PERCEPTION OF SPACE THROUGH PERSPECTIVE AND ITS FRAGMENTATION

VISENTIN A L B E RTO

PERCEPTION OF SPACE THROUGH PERSPECTIVE AND ITS FRAGMENTATION

“Composition is the organization of lines and shapes in a communicative entire,

while perspective produces the illusion of three dimensions on a two-dimensional media.�

Arch. Giuseppe Romeo

key-terms

Perspective From the verb perspicere, from per- ‘through’ + specere ‘to look’.

Fragmentation The process or state of breaking or being broken into fragments

Anamorphosis A distorted projection or drawing which appears normal when viewed from a particular point of view.

Movement By moving around an object, a series of constants visual evolutions show themselves.

[ perspective abstract ]

The aim of this DRU was to study how our techniques of representation, in particular, how perspective representation transforms the world around us.

We were asked to select an object, position it on a surface, and draw it in perspective.

Through a series of iterative drawings and models, transform the object and the relationship to the object.

Starting from the plan view of the Casa in Alantejo by Aires Mateus, the aim was to see how by choosing one plane section of the building and by using one of the most surprising aspects of architecture, the possibility of changing the perception of space by misleading the observer about the true dimensions of an environment and the actual physical spaces vs the virtual ones that can be generated by the use of perspective fragmentation: real spaces whose perception can be changed through the application of the rules of perspective.

We can see how we can also use “voids” to create “virtual spaces”

Palazzo Spada, Roma

researches Perspective is the only tool able to create subjective links between human beings and matter sorrounding him, it can be seen as a subjective way of interpreting the world, each perspective representation can be drawn only by identifying a subjective point of view which varies from individual to individual.

Perspective drawings has been applied to the art of building for centuries and has not been used only to illustrate the world but also to create and organize the world, and used as a tool to evoke illusory architectural spaces: ‘’ a way of seeing which becomes a way of building’’ The ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans indicated the depth of space in the paintings through a series of more or less rudimentary tricks, such as the partial overlap of the figures.

The scientific understanding of the laws of perspective is a relatively recent acquisition in history: they were for the first time accurately described in Italy, in the fifteenth century, where thanks to studies

by Brunelleschi, the word perspective assumed the meaning of representation of objects according to the scientific principles of optics.

In the context of the history of art, the perspective wanted to solve, in theory and in practice, the problem of representation in its relationships between lines, volumes, colours, shadows with regard to painting and that of the organization of volumes according to the different points of view regarding sculpture and architecture.

Another way that one can use light, deriving from different lines of sight to create spaces, be them purely theoretical, is by the use of anamorphic perspectives.

These anamorphic perspectives actually mean the use of optical illusions to give one the impression of the existence of spaces, voids, structures, etc.

The term anamorphosis comes from the Greek anamorphosis, reconstruction of the form, and indicates a particular effect of optical illusion whereby the distorted image becomes recognizable only by a precise position, nothing more than a strongly distorted image that acquires the “true form” only when the observer is in a particular position very inclined with respect to his plan An example can be that of the Borromini’s perspective gallery in the courtyard of Palazzo Spada in Rome.

[ anamorphosis ]

Felice Varini Anamorphic Installation

Borromini designs the perspective colonnade in the atrium of the building in a very small available space, managing to create the effect of depth through targeted architectural measures. So what the viewer perceives as a 40-meter-long tunnel actually has a length of only 8.82 meters.

Using the principle of the accelerated solid perspective already adopted by Bramante in the church of Santa Maria near San Satiro in Milan the different floors converge on a single and unique point of escape: the side walls are not parallel but converging, as well as The floor and ceiling of the gallery also converge. So as the floor rises, the ceiling drops and the walls converge.

The columns gradually shrink and if the height of the tunnel at the entrance is 5.8 meters high at the end it reaches 2.45 meters.

The back wall was originally painted with a fake vegetation in trompe l’oeil, replaced in 1861 by a statuette of Roman warrior which visually becomes the point of escape of the entire work. The statue, just 60 centimeters high, helps to create the game of illusions that this small gallery is able to produce in the viewer’s mind.

