Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Mirrors in architecture'

As the artwork’s title suggests, Penelope Umbrico’s "Mirrors (from Home Décor Catalogs and Websites)" (2001-2011), are photographs of mirrors that Umbrico has appropriated from print and web based home décor advertisements like those from Pottery Barn or West Elm. The mirrors in these advertisements reflect the photo shoot constructed for the ad, often showing plants or light filled windows empty of people. To print the "Mirrors," Umbrico first applies a layer of white-out to everything in the advertisement except for the mirror and then scans the home décor catalog. In the case of the web-based portion of the series, she removes the advertising space digitally through photo editing software. Once the mirror has been singled out and made digital, Umbrico then adjusts the perspective of the mirror so that it faces the viewer. Finally, she scales the photograph of the mirror cut from the advertisement to the size and shape of the actual mirror for sale. By enlarging the photograph, she must increase the file size and subsequent print significantly, which distorts the final printed image thereby causing pixelation, otherwise known as “compression artifacts.” Lastly, she mounts these pixelated prints to non-glare Plexiglas both to remove any incidental reflective surface effects and to create a physical object. What hangs on the wall, then, looks like a mirror in its shape, size and beveled frame: the photograph becomes a one-to-one representation of the object it portrays. When looking at a real mirror, often the viewer is aware of either a reflection of the self or a shifting reflection caused by his or her own movement. However, the image that the "Mirror" ‘reflects’ is not the changing reflection of a real mirror. Nor is it a clear, fixed image of the surface of a mirror. Instead the "Mirrors" present a highly abstract, pixelated surface to meet our eyes. The "Mirrors" are physical objects that merge two forms of representation into one: the mirror and the photograph, thus highlighting similarities between them as surfaces that can potentially represent or reflect almost anything. However, in their physical form, they show us only their pixelation, their digitally constructed nature. Penelope Umbrico’s "Mirrors" are photographs of mirrors that become simultaneously photograph and mirror: the image reflected on the mirror’s surface becomes a photograph, thus showing an analogy between the two objects. In their self-reflexive nature, I argue that Umbrico’s "Mirrors" point to their status as digital photographs, therefore signaling a technological shift from analog to digital photography. Umbrico’s "Mirrors," in altering both mirrors and photographs simultaneously refer to the long history of photography in relation to mirrors. The history of photography is seen first through these objects by the reflective surface of the daguerreotype which mirrored the viewer when observing the daguerreotype, and because of the extremely high level of detail in the photographic image, which mirrored the photographic subject. The relation to the history of photography is also seen in the phenomenon of the mirror within a photograph and the idea that the mirror’s reflection shows the realistic way that photographs represent reality. Craig Owens calls this "en abyme," or the miniature reproduction of a text that represents the text as a whole. In the case of the mirror, this is because the mirror within the photograph shows how both mediums display highly naturalistic depictions of reality. I contend that as an object that is representative of the photographic medium itself, the shift from analog to digital photography is in part seen through the use of the mirror that ultimately creates an absent referent as understood through a comparison of Diego Velázquez’s "Las Meninas" (1656). As Foucault suggests that "Las Meninas" signals a shift in representation from the Classical age to the Modern period, I suggest that the "Mirrors" signal the shift in representation from analog to digital. This latter shift spurred debate among photo history scholars related to the ontology of the photographic medium as scholars were anxious that the ease of editing digital images compromised the photograph’s seeming relationship to truth or reality and that it would be impossible to know whether an image had been altered. They were also concerned with the idea that computers could generate images from nothing but code, removing the direct relationship of the photograph to its subject and thereby declaring the “death” of the medium. The "Mirrors" embody the technological phenomenon with visual addition of “compression artifacts,” otherwise known as pixelation, where this representation of digital space appears not directly from our own creation but as a by-product of digital JPEG programming. In this way they are no longer connected to the subject but only to the digital space they represent. As self-reflexive objects, the "Mirrors" show that there has been a technological transformation from the physically made analog photograph to the inherently mutable digital file.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2011.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Page 99 blank.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-98).
