Midterm presentation for the Compound Telescopic Field: A Synoptic Machine
The natural relationship between the active happenings within the courtyard and the open hallway surrounding affords the viewers in the hallway an unobstructed complete view of everyone and everything. We are challenging the hegemony of openness that exists at the center of Rapson hall.
By reducing the complete panoramic view of the courtyard that passes across the bays and railings into a series of discrete shifting images we introduce a second mode of vision. The compound- vision constructs a gestalt which gives more meaning to the lines and relationships between the discrete images. The attention paid to each individual image turns the passing glance into an exercise in looking and a live collaging of sight. In the natural world, our own mode of seeing is one of many. One segmented mode exists in the compound eyes of insects. Compound eyes put together a repetitive omnidirectional picture from an array of discrete sub-eyes. A compound field of discrete images is presented to the viewer. A holistic view is gained from the specific details and the secondary meaning in their juxtaposition. Instead of the analog 180-degree view in which we see a dense field of information, the compound view is a digital wide angle shot. The entire range of view is still available but reduced and segmented into precise details to which more attention is given. Frederick Kiesler described a ‘vision machine’ that “consists of: (1)the object, (2) the eye, (3) the dividing partition between the outside and the inside, (4) a cycle system of man’s physiology, and (5) a base upon which the machine rests.” He describes a division between the outside and inside of the human body, through which light is reflected and drawn into the eye by means of glass tubes and “the stimulus on the retina does not produce the actual picture of the object (as is so commonly accepted), but acts as a transformer of the stimuli into forces which continue the original path of light towards the internal structure of the human body, where the perception and formation of the picture is completed.” The abnormal (segmented and digital) picture is transmitted to the eye through tubes, where the internal structure of the body translates the information into a gestalt, or, a holistic understanding of a viewed space or object that is greater than a collage of parts. This is the core concept of our Synoptic Machine, ‘synoptic’ meaning that through showing a synopsis of precise images an observer can understand the essence of a space, and to impose a different mode of seeing. Architecturally, our Synoptic Machine is a window. The arrangement of windows on a facade limits viewing angles, and glass varies in the amount of light it reflects and, a stained glass window filters light into colors. All these window types augment our vision to serve some goal, whether that is to display secondary information (as in the stained glass) or to control our gaze. The Synoptic Machine introduces a mode of vision which exercises minds ability to composite gestural images and to create an unequal dichotomy between the viewers in the hallway and the viewed people as objects within the courtyard.