The result is an incredible illusionist work, an artifice of Baroque art that plays with the sight of visitors.

Anamorphosis is a word that appears in the seventeenth century and designates a certain kind of “optical dissoluteness” based on the interaction between reflection and perspective. These are distorted, monstrous and indecipherable images that, when viewed from a certain point in space or reflected with various tricks, recompose, rectify, and finally reveal figures at first sight not perceptible.

Knowledge of the procedures for building them was long transmitted as a magical and secret doctrine, until from the sixteenth century the anamorphic images began to spread. Finally in the seventeenth century anamorphosis invaded the treaties of perspective, the architectural practice and the fruitful optical speculations of the time.

The most direct and simple way to make anamorphic paintings was related to the use of light.

The painters drew, following the usual natural proportions of realistic mold, the design to be “hidden”: a face, an object, a coat of arms. They then transferred the drawing to a cardboard, as was normally the case in the preparatory operations of the frescoes; the cardboard was in fact pierced with the tip of a nail at each line of the drawing itself.

[ re-composition of space ]

Oliver Ratsi Perspective Installation

At this point, the cardboard was shielded sideways to prevent sunlight or lamp from entering the room where the painting would be made. The light beams, in this way, passed exclusively through each hole of the cardboard, projecting a “photodrawing” on the wall.

Anamorphosis is also used today in many forms. One application is that by Boa Mistura in transforming Brazilian Favelas. Boa Mistura’s intervention aims to simplify the spatial complexity of the alleys with anamorphosis.

In practice, words extend between buildings in a precise trajectory. So that seen from a certain point they appear straight and clearly readable, bearded to the perspective escape. Almost fluctuating. Up close, however, they appear deformed.

Many artists and architect, try to study more in dept the illusory peculiarities of perspective such as the French artist Olivier Ratsi that gave birth to a graphical work about the re-composition of space through a game of perspectives ( images on left page ), both of the exhibition space itself and that of the projection canvas.

The whole installation is based on a very specific point of view, a precise position from which a new dimension is revealed to the audience by anamorphosis.

The simple geometric elements that seemed to be flat at first suddenly start delimiting a new space.

The Swiss artist Felice Varini , as well, has been creating illusions of flat graphics superimposed on three dimensional spaces using the same eye-deceiving technique called anamorphosis where the complete shapes can only be seen when viewed at certain angles.

Varini distorts the viewer’s perception of reality. Of course, when one isn’t standing in the proper position, the illusion fades into an abstract smearing of color. The fragmented pieces distort the optical illusion, turning its applied surface into a piece of architecture with a weird paint job.

The artist’s vast portfolio of anamorphic illusions presents a variety of urban paintings, both indoors and outdoors.

His large-scale creations are geometric in their composition and redefine each threedimensional space they are applied to in such a way that one questions their own vision.

House in Alantejo | Aires Mateus A number of distinctive elements can be recognized in the architectures by Manuel and Francisco Aires Mateus, starting with purity of shape, which is expressed as a combination of set solids and voids, where the voids themselves become space.

Material peculiarity is also very important, where white almost always prevails. Also the cuts inside these pure shapes, which lend personality to the location, together with the symmetry of the plan, lend personality and uniqueness to the works by the Aires Mateus brothers.

Transforming space into a concrete entity, so even void becomes matter. This concept recurs in all of their works.

The works by Manuel and Francisco Aires Mateus have got a strongly sculptural nature.

In the geometric shapes, which are usually white, clean cuts stand out, as if they were to let the light come in, and at the same time to allow access to these architectures/sculptures.

What i am trying to do with this structure is to try and analyse it from various angles thanks to the use of specific perspectives where we try to highlight the specificities of each single view that derives from these perspectives.

