The following message was posted to: dance-tech Dear Johannes, I am really glad that my request in the dance-tech archive gave you food for thought and might lead to a useful dialogue and exchange of ideas on the subject. I have to admit that my research is still in a preliminary stage as far as the dance-tech element is concerned. The whole idea of using technologies to interprete human movement into spatial configurations and other properties of space is still a bit distant for me. Let me explain my research question first: My inquiry is placed in the context of spatial perception in REAL architectural space. I am interested in exploring the kinesthetic aspects of perception of space and propose a method to address them throughout the design process. I want to explore a design method by which to produce architecture able to enhance the kinesthetic aspects of spatial perception. I am arguing that traditional design methods (like design by drawing/sketching) tend to address only the visual and physical aspects of architecture and neglect the bodily/perceptual aspects of architecture (sensory space). Therefore, I am proposing the use of the expressive movements of the body (a form of gestural design) as a design method that, I assume, can express and demonstrate the kinesthetic aspects of the architecture. This will be achieved by enacting-imitating the kinesthetic interactions of the user with the architecture throughout the design process, and somehow translating them into spatial properties/deformations/configurations. This is why I have turned to dance-technology, in order to find out what aspects of body movement current technologies can track and capture, and how they can manipulate and interprete them. My personal idea is that 3D digital animations of preliminary architectural spaces will be primarily designed (3D Studio) and then the designer's/performer's movement will influence their shape and configuration creating the final design outcome. The question how and with what criteria the interactions/movements will be translated and applied onto the digital architectural space deforming it, remains, in a large degree, a question to me as well. That is why I have been looking into the movement analysis literatures (Laban and so on) to understand the structure and elements of human movement. Because the possibilities are numerous and the ideas can be infinite I have to narrow down my process by determining precisely which aspect of human movement I want to analyse and translate (is it dynamic aspects? Spatial aspects? Is it the amount of tension in a particular action? Is it the rhythm of this action? The flow?) and which features of the architectural space will be influenced and changed/deformed . However this means that I have to construct my own software/hardware, something that I have not the skills and time to do. Therefore I think I will be looking for existing technologies (whichever seems more suitable ), and apply those onto my process and take advantage of their existing potential to track and translate parameters of body movement. So any responses/ideas/suggestions from the dance community are very welcome. Looking forward to them. Friendly regards Socrates Yiannoudis __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com ---------------------------------------- The Dance-Tech mailing list has recently moved to a new address. To post a message, send email to dance-tech@dancetechnology.org. To unsubscribe, send email to lists@dancetechnology.org, with the words "unsubscribe dance-tech" in the message body. ----------------------------------------
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