The Hidden Dimension

ACADEMIC BOOK REVIEW – THE HIDDEN DIMENSION (EDWARD HALL)

BOOK REVIEW PERSEPTION OF SPACE DEPENDS ON CULTURE (SO MAYBE IT SHOULD NOT BE SO LONG AS YOU FIRST THOUGHT OTHERWISE WE WILL ALL GET TIRED BEFORE)

Revista Trama 42, 156, 96 https://www.trama.com.ec/index.html

Edward Hall, Hidden Dimension, Anchor Book Editions, Garden City, N.Y., 1969, 240 pages, paperback, $15.95.

ISBN: 0-385-08476-5

REVIEWED BY: Cueva, Shully; Sevilla, AndrĂŠs. scueva.arq@uisek.edu.ec; asevilla.arq@uisek.edu.ec INTRODUCTION Man has created a new dimension, the cultural dimension that marks certain interrelated theories about the use that man makes of space as a specialized elaboration of culture. Cultural systems are not only limited to international relations, but also deal with the cultural structure of those deep and common experiences shared by members of the same culture, which can communicate through a complex system of various levels, whether tangible or virtual. As in his other book called The silent language, the central point lies in the culture and the countless experiences that are modified for both peers and foreigners who share the same space, be it public or private, with this his research would be linked to the use that man makes of space, which in turn could be assumed to be natural but which require greater self-knowledge and identification of the individual, reducing alienation from their fellow human beings and their spaces.

The spatial dimension is an inherent mental condition of animals and human beings, which differs depending on the subject's perception. It is through his senses that he distinguishes and classifies spaces and finds meaning for each one, however, cultural factors also influence spatial perception, opening the spectrum of possibilities to understand space and behavior within it, different cultures - different perceptions, this is how the theory of proxemics influences the ability to communicate and the degree of comfort in which we find ourselves. The book is recommended since with regard to the design of spaces it gives us critical thoughts about how spaces are being treated in a dimensional way, the same one in which we find ourselves, the book the Hidden Dimension in addition to indicating the importance of identity to which we belong invites us to participate actively, effectively and productively.

BOOK REVIEW When talking about the generalities of the book, he refers to the first three chapters where he gives us the guideline, by means of a simple description about animal behavior, giving it an approach related to communication and language, however language is much more that a means of communication, is more than a means of communication our thoughts, is an important element in the formation of this thought. Along with his identified writings on his side, Whorf (American linguist) presented writings on thought that he identified as "the implications of thought." In the questionnaires of the foundations of the doctrine of free will to the extent that they assume that men are prisoners of their respective languages, as long as they are given absolute value. The thesis of this work is that "the principles established by Whorf and his colleagues on language are equally applicable to the rest of human behavior and to all phenomena of culture". In fact, it can be thought that experience is the common good of men and that it is always possible to communicate with others without language and referring only to experience. However, if individuals do not belong to the same culture, because they live in different sensory worlds, they do not have the same experiences, so the latter perceived completely differently from one culture to another. The experience cannot, therefore, be considered as a "reference". Cultural systems can completely vary the structure of an individual's behavior.

Human behavior is distinguished from animals by the fact that it has managed to create extensions of its organism and has specialized it. Communication is established simultaneously from the conscious to the unconscious, in fact, when two individuals communicate, both are sensitive to changes in attitude that can occur in one and the other according to the words exchanged. Therefore, these animal studies allow us to analyze the spatial needs of man in relation to the variations in his environment. Changes that affect space strongly influence behavior. With this, when speaking of territoriality, its main function is to maintain a specific spacing that prevents the excessive exploitation of the territory on which a species depends, these distances are categorized by the author as escape distance, critical, personal and social, the same that are related with animal aspects and what are their ways of acting with respect to other species.

As a second factor in the structure of the book, it tells us about the definition of space, the ways of perceiving it within human behavior, the essential topic is categorized by the sensory receptors in each of the living beings, establishing the differences that each field brings us. according to the environment, however, the perception of space implies what is perceived, but also what can be eliminated. In fact, according to our culture, we learn from childhood to retain or eliminate certain types of information, having a perception of space that varies. In fact, the arrangement of furniture in a room makes a difference to our origins, we will not occupy the room in a similar way. As regards the tactile space, it is evident that the so-called "tactile" and "visual" experiences are inseparable in the sense that they are intimately related. However, the author distinguishes them. According to him, the tactile space separates the observer from the objects, while the visual space separates the objects from each other. Therefore, his description of all our senses, it is correct to mention that touch is by far the most personal. In fact, the skin is extremely sensitive to variations in texture.