At first glance is that the specificities of this structure, with the wide use of open spaces, affords an interesting means of using shadows created by sunlight to define virtual new spaces that can lend themselves to define new transformations of the structure or part of the structure but my interest lay more on the study of parts of this fragmented plan, framing particular illusory perspective views of the building to then change the perception of it.

[ Alantejo house plan & section ]

[ illusory views of House in Alantejo ]

[ aim ] I first started studying this particular building by focusing mainly on the overall fragmentation plan as a whole, with the circle void in the middle and by analysing more the effects of the perspectives created by the shadows cast by characteristics shapes of Casa in Alantejo.

From there I moved on to focusing my attention on the small frames of the building, fragments of the whole.

Particular spaces of this building create an image similar to cubist paintings where the user is constantly viewing spaces that intertwine and relate.

These perceptions not only include overlays but a sense of the extending of a space.

Ambiguities within spaces that make associations between two or more areas.

Perceptions about a space is directly associated with spatial relations, ambiguities, tectonics, and perceived barriers.

Architectural elements can be viewed equally from more than one point of view creating duality of space, planes and structure These fragments of the building, seen from a specific point of view, are capable of distorting the reality of space,

to fragment it in almost two dimensional figures/shapes within a frame letting the viewer immerse himself in the illusory characteristic of the building.

The aim behind the study of the particular frames of the building is to analyse the illusory peculiarities of perspective and its ability to engage directly with the viewer from a specific point of view.

There is a reciprocity between the form and the image of the form, where every three-dimensional form generates a plurarity of images and where each two-dimensional image produces a plurarity of form.

[ fragmenting ] Fragmentation, as D.Libeskind used to say in 1991, is like having a million pieces of mosaic that do not make up the same figure, that can never be assembled and build a unit, because they do not come from a unitary whole.

So what I have tried to do here is to break down the integrity of the work in a simple way. There are various levels of fragmentation, but here I have kept it simple.

[ layering ] The fundamental idea of working for layers is to demonstrate that even if you don’t refer to traditional compositional schemes, you can achieve complex architectures. The operation is in fact that to single out the architectural components and to then recompose them according to a personal configuration.

Rem Koolhaas in the process of recomposing works via sums and additions.

Rem Koolhaas works by overlapping horizontal layers that are projected on a vertical screen, creating a dynamic and composite view of the sections that give a new naturalness to the context

[ modeling ] One effect of spatial depth is obtained when on object is partially superimposed on another object: one cannot help but assume that the first one is the closest to us. In ancient times this technique was often used as “horizontal staggering”; the more an object is located towards the top of our field of view, the more it is perceived as distant. This system was also used in ancient art through “vertical staggering”

[ moving ] By moving around the object, a series of constants visual evolutions show themselves.

Our perception and vision of reality is not a passive acquisition of finished images, but it is a continuous negotiation between the information transmitted by stimuli from the outside world and the information coming from our memory, the result of previous experiences.

Space refers to a system of relationships between empty, full and observer. The void acquires meaning in relation to the full that delimits it, creating a separation between the inner void and the outer void. The element on which the character and the valour of a space depend is neither the emptiness nor the full, but the observer.

Architectural space should be understood above all as an emotional and multisensory experience, as the reaction of an individual to an environment that produces continuous stimuli: space has the ability to express immediate emotional.

Everyone has experience of how the built environment affects our perceptions, our emotions, our interaction skills, our dreams and our personalities.

Because we respond to the environment through the multiple emotions that are deeply rooted from the beginning in every architectural experience. They initially encode whether an environment is pleasant or not, regardless of whether it appears in a traditional or avant-garde guise. The pleasant or unpleasant sensations generated by a space are due to reactions that take place at the brain level and we are able to read and measure them today, since they occur in a similar way in all humans.

The perception of space is linked to movement, a space must be crossed, I observer are the reference point of a reality that I perceive in terms of relationships and distances with the other components of the scene.

Therefore, moving in a space, we create mental maps that allow us to orient ourselves, to be aware of our position, the direction in which we move to reach the goal.

By moving around the cube, or even in the cube a series of constants visual evolutions show themselves gradually.