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Brain Lateralization

 
Some books take 2-3 years to complete. Some take a lifetime. Some remain unfinished. This is how I felt after reading Iain McGilchrist's The Master and his Emissary. Despite 20 years of research, McGilchrist seems to have spent too much time on his remote island detached from communication media. Nowhere in this beautifully written book is Marshall McLuhan mentioned, or the effects of media technologies on perception. While philosophers still debate the levels of influence screen media plays upon human consciousness, few would doubt we live in a highly pervasive pop culture. McGilchrist’s analysis of how brain lateralization shapes culture suffers from what McLuhan coined the rear-view mirror, i.e. we evaluate present environmental media via nostalgic metaphors of the past. Their effects therefore remain invisible to us.

Since the 1960s explosion of TV, media ecologists have been examining the considerable shifts in cognitive perception, with many reporting a gradual feminization of the male psyche (70s sexual liberation, 80s androgyny, 90s metrosexuality). So where exactly has McGilchrist been residing? If the latest studies on the numbing effects of digital media on critical thinking are correct (Carr, 2010) McGilchrist's argument should be championing a left-brain renaissance. Without fully examining such effects, McGilchrist fails to offer any genuine alternative to either Jaynes or McLuhan, barely moving beyond the linear technophobic conclusions of Heidegger. The world is implosively electric McGilchrist, I suggest you plug in before it’s too late.

Carr, N., The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (W. W. Norton, 2010)

Vitruvian vs. Circadian Body

 

The Hyperesthetic Office
The role of media ecology in evaluating
the sensory bias of workplace design

In support of the well known McLuhanism ‘the media is the message’, a growing number of studies into the cognitive effects of workplace design suggest the distractive nature of digital media is changing the way we think. Compounding these effects, workplace design has itself largely remained unchanged since the 1950s, with Taylorist models designing-out opportunity for cognitive divergence. Moreover, the effects are not solely cognitive. Indeed, office designs are increasingly linked to muscular disabilities, mental disorders and cancers.

Tracing the cognitive effects of four spatial media (acoustic, climatic, ergonomic and spectral), this thesis posits that if governments and industry are to succeed in what Daniel Pink recently defined as the Conceptual Age, workplace architecture must include spaces which encourage cognitive diversity. To support the hypothesis, a solution emerges from two perspectives. First, identifying architectural design through the lens of McLuhan’s history of media ecology, and second, via the spatial media analyses of 8 award-winning workplace designs.

Based on cognitive research and case study analyses, a model for the Circadian Body is developed, providing a biochemical framework for a hyperesthetic design tool. Contrasting the anthropomorphism of Vitruvian Man which prioritizes one architectural system (i.e. visual space) whilst subordinating other sensory faculties, the hyperesthetic tool offers architects a guide for optimizing sensory equilibrium, and ultimately cognitive health.

Keywords: workplace architecture, spatial media, cognition, chronobiology, hyperesthetic design

transnatural

Works by Lucy McRae

The Transnatural symposium celebrates some of the more successful love affairs between the made & the born. Until March 19th you have the opportunity to see works like Bitfall, Biojewelery and Mudtub, whom you might know from the blogosphere, but are more than worth experiencing in real life. Thus recommended. Hendrik-Jan wrote a more extensive review in the local language. Taken from Next Nature

 

hyperesthetic food

 
Philips Design Probe has teamed up with restaurant Arzak to create Multi-Sensorial Gastronomy – a series of crockery that transforms the experience of eating.

The term ‘molecular gastronomy’ defines a cuisine where chefs take inspiration from science and research. Beyond merely serving food on crisp, white plates, this bone china series is designed to react to food. As liquid is poured into the Lunar Eclipse bowl, a glow begins to appear from the bottom. Light begins to appear as soon as food makes contact with both the Fama long plate and the Tapa de Luz serving plate.

The series involves the integration of lighting, conductive printing, selective fragrance discharge, micro-vibration and electro stimulus among other sensory stimuli that all create an altered and interactive dining experience. The hope is that the project will generate discussion and debate about the fusion of technology and food in the future.

micro-environments

 

"dB" by Mattieu Lehanneur is a mirco-environment
which emits white noise to counteract noise pollution

Failure to recognize noise pollution as a key contributor to hearing loss, heart disease, academic performance  and stress  shows a distinct lack of corporate responsibility regarding human and environmental needs (e.g. anti-smoking bans took decades to implement despite mounting evidence). And it’s not just at the top end of the acoustic spectrum. Even low-level “everyday traffic noise can cause stress in children and raise blood pressure, heart rates and levels of stress hormones. Science Daily

Light Pollution

Light Pollution by cestomano

Research into the effects of artificial lighting on human circadian rhythms has shown increasing incidents of fatigue, depression and lowered immunity. Clearly humans are not well adapted to the new pressures of the 24-hour workplace. Disruptions in lighting also cause problems with Growth Hormone (GH) and melatonin levels which seriously affect how our bodies age and fight cancers. But perhaps more dramatically, any disturbance of cortisol can cause stress, high blood pressure and obesity, indicating that “light pollution"  has completely altered our experience of the environment on both aesthetic (e.g. luminous fog)  and biological levels:

"Light intrusion, even if dim, is likely to have measurable effects on sleep disruption and melatonin suppression. Even if these effects are relatively small from night to night, continuous chronic circadian, sleep and hormonal disruption may have longer-term health risks"

In a statement from the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), the use of bluish-white outdoor lighting increasingly threatens human and animal life. While Philips Dynamic Lighting is an attempt to counteract the effects of static lighting scenarios, responsibility for population health must surely reside with city planning departments and ultimately Government.