In this document I present three tools for reflective, creative thinking: Pillow-Talk, the NeverEnding Drawing Machine and Calliope. These tools make use of the "distorted mirror" metaphor for self-reflection. They are designed to debunk myths of creativity as an acquired faculty and instead promote creative apperception and flexible thinking. Pillow-Talk is designed to prime dream recall and facilitate capture through voice recording. Considering the dream an aesthetic experience we all undertake, where the dreamer is free to test knowledge liberated from physical and moral constraints, its aim is to promote flexibility in levels of thought. The NeverEnding Drawing Machine and Calliope endorse flexibility in vehicles of thought through co-creative and collaborative play. One can incorporate any object found in the environment as a tool or material, thus making contextualized and personalized creations. They promote cross-cultural and cross-generational co-creation as the echo from which to recenter perception.
by Edwina Portocarrero.
S.M.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, February 2003.
P. 244 blank.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 237-243).
We have yet to create the ultimate interactive experience. Why is that so, and how can that change? How can we increase our chances of getting it right? Interactive, location-based experiences are a new genre and need a new way of thinking about designing them. We also need a better way of dealing with the sophistication of modem technology, enabling us to get to the heart of designing these new interactions. This thesis makes progress in this area by creating a classification system for the space of interactive location-based entertainment experiences. It begins to develop a theory of interactivity as it can be applied to this genre. The theory also guides the birth of a library of interactive design techniques and the development of a design approach as a series of steps and questions that must be answered to complete an experience. It is proposed that across a variety of experience types (games, rides, theater shows and museum installations), the design approach will be similar. It is also hypothesized that given one distinct hardware system, a range of different interactions can be explored. Furthermore, this thesis looks at how technology can be used to aid in the development process by designing a rapid development environment for prototyping new interactions. By establishing a new way of looking at the problem I hope to be able to reach the goal of creating compelling experiences. Through the construction of a new set of tools, this thesis details the fundamental elements of a location-based, interactive attraction and exposes all of the technical, practical and artistic issues that must be resolved to successfully complete and deploy them.
by Joshua Andrew Strickon.
Ph.D.

The majority of signals, that need to be processed, are analog, which are continuous and can take an infinite number of values at any time instant. Precision of the analog signals are limited due to influence of distortion which leads to the use of digital signals for better performance and cost. Analog to Digital Converter (ADC), converts the continuous time signal to the discrete time signal. Most A/D converters are classified into two categories according to their sampling technique: nyquist rate ADC and oversampled ADC. The nyquist rate ADC operates at the sample frequency equal to twice the base-band frequency, whereas the oversampled ADC operates at the sample frequency greater than the nyquist frequency. The sigma delta ADC using the oversampling technique provides high resolution, low to medium speed, relaxed anti-aliasing requirements and various options for reconfiguration. On the contrary, resolution of the sigma delta ADC can be traded for high speed operation. Data sampling techniques plays a vital role in the sigma delta modulator and can be classified into discrete time sampling and continuous time sampling. Furthermore, the discrete time sampling technique can be implemented using the switched-capacitor (SC) integrator and the switched-current (SI) integrator circuits. The SC integrator technique provides high accuracy but occupies a larger area. Unlike the SC integrator, the SI integrator offers low input impedance and parasitic capacitance. This makes the SI integrator suitable for low supply voltage and high frequency applications. From a detailed literature study on the multi-bit sigma delta modulator, it is analyzed that, theneeds a highly linear digital to analogue converter (DAC) in its feedback path. The sigma delta modulators are very sensitive to linearity of the DAC which can degrade the performance without any attenuation. For this purpose T.C. Leslie and B. Singh proposed a Hybrid architecture using the multi-bit quantizer with a single bit DAC. The most significant bit is fed back to the DAC while the least significant bits are omitted. This omission requires a complex digital calibration to complete the analog to digital conversion process which is a small price to pay compared to the linearity requirements of the DAC. This project work describes the design of High-Speed Hybrid Current modeModulator with a single bit feedback DAC at the speed of 2.56GHz in a state-of-the-art 65 nm CMOS process. It comprises of both the analog and digital processing blocks, using T.C. Leslie and B. Singh architecture with the switched current integrator data sampling technique for low voltage, high speed operation. The whole system is verified mathematically in matlab and implemented using signal flow graphs and verilog a code. The analog blocks like switched current integrator, flash ADC and DAC are implemented in transistor level using a 65 nm CMOS technology and the functionality of each block is verified. Dynamic performance parameters such as SNR, SNDR and SFDR for different levels of abstraction matches the mathematical model performance characteristics.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2003.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-76).
