Simulator Documentation: Rules between People and Space

This is the video of my midterm simulator where the entire classroom is used as a static space with different types of boundaries according to my rules catalogue. There is a total of 12 participants in my simulator where every enter the room without knowing what they are supposed to do at all and the master speaker and iphones at the corner instructs them to do certain things involving with "invisible rules", "visible but not physical rules", "physical rules", "activities rules", and "object rules". This is all to test the people's reaction as certain instructions are organized in a timely manner.

Midterm: Simulator Presentation

Using people to change space

 Catalogue of Rules related to the triggers of people in space:

Diagrams of Simulator Manuel:

Simulator Diagram: Using people to create space by embedding the rules from the catalogue into it

Experiential Manifesto: The Impact of Human Beings

Presently, as technology develops and becomes much more innovative, there are numerous variables that contributes to having an impact on space including lighting, sound, color and etc. However, nothing is more important to space than human beings themselves. Architecture has always been based on people, whether to design something functional for people or to accommodate people. There is always a relationship between people and space. Do you ever notice the power of people in space?

Human beings have the ability to alter space in everyway. They activate space. Some space does not even exist without the presence of people. Is a nightclub still a nightclub without people? Will it create the same atmosphere and experience if it was an empty space that replaces the presence of people with a surrounding sound of people instead? Similarly, Plaza Mayor Madrid would not exist without people. The historical usage of Plaza Mayor Madrid till the present day has always relate back to people, whether it serves as a space for public execution or even a space where people come regularly to relax. As static as the architecture is, people make the space dynamic.

Even the slightest thing people do like their facial expression, gesture, body movement, and etc. can change space. Imagine an empty space with a man chasing a little girl like some pedophile. Now, imagine seeing the smile and hearing the laughter from the little girl, the atmosphere instantly changes to the happiness between a father and his daughter.

There are rules established to help define the questionable boundary between the relationship of human beings and space. The limit to when people decide to break the boundary in space varies according to each individual as well as the spatial quality of the space. This is why this topic is extremely challenging to designers and architects all over the world in creating space that presents certain boundaries to people in different ways in order to guide them through space or create a certain reaction. What must be considered in order to create a people- based architecture?

Boundaries come in various forms to direct people. If you think about everything that surrounds you such as cigarette trays, seats and etc., it is all designed for people. It leaves human traces. Those objects define where people would be for certain activities. In addition, human beings, spatial qualities, and each individual’s mental judgment also have great impact on an individual's certain action. Imagine walking across Siam and the Thai national assembly came up. Everybody around you stood up to show respect to the kingdom of Thailand. How would you react? Moreover, would you ever brush your teeth while shopping at Siam Paragon? A ground made up of grass and concrete, which material would you choose to walk on? Stating the obvious, people are guaranteed to conform to their boundaries when it comes to something physical like walls.

The boundary between the relationship of people and space might cause people to conform to it or it might result in people breaking the boundary. The real questions are to what limit do people conform to being restricted and controlled by space and how do they react to it?



                                                                                                              Pimlada Bunluthangthum (Cake)

Experiential Manifesto (draft)

Nothing is more important to space than human beings themselves. Do you ever notice the power of people in space? People activate space. They give great impact to the experience and atmosphere of the space. They even have the power to change the space itself.  Space by itself would not exist without

the presence of human being. Is a nightclub a nightclub without people? Or is it just an empty space that doesn’t exist without people?

People have the gift to change space just by their slightest action like their facial expression. Imagine a static space with a person inside smiling. Somehow you would refer to that space in an optimistic way. What if there are ten people and they are all smiling? That even creates a more dramatic effect. The greater the amount of people, the more powerful the action. This implies to everything people do including their posture, gesture, body language, body movement, activities, and even more.

There are rules established to define the boundary between the relationship between a person and space. The first rule refers back to objects that presents human traces. These objects are designed to accommodate people, which emphasizes the importance of people in space. If people do not play major roles in activating a space, then why would all these designs of objects exist? Cigarette trays, umbrella stands, bus stop seats, and million more things are designed objects that traces back to human beings. Why would there be a cigarette tray in a certain space if it is not for people who smoke here? The second rule is known as the “activities rules”. If a certain amount of people does something together as a group and you are the only one who did not do it, you would feel uncomfortable and the only way to gain your comfort back is to either leave that place or blend in with the others. An example of this rule would be a situation where you are walking and the Thai national assembly song came up and everybody stood still to pay respect to the kingdom of Thailand. Even if you are a foreigner, you would feel forced to stand up and pay respect as well since all the others that surrounds you are doing the same thing. You wouldn’t want to be a black sheep that stands out from the flock.