Lockley, S., “Blinded by the Light?” (CfDS handbook, 2009)

copresence

 
Installation by Hugues Bruyère (Photo: Rodrigo Torres)
 
Recent explorations into presence and other user-centric modalities seriously challenge what it means to experience natural realism. The sharing of digital artefacts (audio, images, video) reflect an innately voyeuristic population who not only desires “to watch” but “be watched”. The ability of media to skew presence shows that while traditional 2D artworks may not support physical presence (with the exception of set designs and trompe l'oeil effects) immersive VR systems generally stimulate a greater sense of physical presence.

presence at FILE RIO 09 from smallfly on Vimeo.

Presence [a.k.a. Soft n' Silky] is a double sided interactive surface in which multiple co-located participants are invited to interact on both sides of the membrane, reworking assumptions about co-presence. The project offers simultaneous layers of communication performance, in which the participant's bodies are key elements of the interface. By expanding and amplifying interaction via the implication of co-present bodies, we produce an interface that engages people on the intellectual, emotional, and physical levels.

Against Nature

The Chimaera & the Sphinx
Scene from chapter IX in Huysmans´ Against Nature, 
from the Dying Dreamer by Malin Zim

One of the earliest explorations into “hyperesthetic space” emerges from Against Nature (À rebours) by Joris-Karl Huysmans. Rebelling against the naturalism of contemporaries like Emile Zola, Huysmans’ main character Des Esseintes believes nature “has had her day” and that “the time has surely come for artifice to take her place whenever possible.”  In response to the lack of aesthetic intensity in real world, Des Esseintes artificially manufactures a mind-altering virtual palette of artefacts in which to stimulate hyperesthetic experience, albeit without the social connectivity of twenty-first century cyberspace.

Interestingly, Des Esseintes does not acquire hyperaesthetic artefacts for social status, the transformative experience of the artefact is more important than the object itself. Further, Huysmans extends space beyond the visual and acoustic by allocating navigational functions to aromatics and haptic elements, mimicking the crossmodal effects of synesthetic cognition. By presenting artifice as the totally immersive reality of choice, Huysmans pioneers a manual for hyperesthetic experience. For Huysmans, it is cognitive manipulation that gives rise to flights of imagination, and imagination that controls human evolution itself.

Blizard & Birkbeck

Completed 2005 The Blizard Building and centre of the cell embody the aspiration of collaborative working. The laboratory spaces are all accommodated on a single floor located some six metres below the street and filling the entire site. Above ground, scientists write up their research in a simple glass pavilion, in which are suspended four large pods. One, the Centre of the Cell, is to be fitted out as an interactive exhibition for school children. The first of its kind in a research building; it reaches out to the local community to celebrate the human body and reflect the research interests and aspirations of the scientific community. The other pods facilitate meeting activities and provide a striking backdrop to an otherwise normal office environment. 
Alsop Design
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Completed 2007 The Birkbeck Film School project was about the creation of an emotive, thought provoking place for the study of Film and Visual Media. We intended the project to transform a utilitarian extension into a vibrant new environment, a feast for the senses. The auditorium is a tapering black volume at the heart of the project. Conceptually, the break-out circulation space is created by a ‘cutting block’ that tumbles through the ‘solid mass’ of the extension, morphing into  different configurations. This movement is frozen at particular points in time like a stop frame animation. It creates a 3D cutting pattern that carves out the space and leaves a reciprocal imprint on the space.
Sam McElhinney
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The Plaza & Circle

Completed 2007, the Learning Plaza project in Maidstone Kent is part way through a bold experiment to turn children into consumers of education. Using their own shiny new Tablet PCs, each pupil at New Line Learning Academy will be in charge of his or her learning programming, liasing with teachers either virtually or in the flesh in vast, open-plan ‘learning plazas’ that hold up to 120 children. Gone are the classrooms of 30, and corridors rife with opportunities for mischief and bullying. Gone are the old “chalk and talk” styles of teaching. Here, teachers circulate around fluid groups of children, acting as mentors rather than lecturing from a whiteboard.
Lanway Solutions 
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Completed 2010 The Circle Bath (Centre of Clinical Excellence) combines natural light (through glazed facades and double height atriums) with access to fresh air. It prioritises idyllic views of Bath’s rolling countryside with sympathetic landscaping to further emphasise the therapeutic natural environment. The shared central space unites the building’s activities and includes a café, nurses’ station and reception point.  Internally, the division between functional zones is minimised, easing the stress involved in consultation, treatment and recovery for patients. Walking distances for staff are kept to a minimum. The compact scale of the building (6000m²) eliminates the confusion and disorientation common in larger hospitals.
Foster & Partners