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
In 1893 at Chicago's World Columbian Exposition, California devoted a great deal of resources to its promotion through a pavilion that spelled out a construct about California's "Spanish" past. This supposed history got incorporated into California's self-representation and affected the identity of both the Anglo and California populations. This presentation of California shows that exotic figures need not function through the logic of an opposite "other," as is usually theorized. By analyzing the role of architecture in California's Spanish "identity," the thesis locates the representational power of architecture closer to its function in discursive practices rather than to mere formal aspects.
by Leonardo Díaz-Borioli.
S.M.

This essay discusses Le Corbusier's Modulor through its appearance in the Poeme de l'angle droit. The Poeme reveals the architect's later thinking in a synthetic and precise way, offering precious help for its comprehension. A study of the Modulor in such context demonstrates that it was more than an attempt to develop a modular methodology. Embodied in the Poeme, the Modulor discloses Le Corbusier's struggle to create a framework for his practice, providing invaluable insights into our present condition.

The video games industry is rapidly developing as technology allows designers to create increasingly comprehensive worlds for their players to explore. Acknowledging the experience gained by architects designing similar structures for the physical world, this thesis explorescross-disciplinary research. The relationship between architecture and level design is here utilized to further the understanding of architectural space within first-person video games. A textual analysis is performed on Mirror’s Edge Catalyst to investigate ways in which architecture may contribute to the narrative of a game. This reading embodies the aspirations of precedent studies, used by architects to understand and analyse the components within an architectural composition. The thesis is guided by the question “How can architectural space support the narrative in levels of first-person video games?” and manages to uncover multiple layers to the design of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. The research conveys that the expectedgameplay experience guides the composition of the architecture within the level. Here the horizontal and vertical planes that define space may be utilized to facilitate the narrative throughtheir shape and configuration. The spatial segments are then arranged into linear or centralizedorganizations emphasizing the narrative of the level. Finally, throughout these spatial organizations monumental architecture is applied which provides stages that assist in conveyingthe focal point of the narrative.
Den digitala spelindustrin utvecklas snabbt i samband med teknologiska framsteg. Detta resulterar i förutsättningar för speldesigners att utveckla utförliga virtuella världar för deras spelare att utforska. Genom att erkänna den välutvecklade erfarenheten erhållen av arkitekter i deras arbete att konstruera världens samhällen, antar sig detta kandidatarbete tvärvetenskaplig forskning. Relationen mellan arkitektur och level design används här för att främja förståelsen för arkitektoniskt utrymme inom videospel som utspelar sig i första person. En textanalys är utförd på Mirror’s Edge Catalyst med syftet att undersöka olika möjligheter för arkitektur att bidra till narrativ inom spel. Denna analys aspirerar till att förhålla sig till målet av en prejudikatstudie som tillåter arkitekter att förstå och analysera komponenter inom en arkitektonisk komposition. Kandidatarbetet vägleds av forskningsfrågan ”Hur kan arkitektoniskt utrymme användas för att stödja ett narrativ i banor från första-persons videospel?”. Forskningen visar att den förväntade spelupplevelsen inom en bana styr den arkitektoniska kompositionen. Horisontella och vertikala ytor används för att definiera utrymme medan deras form och sammansättning ger plats åt banans narrativ. Det uppdelade utrymmet placeras sedan in i linjära eller centraliserade organisationer vilket styrker den narrativa upplevelsen som etableras. Under dessa organisationer placeras storslagen arkitektur, vilket ger upphov till scener vars syfte är att underlätta kommunikationen av fokuset inom narrativet.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2006.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-185).
Developing applications for distributed platforms can be very difficult and complex. We have developed a software framework to support distributed, interactive, collaborative applications that run on collections of self-organizing, autonomous computational units. We have included modules to aid application programmers with the exchange of messages, development of fault tolerance, and the aggregation of sensor data from multiple sources. We have assumed a mesh network style of computing, where there is no shared clock, no shared memory, and no central point of control. We have built a distributed user input system, and a distributed simulation application based on the framework. We have demonstrated the viability of our application by testing it with users.
by Diane E. Hirsh.
S.M.