The skin is therefore very sensitive to variations in temperature or texture. These are new sensory powers that allow us to point out the emotional changes that occur in an individual and, on the other hand, provide him with personal information about his environment at the same time. This subject of the senses the author refers to the perception illuminated through art and particularly this chapter does not provide any image to the reader, unlike others, since it requires giving an approach in which different angles in real dimensions can be contemplated. He claims that "reproduction" is merely a "reminder". Each one of these criteria does not allow the reader to appreciate the work for its reasonable value, where the laws of perspective, three-dimensional space, immobile visual fields, the role of light, of flight, among others, have been applied. techniques that have allowed new artistic experiments to be carried out that can lead to new human perceptions. Man has lived many different worlds of perception regarding his culture, he learned that art is one of the most abundant sources of information about human perception.

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Within the theoretical part, we find the development of the concepts related to the distance and perception of the space of the human being based on the different cultures that we conform, evidencing a variation in the way in which we appreciate it in radical cases such as Japanese culture and the Arab culture, and in others that, at a simple glance, one would think that they do not have a major differentiation such as the Germans, English and French, however, in this part of the book there is no approach to Latin cultures or South American, which we need to expand the theoretical concepts on proxemics. Crumbling its components, we find the models of organization of the space that the author grants as: fixed, semi-fixed and informal and as its name indicates, its difference lies mainly in how modifiable they can be, because despite the fact that their names give a rigid characteristic, its essence lies in the dependence on culture and the habits associated with it, what can be considered as a semi-fixed space in one culture can be considered as a fixed space in another and vice versa. Without neglecting informal spaces, which refer to the distance we have from each other and divided into 4 (intimate, personal, social and audience), we can find a scalar regulation of the space that, although it can be understood as In a familiar way for our western cultures, in the following chapters are the different appreciations that can be had, from an object such as the entrance door to the house, to the perception of appropriation of space by simply being located in that place, leaving this without effect, or better said, restructuring the generic distancing tables that may exist, since the cultural weight is the one that predominates in the way we appreciate things and space, and although the city itself (due to its macro scale), it could be believed that it should be designed only with large-scale urban techniques, it is impossible to discard or generalize the cultural essence that each one has with the application of existing successful models that favor the appropriation of public space and respect for history.

Figure 1. Personal Space S. (s. f.). Proxemics:what you should read about the study of personal space. Steemit.

Recuperado 2 de julio de 2020, de https://steemit.com/self-help/@steembeast/proxemics-what-you-should-readabout-the-study-of-personal-space

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CONCLUSION The Hidden Dimension is a study that provides a detailed evolutionary progression of the use of space, the senses play an important role in the regulation of distances between members of the same species and, of course, between one species and another; as well as the particular difficulties that man, and specifically Americans, have wrought due to the lack of understanding of what space means for all cultural groups on the planet. With this each group has its own traceable physiological, psychological and sociological needs and values. Man has many of the needs and proxemic references of the lower forms of life, but they have been modified with the complexities of human thought, experience, knowledge and the space of life and work itself.

In addition, man has created a series of extensions that affect the use of space and its relationship with its environment. Hall provides a striking insight into man's interaction with his spatial environment, and demonstrates that each cultural group has unique concepts of territoriality, crowding, distance, and space requirements. So no matter how hard man tries, it is impossible for him to divest himself of his own culture, as it has penetrated to its roots and determines how it perceives the world, because people cannot act or interact in any meaningful way except to through its culture that goes beyond what we see or the stereotypes that we have, since the cultural dimension includes many more causes to be able to solve problems, not only spatial, for this reason the planning and development of structures in the environments urban as we move forward must move towards a more global society in which we can all perceive the three-dimensional world in which we live, but we can assimilate that the hidden dimension that we must come to understand is culture.

REFERENCES Hall, Edward T. The Hidden Dimension. Garden City, N.Y: Anchor Books, 1969.

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