Figure 1 - uploaded by Maha Zeini Al-Saati
Content may be subject to copyright.
This sequence shows the transition of space in both form and experience. we notice that the open space is given definition by placing landmarks and a path that gives direction. as the path develops in complexity, we may find this path defined by vertical elements aligned on their edges. as a path darkens or narrows, it gives the quality of a rabbit hole or a tunnel. and as the path leads to a more lit or spacious area, it gives a sense of relief and discovery
Source publication
Film spaces can sometimes communicate narrative experiences to the viewers as strongly as those conveyed through characters. Audiences have grasped the feeling of Blade Runner’s (Scott 1982) despair in a dystopian futuristic city, Alice’s nonsensical endeavors in Wonderland (Geronimi et al. 1951), Dorothy’s eventful adventures on the yellow brick r...
Context in source publication
Citations
Abstract
Architects when designing-built environments are confronted with imagining and anticipating the visuospatial and navigational experience of users during the initial design conception phase.
Architecture constructs spaces while film provides a way of viewing those spaces in time. Cinematic narrative transpires using spatial cues of architecture to evoke emotion in viewers. These very viewers become users of space and place. This research puts forth the view, how understanding cinematic narratives are translated to form using architectural cues would help in dissecting the architectural narrative better.
Instead of regarding architectural elements as passive, we should view them as actions that embody and carry emotion. To understand architectural elements in action, we need to collide time with space and cinema gives access to both dimensions. Exploring and reviewing the architectural narrative in films to assess the interiority and exteriority and the relation of the space with the characters, their movement in space and time.
The thesis will analyze various fantastic places and examine how something new was created. Convincing, readable 3D environments are usually a mixture of familiar elements. The designer builds on the experiences of the average recipient and creates something that is considered innovative by means of new combinations.
One of the main characteristics of digital media is space in terms of navigable 3D environments. This space can be subdivided into natural space — the landscape or man-made, like architecture.
The link between architecture and film began in the 1920s, when modern architecture broke with many conventions. For the first time, filmmakers began to play with interior and exterior through architecture — the viewer was encouraged to explore space instead of just consuming it.
The medium film offered architects a completely new screen to present their art and at the same time it encouraged the architects to become even more creative and to carry out even more impressive designs.
The moving image became a tool of the architects.
With the digital age new possibilities emerged, through 3D programs architects were now even able to virtually walk-through their building designs beforehand.
New technologies enabled a rapid development of the virtual worlds, whereby today's audience is accustomed to high quality. In order to meet the demands of the information-indulged recipients it is necessary that the virtual worlds are not only aesthetically high-quality, they must also be logical and meaningful.
Fictional worlds are particularly popular in video games, giving players the chance to experience and explore something new. As a designer, planning a whole world poses a very special challenge.
How do you create a whole new world from scratch?
I have studied how designers, writers and architects approach their designs.
How do they start this complex design work? What factors make a fictional world successful?
The practical part of my thesis deals with the creation of a fictitious world. Based on Plato's written description of the legendary Atlantis I want to create a conceptual design. Since I already have a diploma in architecture, I want to focus on architectural design.
But how do you systematically approach the design of a whole world?
For this I investigated which basic principles from architecture can be transferred to 3D environments and found similarities to world building.
Furthermore, I investigated how designers proceeded to develop something innovative. In order to be read by the recipient, it is advisable to combine the novel with the familiar. So-called archetypes which are universally readable are useful for this.
I have also explored various zones in three popular theme park MMORPGs to see how the developers proceeded with the design, what inspirations they had and whether the concepts work.
INTRODUCTION Visual representation within our contemporary environments of technology, viewing habits and access to different media and mediums, allows cities to become powerful backdrops in cinematic and television storytelling. Across a spectrum of choices, where reality television, dystopian futures, superhero destruction and the traditional 'house of horrors' dominate our screens, an opportunity exists in which to articulate behavioural contexts and representation. This in part, lends itself to a platform to discuss particular urban environmental cinematography decisions that demonstrate the city as an obstacle to psychological emancipation. As a result, this paper situates itself within the protagonists' behaviours becoming distorted, facing an incommensurability between themselves, and their environments. In this paper, I will analyse three main contexts of media including reality television, such as The Apprentice, The Hills, and, Keeping Up with the Kardashians; dystopian movies including Blade Runner and its sequel, Blade Runner 2049, and High Rise; in contrast to conventional horror films based in singular environments, such as The Shining and Psycho . Analysing this media through the gaze of architecture and psychoanalysis, proposed by Bruno Latour, Alberta Yaneva , and Slavoj Žižek, a discussion of parallaxical identities presents itself, where all incommensurability between environment and self can be alleviated, reducing the sense of tension enacted by the media's representation. By framing the city through psychoanalysis, this paper moves away from phenomenological concepts of "being" and the city as an interchangeable context for the spectator to suspend disbeliefs. Examining the realm of architectural antagonism 1 proposed by Žižek , the notion of the city on screen can act as both setting and backdrop for psychoanalytical anxieties to occur. While movies and television are surrounded by scandals ranging from gender equality, race, manipulation and a lack of diversity, the opportunity to analyse the city presents itself within the narrative of our media. We also live during a time period where authenticity of place and fact is questioned, where socio-political constructs seek to devalue media representation and documentation. Whilst this paper deals with filmic and televisual fictions, the lessons from architectural narratives transcend beyond our screens, affording dialogues of urban environments and their settings to exist within the "real" . Proposing the quality of parallaxical identities 2 within our cities where the implementation of architecture can severely reprimand and also transform the identities of communities, builds upon the dichotomy of place across political and social spectrums. By transferring this notion into filmic representations, we can begin to interrogate how the city can become represented and characterized horizontally and vertically, corresponding to community behaviours and their activity, as highlighted by Latour and Yaneva's "gull-in-a-flight." 3 We can expand this into the urban fabric, where a city "appears to be composed of apertures and closures, impending and even changing the speed of the free-floating actors" 4 . In contrast, using Hitchcock's Psycho (1968) and Kubrick's The Shining (1980), movies with a horror tone that primarily take place between two poles, we can compare Žižek's proposal of the resolution of actant's trauma and anxieties through architecture "trying to resolve through a symbolic act the 'real' of social antagonism by constructing a utopian solution" 5 .
Building on current research into space and film, this article explores the construction of traditional religious spaces in contemporary Nordic films. The focus is on one film, Letters to Father Jacob, and the spaces in the film, which demonstrate how the characters can be comprehended, how the film narrative as a whole is portrayed, and how the mood of the film is created. It is argued that the way the religious spaces are represented in the film, and in films like it, suggests a great deal about how churches are currently comprehended in the Nordic countries. A focus on space and place is shown to be useful when analyzing the representation of religious themes in films more generally as well.