Network computer games are played amongst players on different hosts across the Internet. Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) are network games in which thousands of players participate simultaneously in each instance of the virtual world. Current commercial MMOG use a Client/Server (C/S) architecture in which the server simulates and validates the game, and notifies players about the current game state. While C/S is very popular, it has several limitations: (i) C/S has poor scalability as the server is a bandwidth and processing bottleneck; (ii) all updates must be routed through the server, reducing responsiveness; (iii) players with lower client-to-server delay than their opponents have an unfair advantage as they can respond to game events faster; and (iv) the server is a single point of failure.The Mirrored Server (MS) architecture uses multiple mirrored servers connected via a private network. MS achieves better scalability, responsiveness, fairness, and reliability than C/S; however, as updates are still routed through the mirrored servers the problems are not eliminated. P2P network game architectures allow players to exchange updates directly, maximising scalability, responsiveness, and fairness, while removing the single point of failure. However, P2P games are vulnerable to cheating. Several P2P architectures have been proposed to detect and/or prevent game cheating. Nevertheless, they only address a subset of cheating methods. Further, these solutions require costly distributed validation algorithms that increase game delay and bandwidth, and prevent players with high latency from participating.In this thesis we propose a new cheat classification that reflects the levels in which the cheats occur: game, application, protocol, or infrastructure. We also propose three network game architectures: the Referee Anti-Cheat Scheme (RACS), the Mirrored Referee Anti-Cheat Scheme (MRACS), and the Distributed Referee Anti-Cheat Scheme (DRACS); which maximise game scalability, responsiveness, and fairness, while maintaining cheat detection/prevention equal to that in C/S. Each proposed architecture utilises one or more trusted referees to validate the game simulation - similar to the server in C/S - while allowing players to exchange updates directly - similar to peers in P2P.RACS is a hybrid C/S and P2P architecture that improves C/S by using a referee in the server. RACS allows honest players to exchange updates directly between each other, with a copy sent to the referee for validation. By allowing P2P communication RACS has better responsiveness and fairness than C/S. Further, as the referee is not required to forward updates it has better bandwidth and processing scalability. The RACS protocol could be applied to any existing C/S game. Compared to P2P protocols RACS has lower delay, and allows players with high delay to participate. Like in many P2P architectures, RACS divides time into rounds. We have proposed two efficient solutions to find the optimal round length such that the total system delay is minimised.MRACS combines the RACS and MS architectures. A referee is used at each mirror to validate player updates, while allowing players to exchange updates directly. By using multiple mirrored referees the bandwidth required by each referee, and the player-to mirror delays, are reduced; improving the scalability, responsiveness and fairness of RACS, while removing its single point of failure. Direct communication MRACS improves MS in terms of its responsiveness, fairness, and scalability. To maximise responsiveness, we have defined and solved the Client-to-Mirror Assignment (CMA) problem to assign clients to mirrors such that the total delay is minimised, and no mirror is overloaded. We have proposed two sets of efficient solutions: the optimal J-SA/L-SA and the faster heuristic J-Greedy/L-Greedy to solve CMA.DRACS uses referees distributed to player hosts to minimise the publisher / developer infrastructure, and maximise responsiveness and/or fairness. To prevent colluding players cheating DRACS requires every update to be validated by multiple unaffiliated referees, providing cheat detection / prevention equal to that in C/S. We have formally defined the Referee Selection Problem (RSP) to select a set of referees from the untrusted peers such that responsiveness and/or fairness are maximised, while ensuring the probability of the majority of referees colluding is below a pre-defined threshold. We have proposed two efficient algorithms, SRS-1 and SRS-2, to solve the problem.We have evaluated the performances of RACS, MRACS, and DRACS analytically and using simulations. We have shown analytically that RACS, MRACS and DRACS have cheat detection/prevention equivalent to that in C/S. Our analysis shows that RACS has better scalability and responsiveness than C/S; and that MRACS has better scalability and responsiveness than C/S, RACS, and MS. As there is currently no publicly available traces from MMOG we have constructed artificial and realistic inputs. We have used these inputs on all simulations in this thesis to show the benefits of our proposed architectures and algorithms.

