Perceptual Interaction

Abstract

Architecture is designed to be experienced in a pre-designed way where the architect uses a combination of materials and lighting to achieve an experience. Much of a space’s characteristics— regardless of what sense they might invoke—hinge on materiality, and that materiality relies heavily on lighting to express itself. The expression of said materiality relies more on its surface qualiites than what material is being used because it will ultimately either reflect, refract, or absorb light. Chiaroscuro fuels the existence of light since without darkness light would not exist; together the presence or absence of light reveal a given material’s surface qualities. The importance of having both is often taken for granted because society has developed an addiction to light; one that has allowed for an almost complete elimination of the darkness that cripples humanity’s most essential sense: sight. Artificial lighting was introduced to feed that addiction and though it gives way to a plethora of possibilities in the field of architecture, people take comfort in a uniformity of light which often times leaves spaces with the look and feel of an overcast day; void of any drama or point of interest. There are few like artist Olafur Eliasson who use lighting to change the way one would normally experience spaces by experimenting with the bending of perception. This thesis explores the perception of space through the interaction of light, material, and viewer.