toward A Taxonomy of Copresence” from Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments archive Volume 12 ,  Issue 5  (October 2003) p.445 – 455

3. Mensvoort, K., “Real Nature is not Green”, Published in Vermeulen, (2006) Sun enlightment, States of Nature. Syndicaat, ISBN: 87-1762457-900-4

Connectivism MindMap by George Siemens (2004)

In response to shifts in education media and the limitations of behaviorist, cognitivist and constructivist learning environments, George Siemens and Stephen Downes have developed an alternative model – connectivism. Referred to as “a learning theory for the digital age” it aims to understand the effects of technology on human life, communications and learning:

‘…connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories. Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual. Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing. Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations.‘¹

As Siemens himself notes, the idea for connectivism is drawn from earlier texts on distributed congition Hutchins, media theory McLuhan and social development Vygotsky. In this respect it seems difficult to claim the theory as revolutionary, indeed as a review of the epistemology of design highlights, the majority of learning theories have evolved from three fundamental positions – innatism, empiricalism and constructivism. However, despite recent critics who claim it can not be defined as a theory (Verhagen, 2006), Siemens argument for revising the fundamental precepts of learning from ‘skill acquisition’ to ‘actionable knowledge’ seems well justified on many levels, not least of which is the growing evidence base supporting educational software.

Contrary to assumptions that networks ‘haven’t changed learning so much that we need to throw away all of the established learning theories and replace them with a new one’ (Kerr, 2006), distributed co-creation radically confronts the inadequacies of traditional learning models (Kolb, Riding, Gregorc, Myers-Brigg, Entwistle) which are predominantly based on inadequately validated concepts of genetic inheritance, archetypal psychology and instrinsic motivation. Many of Siemens’ critics fail to grasp this salient point – connectivism does not transfer cognitive power from the individual to the smartmob (digital Maoism) as proposed by media moralists like Jaron Lanier.

Rather, it responds to the urgent need for educational professionals to begin sharing and building a knowledge base to address fundamental change, instead of wasting time agressively defending opposing theoretical positions which bear little or no relevance to how digital natives (screenagers) acquire knowledge in the C21.

1. George Siemens, (2005) Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, Retrieved 17/01/11 http://www.itdl.org/journal/jan_05/article01.htm

The above diagram by Mark Bew of BuildingSmart and Mervyn Richards of CPIC shows the evolution from what may now be called ‘traditional’ CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) to an integrated and interoperable Building Information Model (BIM or iBIM). The benefits of editing drawings and schedules from within a single unified database offers clear advantages for many aspects of production from construction to post-occupancy. However, while growth in BIM usage has been noted (up to 80% in some cases), the reality is that not all parties elect to use the same tools. With Revit functioning as the primary BIM platform, many other parametric (Digital Project and Rhino) and feedback (Ecotect, Fluent and Simulex) tools are employed to further enable cost reductions.

Such evolutionary transferrence of information from designers to producers (builders) creates significant challenges to the traditional role of the architect as visionary leader, particularly in terms of design ideation. Yet the key advantage of BIM remains centred on its capacity to integrate lifecycles of social interaction, a shift which earlier CAD modelling simply failed to deliver. While early promises of an architectural revolution by W. J. Mitchell and Nicholas Negroponte may have been overly optimistic, in Vitruvius Redux, Mitchell reminds us that contrary to popular belief, digital design media nostalgically clings to the past, adhering to systems of architecture which can be traced back to early C19 design theories of Durand (below) and Guadet:

‘…designers relied heavily upon abstract ordering devices such as grids and axes… guided by this skeleton they would then consider alternative ways to arrange the major rooms and circulation spaces. Finally, they would develop the design by deploying elements from an established vocabulary of construction elements – columns, entablatures, doors, windows, and so on… a recursive process of top-down substitution.‘¹

1. Antonsson, Erik K.; and Cagan, Jonathan. Formal Engineering Design Synthesis. Cambridge University Press, 2001. Cambridge Books Online. Cambridge University Press. 17 November 2010 http://dx.doi.org/

Investigating the nature of intuition the 1970s, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman identified cognitive bias as heuristic reasoning (cognitive shortcuts) which results in errors of statistical judgment, social attribution and memory. Ubiquitous throughout human cognition, such errors clearly skew the reliability of anecdotal and verbal protocol analysis. Reminiscent of McLuhan’s notion of hot and cool media cognitive biases have also been grouped into either hot or cold states of emotional arousal. E.g., highly attentive and interactive information affording heightened patterns arousal or ‘hot cognition’  bias rapid emotionally-charged decision making without analytical reflection. Conversely, low attentive non-engaging information affording low patterns of arousal or ‘cold cognition’ bias calmer reflective thought processes.¹ The above diagram is taken from a recent visual study of cognitive bias which can be found here.