Occupant une place majeure dans les intérieurs, les miroirs se sont progressivement imposés comme un décor d’architecture à part entière dans les pièces privées, puis dans les pièces de réception des grandes demeures aristocratiques européennes aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Le propos de la présente thèse est d’éclairer non seulement le développement des miroirs en tant que décoration fixe, mais aussi leur utilisation dans de véritables mises en scène architecturales. Envisagé sur un temps long de deux siècles et dans une aire géographique conséquente (France, Italie, Espagne, Allemagne, Autriche, Suède), ce travail débute par une étude du développement de ces décors au XVIIe siècle, en interrogeant le rôle de la France dans la définition et la circulation des modèles en Europe. Puis, dans un second temps sont étudiées les typologies de cabinet et de galerie de glaces, pièces les plus concernées par ce type de décor. Enfin, la place des miroirs dans la pratique architecturale et leur rôle illusionniste dans les intérieurs sont traités dans une dernière partie
Occupying an important place in the interiors, mirrors have progressively been an architectural decor in its own right in the private rooms, then in the reception rooms of the European great aristocratic houses in the XVII and XVIII centuries. The purpose of this thesis is to enlighten not only the development of mirrors as fixed decoration, but also their use in true architectural staging. Based on a two century scale and a substantial geographic area (France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Sweden), this work starts by a study of the development of these decors in the XVII century, by questioning the role of France in the definition and the circulation of models in Europe. Then, it focuses on the typologies of mirror cabinet and galleries, the most affected rooms by this kind of décor. Finally, in the last section, the mirror place in the architectural practice and their illusionist role in the interiors are studied

This thesis will investigate how Roman monumental architecture in Tergeste dating to the first and second centuries AD reflected and reaffirmed the social order of the city, and how it was used in the creation and maintenance of identities. The material used will be two select structures, the basilica and theater, located in the eastern and north-eastern sections of Tergeste, respectively. By using theories of social architecture, agency, identity, and compounding them with the ideology of Roman urbanism, focus will be placed on how movement within a structure and the occupation of its different locales influenced the adoption of particular roles and self-conceptions. A number of statues and dedicatory inscriptions associated with the architectural structures will serve to further corroborate these points, and to add information about whether a specific type of identity was favored above others in the city. The results will provide a first overview of how architecture responded to the social reality in Roman Tergeste, in the hope to encourage further research in this direction.

The tool, the practice and the spatial experience.     Painting to see the room Drill a small, almost invisible hole in the center of the canvas and see the room through it.   Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings by Yoko Ono      I det här projektet har jag formgett och byggt en uppsättning analoga verktyg som kan användas för att utforska rum.  Jag är har tittat på hur verktygen får oss att se nya kvalitéer i arkitekturen och ger oss förståelse för vår egen relation till rummet.     I verktygen har jag använt ramar, speglar och rör som på olika sätt beskär, förskjuter, skapar en distans eller access i rummet .   Upptäckterna delar jag sedan med mig av genom illustrationer, som hämtar inspiration både från serier och arkitektoniska representationer.   Med illustrationerna vill jag skapa en diskussion och en medvetenhet om hur vi upplever rum och arkitekturen.
Painting to see the room Drill a small, almost invisible hole in the center of the canvas and see the room through it.   Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings by Yoko Ono     In this project I have designed and built a set of analog tools that can be used to explore a space.  I have been looking into how the objects make us see new qualities in the architecture and give us understandings about our relationship to the space.    The elements  I have worked with are frames, mirrors and tubes that in different ways cut, shift, create distances or access in the space.     I am sharing my findings through illustrations, inspired by both comics and architecture representation. With the drawings I want to stimulate the debate and create an awareness on how we experience spaces and architecture.

If privacy, and even secrecy, are critical components of the domestic interior, then what is the shape taken by the domestic architecture of people who must uphold high standards of individual transparency? Monarchs and aristocrats in absolutist France face such obligations, and the means they invest to create private and even hidden spaces in their houses and gardens during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the beginning of our own Modern culture, not only set some precedents for how we now understand our homes, but are revealing with regards to how people attempt to preserve their personal autonomy. This thesis is primarily, though not exclusively, interested in the erotic sub-culture of the royal court and the élite of Paris, which generates a great deal of architectural, literary, and visual examples. The noble tradition of personal display to justify power, most evident with the convention of the state bed, is expanded to its limit with Louis XIV, who curtails the intransigence of the nobility by making them dependent on their presence at his protocol-bound royal court, and consequently making his own life and person as visible as possible. However, this sacrifices considerable individual privacy for both courtier and monarch, and even Louis XIV eventually finds regular retreat in the appartment of the marquise de Maintenon, his solitude-cherishing second wife, incuring the resentment of his court in the process. After his death, aristocrats are obsessed with the private and sensuous amenities of their own houses while still upholding social requirements for display, resulting in the ingenious planning and expressive decoration of Rococo architecture. This is part of a larger cultural interest in hidden activity and intense sensation that also belongs to the erotic libertine novel; Louis XV is in some ways then an ideal king for this age, with his love of secret apartments and garden houses away from court obligations he hates, and with his string of powerful mistresses. However, so much indulgence and feminine power with a mediocre king ultimately stains the reputation of the monarchy, contributing to growing criticism of France’s government. Neoclassical architecture expresses the response to this, seeking to undo Rococo’s secrecy and duality, the Enlightenment’s renewed standard of personal transparency that is ideally required of all people, not just those in power. Marie Antoinette’s personality, however, is neither amenable to this standard nor to traditions of court publicity, and her own architectural follies reveal a desire to close off the outside world, sometimes literally. Nevertheless, with libertine culture having changed the reputation of the ruling class, Marie Antoinette’s privacy is interpreted as selfish, and though neither politically agressive or sexually promiscuous, speculations of her power and sexual appetite are enough to justify her loss of respect, and eventually, her execution during the French Revolution. She loses her right to rule because she, along with the rest of the court, are seen as too banal to hold such power. Therefore, the privacy and secrecy of the aristocratic domestic interior, breached by the speculations of libertinism and rejected by Enlightenment transparency, offers an outlet for their full personalities without compromising public appearance.

