Introduction
During the 1st term, after observing one hundred people in Soho area, the most striking result to emerge from the data was human behaviours and how the consequence made the space so different along time. Therefore, the relationship between behaviour and atmosphere has been the subject to study, and also living auras are believed as a significant element inside or between humans for these alterations.
According to Future Science, those auras exist in all living creatures, whether plants or animals, cam be found in different ages and spaces. “John White lists ninety-seven different cultures over the face of globe…Life energy fields have been known in China and India for over five thousand years.” (White and Krippner, 1977, quoted in Brennan, 1993, p.3). Even though there are difficulties to prove the existence of the aura as it is invisible and untouched, several studies have been revealed that there are some possibilities to experience an auratic space. America architect, Peter Eisenman has described that “aura is an experience, not a quality attaching to an object.” Moreover, this space is also claimed by the German artist, Krüskemper in his project for Open Public Art and Architecture Competition:
Thus Auratic City does not mean the built city, but the subjectively experienced city. The idea of this project is to reveal the liberating space in the fleetingness of social activities which is unfurled and opened up by the vibrant presence and energy of this activity. Its form is generated by movement and energy vectors, the involvement of human beings. (2004)
It is clear that auratic spaces are hardly to be noticed, however, can affect or be affected by humans, being another crucial issue to change our lives and experiences. As the result, a sensation of Auratic Spaces should be concerned as one of the most important influences between human and space. The aim of this paper is to address recent research into this subject with the breakthroughs which might enhance the sensation and experience of space.
During the 1st term, after observing one hundred people in Soho area, the most striking result to emerge from the data was human behaviours and how the consequence made the space so different along time. Therefore, the relationship between behaviour and atmosphere has been the subject to study, and also living auras are believed as a significant element inside or between humans for these alterations.
According to Future Science, those auras exist in all living creatures, whether plants or animals, cam be found in different ages and spaces. “John White lists ninety-seven different cultures over the face of globe…Life energy fields have been known in China and India for over five thousand years.” (White and Krippner, 1977, quoted in Brennan, 1993, p.3). Even though there are difficulties to prove the existence of the aura as it is invisible and untouched, several studies have been revealed that there are some possibilities to experience an auratic space. America architect, Peter Eisenman has described that “aura is an experience, not a quality attaching to an object.” Moreover, this space is also claimed by the German artist, Krüskemper in his project for Open Public Art and Architecture Competition:
Thus Auratic City does not mean the built city, but the subjectively experienced city. The idea of this project is to reveal the liberating space in the fleetingness of social activities which is unfurled and opened up by the vibrant presence and energy of this activity. Its form is generated by movement and energy vectors, the involvement of human beings. (2004)
It is clear that auratic spaces are hardly to be noticed, however, can affect or be affected by humans, being another crucial issue to change our lives and experiences. As the result, a sensation of Auratic Spaces should be concerned as one of the most important influences between human and space. The aim of this paper is to address recent research into this subject with the breakthroughs which might enhance the sensation and experience of space.
The Overlapped Stories
While one of the sites near Piccadilly Circus is the old Regent Palace Hotel, rooms in a hotel become the other interesting object to study. The bed, walls, pillows and carpet in a hotel room just like the buildings, streets and squares in Soho area. Being a part of the habitat, those visible and tangible objects are just staying the same as the tip of an iceberg in a space. Nevertheless, “behind and within this tangibility and visibility, there is something else which is difficult to represent with concepts and words because it belongs to a pre-logical field of experience...” (Mazzoleni, 1993, p.285) The experience might be hard to sense, nevertheless, the occurrence is overlapped again and again in one space. It is mentioned by Wade in 2009:
This is where people come and leave: leave wet towels on the bathroom floor, leave half-full beer bottles on the nightstand, leave the bed unmade, hair on the toilet seat, stains on the ceiling, glitter in the carpet, holes in the wall, leave their lives, a mess for the morning maid. And after an hour, a day, a month, they leave all that they have left. And you check in.
Wade has done a series of photographs, "Room 10", presenting different situations, including the topics of sex, murder, fake certificate, prostitution, drugs, kidnapping, etc., all of those stories happen in one motel room. In the same year, the similar ideas have been also used by a new Chinese magazine, O'zine with a new film "Red Star Motel" and Russian photographer Evgeny, "In Da Car." In addition, the overlapped stories can also be seen in The HBO Voyeur Project, which launched in 2007, involved various residences and their stories, including murder, romance, cheating, marriage, and family life, with five respective addresses in New York. Those images are all good example to describe a simple space, like a flat, a hotel room or inside a car, changed by living auras, experiencing different atmosphere and stories.
The beginning of 1.5 x 1.5 M² stories
A lift, a rectangular parallelepiped with one door, could be seen as a completely simple space in our daily lives. It is hard to notice that there are a huge amount of stories happen in every second around this 1.5 x 1.5 M² space.