As Peter Rowe argued, the practice of architectural design is inherently heuristic, exerting ‘a strong and dynamic influence over subsequent sequences of problem interpretation, solution generation, problem representation and solution assessment.’² Based on protocol analyses of architectural designers at work, Rowe identifies five classes of heuristic constraints which shape architectural production: 1) anthropometric analogies, 2) literal analogies, 3) environmental relations, 4) typologies and 5) formal languages. A more extended analysis to the one offered below can be found in his 1991 book Design Thinking.

1. Abelson, R. P. (1963). Computer simulation of “hot cognition”, in S. S. Tomkins & S. Messick (Eds.), Computer simulation of personality (pp. 277-302). New York: Wiley

2. Rowe, P. (1999). A Priori Knowledge and Heuristic Reasoning in Architectural Design. In Classic Readings in Architecture, edited by K. Spreckelmeyer & J. Stein. WCB/McGraw Hill. Originally published in Journal of Architectural Education 36, no.1 (1982) p.18

The Affective Geography of Silence by Giaccardi & Sabena (2006)

In her 2001 essay ‘Digital Pedagogy’ Professor of Urban Studies at UCLA Dana Cuff raises some key issues regarding the digital media on offer throughout the majority of European and American based architectural schools. As design software ‘both reflects and enables forms of thought, as does language, according to the Whorfian hypothesis‘, Cuff notes ‘there is a decided bias toward surface rather space.’ This may come as no surprise to design tutors of production (AutoCAD, ArchiCAD, CATIA) or visualization software (Maya, FormZ, StudioMax) however as Cuff reveals, ‘most schools tend to prioritize one visualization application in studio, which invites a particular way of thinking about design.’¹ By restricting movement ’between viz-ware and production software, or between digital and material design’, Cuff contends that design environments prioritizing representation over instructional output fail to deliver the primary role of architectural drawing – instruction. While some schools are attempting to bridge the divide between digital and tactile design (e.g. UCLA, SciArc) Cuff’s essay confirms a disturbing trend within practice and research – what Kees Dorst recently referred to as an over-emphasis on process.² 

However, what Cuff and others have failed to develop is why such an over-emphasis should matter. As connectivist learning theorist George Siemens notes, recent changes in social media have irreversibly altered our understanding of learning and idea creation, thus design research internalizing the creative process from within empirically closed systems (e.g. traditional behaviourist or constructivist models) blind themselves to the open dynamics of distributed creativity. Arguably, any future companies wishing to optimize creativity in a conceptual economy (Greenspan, 1997; Pink, 2005) will be ones structured on a collective sharing of media and ideas, a connectivist approach to learning which few design researchers have yet to address, with the exception of Fischer & Giaccardi‘s conceptual framework for metadesign (see below). As Fischer et al. stress, ‘meta-design puts owners of problems in charge of creating open, evolvable systems that address the limitations associated with closed systems.’³

The SER (seeding, evolutionary growth, reseeding) model  by Gerhard Fischer (1995)

1. Deborah Snoonian & Dana Cuff, (2001) Digital Pedagogy: An Essay, Architectural Record, Vol. 189, Issue 9

2. Kees Dorst, (2007) Design research: a revolution-waiting-to-happen, Keynote speech delivered at the Congress of the International Association of Societies of Design Research, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

3. Gerhard Fischer et al., (2004) Meta-Design: A Manifesto for End User Development. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 47, Issue 9, pp 33-37

Fabien Girardin‘s Sketching with Data for the Louvre Museum using visual programming environment Impure by Bestiario

Debates on the effects of drawing technologies have been in circulation since the emergence of design education in the mid C19, specifically Dyce’s objections to the pervasive bias of life drawing (Bell, 1963). Despite a fleeting renaissance in drawing, visualization researcher Pam Schenk notes that promoting the benefits of drawing to students has become increasingly problematic. In a recent letter to Tracey, Schenk confirms that due to increased applications of digital media over the past two decades, design graduates lack critical drawing skills. Schenk’s studies into the habits of print, textile and industrial designers over a 20 year period concluded that drawing ‘remains at the centre of the creative and developmental process of design’ for two key reasons; a) to support conceptualization and b) to facilitate communication.¹