碩士
輔仁大學
電子工程學系
93
Recently, many enterprises have developed Web applications to service clients, such as stock trading and E-commerce. Therefore, it is important to have a high performance of Web server systems. In this paper, we design a mirror Web architecture with load balance mechanism based on the arrival rate of Web requests from the networks. The purpose of this strategy is to enhance the reliability and the performance evaluation of a Web site. We also propose the relative queuing model for the quantitative analysis of Web servers. According to the analysis results, we can expand the numbers of the mirror Web servers with a load-balance mechanism of a Web site to improve the quality of Web service. Based on this mirror architecture, we also propose a quantitative analysis method by using a typical M/M/1and M/G/1 queuing model through equalizing the service performance of mirror Web servers. In this paper, we present a procedure to evaluate the system response time of the mirror architecture of Web servers. We also use QNAT (Queue Network Analysis Tool) to do the simulation to verify our mathematical models for load balance of the Web servers. In addition, we provide methods of performance evaluation for network managers, who can meet the requirement of company and adjust Web server numbers to reach the quality of service of the Web site. Finally, we also provide the performance measurements of an experimental design of the mirror architecture of Web servers. In conclusion, from our analysis, simulation and measurements, we learn that the mirror architecture of Web servers can improve the service performance of Web requests.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ARGOMENTO La mia ricerca si basa su un’indagine semiotico-critica dell’ architettura intesa come catalizzatore emozionale e veicolo di trasmissione ideale di contenuti socialmente condivisi. Il tema dell’ Empatia, ampiamente indagato dal punto di vista dello scenario filosofico e neuroscientifico, non è stato ancora affrontato dal punto di vista spaziale e progettuale, e risulta quindi di grande interesse. Partendo dall’ampia trattazione scientifica in estetica e neuroscienza, ho studiato il fenomeno dell’Empatia in architettura, legandolo alle nuove frontiere neuro-estetiche e tralasciando, se non per accenni, la parte più nota del filone, relativa sicuramente all’ Art-Nouveau. Questa scelta è stata fatta per volontà di rendere la trattazione agevole, possedendo già un apparato introduttivo multidisciplinare corposo, ma imprescindibile. Inoltre, poiché l’empatia è rintracciabile in tutta la storia dell’architettura, e questo testo non vuole ricadere in ambito enciclopedico, non avendone né l’interesse né la pretesa, ho piuttosto lavorato con l’ambizione di fornire un nuovo punto di vista, per quanto modesto, sia sull’empatia in architettura, sia sull’interpretazione di alcuni fenomeni architettonici contemporanei, che trovano in queste pagine un fondamento critico di ampio respiro e di, per così dire, illustre paternità. L’ obbiettivo della ricerca è la formulazione di una semantica progettuale empatica, possibilmente supportata da una piccola serie di sperimentazioni progettuali e di conseguenza questa tesi parla dell’individuazione di una metodologia progettuale legata alla creazione di strumenti atti a generare un fenomeno percettivo condiviso e trasmissibile. Nel definire una categorizzazione legata allo sviluppo di una semantica coerente di progettazione architettonica mi sono trovata davanti all’ ostacolo innegabile di dover sezionare, invadere, investigare e portare alla luce una serie di sotto-parti dell’architettura, quasi una tassellazione gerarchica che niente ha a che fare con l’idea, emersa intanto che si strutturava la ricerca, di unicuum, trans-corporeo e animale, nell’ovvia accezione di animalia. Pur trovandomi nella necessità di rispondere al criterio di apprendibilità (Arbib, 2000), proprio del linguaggio empatico, rilevavo il disagio di applicare una metodologia dissettica e catalogativa, al più che non è l’oggetto architettonico tout court ad essere sotto esame, ma la processualità ideativa prima, e la potenzialità percettivo-comunicazionale poi. Come applicare uno schema ordinatore a un processo relazionale? Ho quindi elaborato il concetto di trans-categoria noumenica ossia un sistema catalogativo che va al di là del semplice casellario ed