The third rule is called the “invisible rules”, which are rules that people know mentally if they are allowed to do or not, but there is no exact rule that states this to the public. Such rule applies to situations like brushing your teeth at a perfume booth in the mall. Would you break this rule or most likely follow it? Depending on each individual, people usually obey the “invisible rules”.  What about rules that are visible to you, but do not physically have any restrictions on you? Such rule is called “visible but not physical rules”. “Visible but not physical rules” refers to signs, directional arrows, and presence of different textures or materials. You see a sign that says ‘no smoking’, but is there something or someone to physically stop you from smoking? No. Maybe you would obey the rules, but yet again maybe not.

There is one rule that most people would conform to and that is the “physical rules”. “Physical rules” applies to something that restricts you physically, which includes situations like having a wall in your way. Instead of taking a shortcut to the other side, you cannot break through the wall. The only option you have is to walk the other away around it. The majority of people would conform to this type of rules. However, there are certain scenarios where some people would break the boundary in these rules. The question is when do they decide to break that boundary? To what limit do people conform to being restricted in space?

Catalogue of Rules Related to People

Novelty

Experiential Manifesto

Imagine your life as how it is now. This is what you will be facing for the rest of your life. If you are a 

fashion designer, all that surounds you will always be clothing, magazines, everything trying to keep up with the world today. If you are a house wife, all you do is take care of your children and your husband. Is there more to life? What if you want to experience something new just for a second? What if you do not want to escape this life, but may be depart it for a minute? Nobody wants to live with the same old routine happening around them all the time because isn’t it the excitement and anticipation what keeps people going? Don’t you ever feel like you want to be role playing in somebody else’s life? Rather than reenacting different scenes of your life and making the slighest changes you can, wouldn’t it be better to live something novel for a change?

Novelty is what everyone seeks for nowadays. People seek to experience something new, something different, that will engage them to do it again. To achieve that, they must be exposed to something unfamiliar. They should experience something innovative, may be even odd that makes them feel like they are transported into a new world. This new world has underlying surprises for them, which are unexpected. Anything can happen at any second. What attracts you is the feeling of anticipation that keeps emerging while you wait for something to play a role for you. The important thing is the experiences you get comes from real life people interacting with you to create a new life for you. You will experience it at best when you are blind folded and not distracted by the visions around you. You are more focused with the performances that evolves around you like you are a blind person going through profound experiences that leads you to escape your life for a while before you return to it. You will learn the possibility of living another man’s life to make your realize and re judge your own life. Once the experience is done, you may come back anytime to try out another life at random if your fate chooses it. You will be completely overwhelmed with the other possibility of living a totally different life than how yours is. When you go back to your real life, you might decide to change it completely or you might be satisfied with what you have. But isn’t it better to try something novel that makes you realize something rather than going on with the same lifestyle while still wondering?

Novelty is the experience communicated to the visitors through different means.

Visitors should experience something new, maybe even odd that makes them want to return to this world because of the underlying surprise or unexpected events

 that can occur at any moment.

The feeling of anticipation is what attracts them to this experience.

Most importantly, all these experiences are driven through real people performing and role playing around you who are the spotlight.

The act of storytelling will build the connection between the visitor with the actors to create an even more profound experience.

The experiences created keeps building up through time in a non- sequential pattern to surprise the visitors.

The visitor will enter an empty, dark, rectangular space where they will see unfamiliar actors with mask guiding them to choose their character through a deck of cards.

They will choose what kind of life they would live for five minutes in this new world without them knowing what the character in the card they would be experiencing.

They do not get to see the card and they do not choose the events that will happen to them.

They need to let the projection, sound and performance lead them to the anticipation of living an unexpected novel life.

 The visitors are blind folded and the actors will interact with them as if they are all role playing together with a few actors they do not see.

The novelty in this is that the next time the same visitor comes into this new world, they can randomly choose another novel experience.

The visitor will live the life scene they are never familiar with before.

They will experience something differently that will engage them to come again.

The new world will not be responsible for any damages the visitor experience.

Simulator Proposal #1

An empty plain box where the lighting, music, and people changes all the time creating confusion for people unexpectedly through the use of different events by role playing. All of this aims to create the experience of novelty.