Optimizing conceptual and communicative media is clearly important, and drawing skills have remained fundamental in developing some of the latest collaborative visualization tools – e.g. Dorta’s Hybrid Ideation Space, however the emerging fields of environmental informatics and visual programming (above) suggest that as creative design processes become more mediated, intelligent and complex, it may be only a matter of time before traditional modes of sketching become virtually redundant, as Bill Mitchell suggested more than two decades ago.² Citing Mark Burry‘s 1997 paper ‘Narrowing the Gap Between CAAD and Computer Programming’ Boeykens and Neukermanns recognize the need to assign visual programming equal weight within the architectural curriculum:

‘…the relation between programming and design studio assignments is still non-existent in many schools, nowadays… Programming should be part of the main architectural skills, albeit not necessarily in the sense of writing code…’³

Arguments for architects to adopt visual programming (e.g. via Bentley’s Generative Components and Rhino’s Grasshopper3D) are not new. Algorithmic Architecture by Kostas Terzidis (2006) similarly praised the benefits of the computational interface. However, as Flusser reminds us in The Shape of Things: a philosophy of design (Reaktion Books, 1999) a reciprocal dependency remains: ‘the robot only does what the human being wants, but the human being can only want what the robot can do’ (p.48). While I would agree that architectural graduates desperately require a minimum of computational knowledge, the visual programming bias of systems like the ones mentioned above still reduce architects to ‘functionaries’ of their own tools. The nature of the GUI is what needs to be challenged, not the design process itself. This is the fundamental mistake design theorists routinely make when adopting computer metaphor as cognitive model (Dorst, 2007).

1. Schenk, P. (2007) A Letter from the Front Line. Published in Tracey: What is Drawing For?

2. Mitchell, W. J. (1989) The Death of Drawing. UCLA Architecture Journal 2: 64-69

3. Boeykens, S. & Neuckermans, H. (2009) Visual Programming in Architecture: Should Architects be trained as programmers? CAAD Futures 2009 Conference Proceedings

Image credit Jesse Thomas and Brian Solis

As social media overtakes pornography as the no.1 web activity, social creativity has become the latest word to enter marketing lexicon, with corporate strategists citing co-creation as the future of business innovation¹ (Tapscott & Williams, 2010; Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004). Yet similar approaches to management have been around for some time, e.g. in the 1960s Scandinavian projects like the Collective Resourse Approach pioneered the concept of participatory design by encouraging staff to personalize their own work systems to increase production (Bødker, 1966). Further initiatives followed in Britain in response to the failure of post-war WW2 utopian housing schemes. Since then, consensual involvement has become an increasing important process within architecture and product design.

Patronized as the ‘lipstick industry’ little more than a decade ago, corporate executives now rank creative capital as the defining characteristic for C21 business. Ironically, the design industry are trailing well behind in applying co-design to everyday practice (Sanders & Stappers, 2008). Notoriously slow in adapting to technological change (Egan Report, 2002) the construction industry has also failed to broadly integrate social creativity, possibly deterred by what Gerhard Fischer admits as ‘considerable challenges’:

While meta-design is a promising approach to overcome the limitations of closed systems and to support social creativity, it creates many fundamental challenges: in the technical domain as well as in the social domain including the need for social capital, the willingness of users to engage in additional learning to become designers, and the additional efforts to integrate the work into the shared environment.²

Before designers or theorists can adequately address such challenges the notion of ‘socialized’ creativity needs to be defined more critically. Literally dozens of theories have been proposed over the past century, yet as Nick Wilson reveals, most remain faithful to traditional preconceptions of individualism:

Despite a strong rhetoric of inclusion cultural and economic policies in the UK continue to reinforce the deep-seated belief that creativity is something (only) talented and artistic individuals do. This individualistic conception of creativity extends to the framing of the creative industries and the creative economy, where creativity is treated as either a quasi-commodity or the preserve of the so-called ‘creative class’.³

1. Prahalad, C.K., Ramaswamy, V. (2004), Co-creating unique value with customers. Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 32 No.3

2. Fischer, G. (2003) Meta-Design: Beyond User-Centered and Participatory Design, Proceedings of HCI International 2003, Julie Jacko and Constantine Stephanidis (eds.), Crete, Greece, June 2003, pp. 88-92

3. Wilson, N. (2010) Social creativity: re-qualifying the creative economy, The International Journal of Cultural Policy, 16(3)