è afferente piuttosto ad un concetto metafisico archetipico con-temporaneo, ossia attualizzato momento per momento, pur dando luogo, nello specifico, ad una serie di phaenomena. Parliamo di categorie relazionali, inclusive, multi-scalari. Parliamo, ad esempio, di dinamismo, e ne parliamo come gestualità progettuale, come intenzionalità architettonica, come fruizione esperienziale, come processo relazionale non più lineare biunivoco, ma moebiusiano complesso, di contaminazione, di mirroring, di scomparsa della soglia. Gli esempi scelti a supporto concorrono, infine, a chiarire la trattazione teorica e a suggerire attori potenziali e strade possibili. Nel costruire una tesi che riuscisse a dare una comprensione base dei complessi processi logici, critici e teorici, che hanno portato non solo a definire quella che ad oggi è l’empatia, ma anche a fornire una risposta alla ragioni ponderali della scelta di un tale ambito di ricerca, l’approccio multidisciplinare è stato essenziale. Nello sviluppare un percorso verso la costruzione di una nuova semantica socialmente condivisa, mi sono avvalsa di contributi disciplinari diversi ma da sempre interrelati, non solo in parametri terminologici, ma soprattutto a livello di intuizione prima, e di evidenza scientifica ora, con le scoperte neurobiologiche che abbiamo analizzato nel terzo capitolo. L’indagine sullo stato dell’arte della ricerca sull’ empatia, che prende la prima parte di questa trattazione, mi ha consentito di tirare le somme di un movimento estetico, psicanalitico e neuroscientifico che fornisce l’apparato di premesse concettuali all’indagine che verrà poi fatta in ambito architettonico nel capitolo IV. L’approccio multiculturale è quindi strettamente legato alla poli-semanticità e alla multi-concettualità del termine, attributi che ne sostanziano la ragione d’essere. L’esplicitazione sistematica di teorie basilari, storicamente consolidate, e di fenomeni critico-conoscitivi in atto, accorpati in un unicum teorico sintetico e agevole, costituiscono il filo conduttore del lavoro svolto, ma per poter affrontare i nodi progettuali emersi successivamente nello svolgimento della ricerca, ho profuso un notevole impegno nel definire soprattutto i valori (poli)semantici propri dell’empatia e i filoni di più spiccata originalità ed aderenza all’ambito architettonico. L’anima multiculturale e la capacità adattativa della teoria empatica, la rendono massimamente e proficuamente agganciata alla multiculturalità sociale ed urbana che sempre più si configura come un plusvalore dei territori che vorranno porsi come guida del cambio di paradigma odierno. Pur con queste premesse, la mia attenzione è stata volta a ritagliare tuttavia alla teoria architettonica una sua autonomia d’ambito, proprio per evitare il rischio, che cammina al fianco della teoria dell’Empatia da sempre, di essere tutto e niente, suggestiva e non circostanziata, suggerente ma non autonoma. Dopo aver sviluppato un approccio globale alla teoria empatica in architettura, che procede volutamente per salti teorici piuttosto che su linee temporali, ho analizzato i risultati, a mio avviso, più conformi alle premesse empatiche ed enucleato possibili frontiere critiche di progettazione. METODOLOGIA Le premesse teorico-culturali e i riferimenti scientifici saranno la base cognitiva sostanziale del percorso di studio multidisciplinare finalizzato alla definizione/riscoperta di una semantica empatica della città, dell’architettura e del design. Il sema non sarà materiale ma relazionale. secondo le trans-categorie ipotizzate nel quinto capitolo. Il percorso seguito, basato sull’analisi di architetture scelte, sulla ricerca e formulazione di linee guida, sulla sperimentazione progettuale, condurrà all’approfondimento dei luoghi e degli oggetti architettonici empatici, intesi quali punti focali, totem di una nuova organizzazione urbana e spaziale interetnica, volta a rinnovare i significati attraverso i significanti. OBIETTIVI L’ obiettivo principale della ricerca è l’esplicitazione del linguaggio empatico dell’architettura, che è attualmente, secondo la mia tesi, lo strumento di progettazione più aderente alle nuove scoperte scientifiche e alla morfologia spaziale e conoscitiva della società che viaggia sul concetto di rete e rizoma. L’architettura, come abbiamo illustrato attraverso numerosi esempi, si muove già, più o meno inconsapevolmente, su