Translating actual architectural experience into virtual representation

Abstract

'Images are significant surfaces'; they signify something which has materialized in space and time, and present an abstraction that reduces a four dimensional matter to a two dimensional surface. Photographs are mysterious captured experiences translating a collection of interpretations of the world in images altering the notion of what is worth looking at from all the infinite vistas one might encounter. These factors, amongst others, have contributed for this visual medium to be a protagonist in architectural discourse since its creation. The aim of this research is to study the notion of photography and discuss its relevance in the Information Age by merging three aspects in the architectural context. One of the focal points of this study is the notion of 'photo-taking', which has become an event in itself that changes the way people perceive reality. Society has developed a mentality of looking at the world as a set of potential photographs, converting the act to a social rite and a defence against anxiety. This mode of viewing is developing an anthropological revolution, as the addiction of capturing and disseminating experiences through Social Media is developing into a usual norm that breaks the barrier of space and time, revolutionizing the function of the phenomenon to influence actions, inform notions of realities and communicate identities, embedding the image in everyday lives. This presents new opportunities for research in how the effects of freezing time and sharing captured instances is not only constructing how architecture is viewed or designed, but also how the persistent need to find the way in images is affecting the actual experience in a space. This hegemony of vision is nowadays imposing its own parameters, and whilst signifying the human gaze on a virtual platform, it is also affecting the polyphony of the senses in actual architectural experiences. Photography has been employed throughout history to promote new forms of architectural thinking and knowledge dissemination, which has culminated as a mainstream trend resulting in a rainfall of images. This study does not only seek to investigate the effects of photo capturing and sharing through a mass medium such as lnstagram on human perception and haptic memory, but also on the architectural canon.