According to the film, directed by Marc Isaacs in 2001, the contemporary documentary filmmaker recorded the residents in a tower block lift in London. As those residents became trust him and start to open their heart, sometimes making a joke or sometimes telling him about their lives and secrets. “He believes that behind every stranger’s face is a story, and that every story is worth hearing.” (Times Online, 2009) People in one space might or might not know each other. Residents in one building might be close neighbours or totally strangers. However, those people may have a kind of relationship between each other. Although the relation cannot be seen directly, there is something behind the surface, existing between the people. As Hall mentioned in 1966 (p.121): “There are implicit obligations to treat total strangers in certain prescribed ways...and the activities and spaces associated with them.” “Anyone who is standing around may join in.” (Hall. 1966. p.151) For instance, the habitants live individually and have never communicated with others but a lift shaft may be the only place to gather the residents together and therefore some stories happen in this one point five square metre of space. Those stories can happen in just few seconds, which overlapped to a new moving portrait again and again in the vertical community.
Furthermore, the stories in a lift do not just happen in a exist lift. There is more imagery to present the concept of a lift. It could be a time line, histories, surreal worlds, or an inspiration from religions or fairy tales. A New York lift installation in Standard Hotel is a good example. Inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy , artist Brambilla creates a video, Civilization (2008), to present the vertical movement from hell to heaven in the hotel lift. People move up and down to experience the new concept of a lift. Hence, a 1.5 x 1.5 M² space could be infinite and infinitesimal, depending on how people sense, involve and interact in this rectangular parallelepiped.
The sensations we receive can very tremendously depending on the place. The time when the object is done can also have a great effect on what is experienced ;it can determine the amount and quality of light, the level of activity, the number of people present, the sounds heard, and so forth. The sensation will also vary depending on the level of awareness of the person and degree of attention paid to the experience.(Farbstein and Kantrowitz, 1978, p. 10)
The methodology
It is considerably true that the visualisation of aura spaces might be difficult to be expressed while the energy is invisible and even hard to be felt physically. Previously, the practice of some new methods, including filming, chroma key compositing and computer programme After Effect has been used during the second term due to express different stories and various experiences in a lift, like scenes of a dirty pervert, a woman doing her makeup, a couple arguing with each other or the residents are throwing their rubbish, for example. Although the consequence of directing a film is not as perfect and professional as expect. However, it is interesting to choose characters, making the dramas and gather costumes, and also the exploitation of new methodology is the most interesting thing. Therefore, the ambition of the methodology during the third term is to learn more about the skills of making films. However, this time, the skill of computer programme will be practiced more in order to present a surreal 1.5 x 1.5 M² space rather than filming something in reality. On the other hand, the practice of drawing is also important to enhance my presentation. Whether using Photoshop or hand drawing, there are many drawing skills which should be improved for my studying.
Conclusion
This paper has provided an account of, and the reasons for, the initial ideas and the processes which have been done during the first and second terms from the observation of human behaviours in Soho to the examples and descriptions of auratic spaces, and then moving to discuss about simple spaces, like a hotel room and a lift shaft which are influenced by living auras. People experience various atmospheres and different stories in these simple spaces. Some of them might be conscious and some might be not. Whereas the concept of living auras seems have difficulty to present, film making might be a good solution to describe something is invisible and untouched. To sum up, the overlapped stories are happening in every second between people. There is no limit and boundary in between. The only thing which can be done is to open up the sensation in our bodies, to feel the aura in a space and to experience different stories in our lives. Consequently, even the simplest space could be infinite.
Bibliography
BrambillaM. 2008. Civilization http://motionographer.com/theater/marco-brambilla-civilization/
Brennan, B. A. 1993. Light Emerging: The Journey of Personal Healing. New York: Bantam Books
Evgeny, Y. 2009. In Da Car. http://yd84.deviantart.com/gallery/#IN-DA-CAR
Farbstein, J., and M. Kantrowitz. 1978. People in Places: Experiencing, using, and changing the built environment. New Jersey:Prentice-Hall, Inc
Hall. E. T. 1966. The hidden Dimension: Man’s Use of Space in Public and Private. London: The Bodley Head Ltd.
HBO. 2007. The HBO Voyeur Project. http://archive.bigspaceship.com/hbovoyeur/
Krüskemper, S. 2004. Auratic City. http://www.krueskemper.de/english/p_auratic.htm
Lift. 2001. DVD. Written and directed by Marc Isaacs. London: Dual Purpose Productions.
Mazzoleni, D. 1993. The city and the Imaginary. In Space & Place, eds. E. Carter, J. Donald and J. Squires, 285-301. London: Lawrence & Wishart
O'zine. 2009. Red Star Motel. http://www.ozine.cn/ozine.htm
Times Online. 2009. Marc Isaacs on his documentary art. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/directors/article6668545.ece (accessed July 9, 2009)
Wade, L. 2009. Room 107: Twelves stories on the ground level. http://lyndonwade.com/
White, J. W. and S. Krippner. 1977. Future Science: Life Energies and the Physics of Paranormal Phenomena. New York: Anchor Books. Quoted in Brennan 1993, 3.
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