tracciati teorico-progettuali legati all’ empatia e la nuova era informatica, che permette l’identificazione tra oggetto e soggetto, può essere il salto di qualità che porterà l’architettura ed il design verso nuove frontiere di partecipazione e narrazione. L’obbiettivo è quindi cercare di oggettivizzare i parametri empatici per giungere possibilmente ad una serie di strumenti operativi di progettazione. INDICE RAGIONATO Il primo capitolo fissa la metodologia di studio nei tre momenti complementari dell’analisi delle teorie estetiche legate al concetto di Empatia e delle teorie neuro-scientifiche dal 1994 in poi, legate alla scoperta del fondamento biologico dell’Empatia, i mirror neurons; della ricerca legata ai parametri di classificazione dell’esperienza empatica in architettura, attraverso un essenziale approccio multidisciplinare e attraverso la rilettura critica di opere scelte fatta attraverso salti logico-concettuali; della sperimentazione di metodologie di progettazione che, partendo dai principali riferimenti scientifici di base, indica il percorso di studio da proseguire. Il secondo e terzo capitolo si occupano della trattazione estetica e della trattazione neuro-scientifica del concetto di Empatia, in maniera sintetica e sistemica alle esigenze di una trattazione specialistica in ambito architettonico, estrapolandone le tematiche più vicine alle specificità disciplinari oggetto di studio. Obiettivo primario sarà oggettivare il concetto di empatia, comprendendone appieno l’apporto profondo in quanto struttura semiotica, organizzativa, comportamentale e critica ascrivibile in parti uguali ad eventi positivi e negativi, con particolare accento posto sul concetto di emozione, sorpresa, rottura di un continuum visivo-neuronale che genera la risposta delle strutture mirror neurons. Il quarto capitolo sviluppa una panoramica dello stato dell’ arte della ricerca e della documentazione, nel mondo scientifico, sul fenomeno empatico in architettura ed i conseguenti impatti urbani e progettuali. La disamina sfrutta le potenzialità del web, attraverso l’utilizzo dei motori di ricerca che hanno consentito, in tempo reale, di individuare i centri di ricerca, le attività pregresse e in corso, la produzione scientifica, i progetti futuri. Chiaramente si avvale di numerosi esempi, nonanalizzati volutamente in maniera capillare, ma visti piuttosto in un’ ampia prospettiva, legati da un criterio di network hic et nunc piuttosto che storico-cronologico. Il quinto capitolo desume dalle premesse teoriche del capitolo precedente una semantica e dei criteri di riconoscibilità dell’ estetica empatica architettonica e traccia delle linee guida di interpretazione di processi architettonici multi-scalari. Si avvale di una catalogazione che lavora su trans-categorie per delineare complessi sistemi con-temporanei e multirelazionali. Approfondisce l’analisi di eventi architettonici ed opere rivisitate a partire dalla nuova estetica empatica rileggendo, e riscrivendo in alcuni casi, l’interpretazione di manufatti architettonici scelti. Il sesto capitolo è composto esclusivamente di immagini. Oltre a costituire l’ apparato iconografico complementare del capitolo precedente, presentando gli episodi architettonici ed artistici presi in analisi precedentemente, ha la finalità di introdurre il lettore al linguaggio empatico attraverso un canale di comunicazione afasico visivo-emozionale. Il settimo capitolo è dedicato ad una micro-sperimentazione in ambito progettuale, condotta attraverso alcuni schizzi che suggeriscono non tanto architetture, ma suggestioni legate ai risultati ottenuti dalla trattazione precedente.

My thesis is a critical essay thematically focused on the fate of the body in the postmodern condition. In this thesis a fundamental question is posed: What happens to the (postmodern) body under the double pressure of postmodern technology and culture? Is the postmodern body altered under the pressure of postmodern technology and culture? How contemporary thought and architecture impact the body will also be examined. This thesis discusses the above questions through several key concepts such as exilic conditions, heterotopias and ‘trans’ states of being. After elaborating on these issues, this thesis attempts to design an architectural project “Hamam Complex” on a unique natural island in the Bosporus strait that separates the Western and Eastern worlds.