A Concept of Advanced Lift System from Compound Eyes

A Higher Frontier

While the invention of a lift has brought undisputed significance to the world, the question has remained how vertical transportation is going to develop further. From pyramids to skyscrapers, achieving higher space by the use of technology can be seen as a kind of human nature which accompanies to our civilization since ancient period. In architecture, important buildings are put on platforms, and where the necessary technical skill exists they also tend to be the taller buildings.Living in the sky is not just a dream but can be realized since the advance technology of lifts has been improved. It is certainly true that vertical transportation has affected building methods and living behaviours of human beings for nearly two hundred years. As the Pritzker Prize 2000 winner, Rem Koolhaas mentioned in Delicious New York:

In the era of the staircase all floors above the second were considered unfit for commercial purpose, and all those above the fifth, uninhabitable…the elevator has been the great emancipator of all horizontal surface above the ground floor. (Koolhaas 1978, p.82)

Whether it is New York or Tokyo, the utilization of lifts has made taller dwellings practical all over the world. There has been a rapid increase in high-rise buildings and skyscrapers in the 21st century because of enhanced vertical transit within architecture. Not only has the surface of human habitats been altered to be vertical, forming a concrete city like Manhattan, but the condition of living behaviour has also been influenced dramatically since people can use vertical transportation to reside in higher places. Noticed by Petroski , “the more familiar we become with anything, whether mechanical or not, the more we expect a certain predictable behaviour from it and so adjust our own behaviour accordingly.” As a result, many architects, investors, technicians, sociologists, urban designers have unanswered questions and imagination about the changing environment and human lifestyle which will continue to result from the new mode of a lift device and its many varied applications in the future.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

Described as a mathematical satire, "A Romance of Many Dimensions" which written by Edwin A. Abbott (1884), provides different visions from "A. Square", a 2 dimensional being. The story is about "A. Square" travels between various dimensions including nondimensional"Pointland", one dimensional "Lineland" and our own three dimensional "Spaceland". Edwin completely alters the scientific understanding of space, time, and matter, giving the readers a refreshingly clear and simple mathematical and philosophical discussion on the nature of perception and also a detailed description of the wayfinding challenges faced when moving between dimensions. This book has informed our own thinking regarding the relationship users have with complex internal environments. To some extent we all experience internal spaces as flatland, where buildings become no more than a series of direction changes, corridors and doorways, while our buildings are designed in spaceland.‘Flatland’ is also remarkable as it discusses radical ideas such as the multiverse, and considers that the observable universe may contain a glimpse or slice of the whole, reflecting current theories regarding dark matter.

Stories from Different Perspectives

A space can be experienced differently by diverse scales, attempts and activities, changing the function and possibility of a space. As mentioned in the background of this thesis, a girl and a woman may experience kitchen space differently. As a result, a story about two imaginable viewpoints from a diverse scale of objects within a lift space has been made for my study. The first scene used a compound eyeview to present a speedy prospect from a fly in a lift shaft. This is followed by the second scene, another viewpoint from the fly which looked forward to the ceiling light inside a lift. The next stage was when the two subjects, a human being and the fly came across each ‘other’, having different activities in the lift space. Eventually, from the perspective of the person in the last scene, the reader could realize the scales of the two subjects. Generally, people experience a lift by human perspective, accessing through a lift door and moving horizontally on floors or vertically by a lift. By contrast, a point of view from the other scale might experience a lift as an unlimited universe and the lift lights could be seen as a number of stars, shining in the universe. Moreover, the routes of a fly would not be vertical or horizontal only but would shuttle freely within the space. In order to present the idea, a 3D model and photography have been used for the illustrations. A space in the vertical transit is not just about mechanics, but could, however, be observed from any perspectives, and then various phenomena can be experienced.

From the Top to the End:

1. Using a compound eyeview to present a speedy perspective from a fly in a lift shaft.
2. A viewpoint from the fly which looked forward the ceiling light inside a lift.
3. The fly saw itself through the reflection of a human eye.
4. A sight from a human being.
5. The human and the fly came across, having different activities in the lift space.
6. Identify the scales of the two subjects from the prospect of the person.

The Fear of a Lift

The fearing of a place, a mechanical/technological space, has been written by Dick Maas to extend the imagination of the "technology gone MAD" subgenre. The Lift(1983) is centered around a misbehaving elevator in an office building. Felix, an elevator repairman, is called in to investigate mechanical problems after four guests are almost suffocated from heat or something inside the lift after a drinking binge. Although Felix finds no apparent problem, more incidents occur, including deaths. Felix is called back to the building,running into a reporter who heard about the deaths and is investigating. They dig and discover that there may be something fishy with the computerized electronics that form the brain of the system. This is one of the better targets for machine horror, since many of us have twinges of irrational fears about elevators--we fear that they'll suddenly plummet to the bottom of the shaft, we fear being stuck for indefinite periods of time between floors in a semblance of imprisonment and many of us are claustrophobic to an extent.

Memorable Lift Scenes in Movies

Lifts have been used in every day life whether in an office building, an apartment, a hospital or any high-rise dwellings. For the moment, people are trapped inside a rectangular parallelepiped. Sometimes, A small talk might happen between those travellers but for most of time, it is just a short and uneventful trip to other floors. However, anything can happen in a lift, which could get stuck, people may have fight or even sex in this place and that is the reason why there are so many directors have used lifts as a significant place in their films.

Die Hard - Bomb in Elevator Scene

The Departed - Elevator Shooting scene

The Shining

Police Story 2

Get Carter - Elevator Fight Scene

1.5 x 1.5 M² STORIES

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.

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
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