Space Is the Now; Now Is the Time!
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1 Space is the Now; Now is the Time! by Shokofeh Darbari M.Arch, Pennsylvania State University (2017) Submitted to the Department of Architecture in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Architecture Studies at the MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY June 2019 ©2019 Shokofeh Darbari. All rights reserved. The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. Author........................................................................................... Shokofeh Darbari May 23, 2019 Certifiedby...................................................................................... Terry Knight Professor of Design and Computation Thesis Advisor Acceptedby..................................................................................... Nasser Rabbat Aga Khan Professor Chair of the Department Committee on Graduate Students 3 Thesis Committee Terry Knight Professor of Design and Computation, Department of Architecture Thesis Advisor George Stiny Professor of Design and Computation, Department of Architecture Thesis Reader Marc Wittmann Research Fellow, Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health Thesis Reader Space is the Now; Now is the Time! by Shokofeh Darbari Submitted to the Department of Architecture on May 23, 2019, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Architecture Studies Abstract Architecture is the matter through which we domesticate the boundless spatial extent and embrace ourselves from the indefinite temporal progress of existence. Through architecture, not only do we mark our spatial boundaries, but we also indicate our temporal becoming and existence. However, historically, the temporality of space has only been studied through the lens of history and the temporality of the present moment and now-time is typically ignored in architectural studies. This thesis is an attempt to evoke the importance of temporality of space in architectural design process and is an effort to bridge the gap between spatial features and their neglected temporal aspects. The criteria for architectural design should not only be limited to spatial features; but also, should echo the temporality of spatial features in perceptual scales such as minutes and hours. Throughout this research, I initiate an interdisciplinary investigation of different models of temporality and temporal perception. I also run a series of pilot studies in which the perception of time is assessed in relation to non-geometric and geometric spatial features. I demonstrate the effects of lighting as a fundamental non-geometric spatial feature and shape as a basic geometric spatial feature on the temporality of space. The initial results suggest that brightness of light as a non-geometric spatial feature and shape of a room as a fundamental spatial feature alter the perception of time within a space and affect the duration judgment. Thesis Supervisor: Terry Knight Title: Professor of Design and Computation 5 Acknowledgments Thank you Professor Terry Knight, Professor George Stiny and Dr. Marc Wittmann for your guidance, feedback and inspiring conversa- tions. Professor Knight: Thank you for your insightful guidance and con- tinued support throughout the past two years. Thank you for the questions that were just right and critical, and your imaginative ideas. Thank you for teaching me the value of not knowing and wanting to learn. Professor Stiny: Thank you for opening my mind to the value of multiplicity of views through Shape Grammar. Thank you for teach- ing me to see, to value, to forget and to see again. Dr. Marc Wittmann: Thank you for stepping in and immediately offering critical questions and guidance through long hours of Skype. This thesis question and my life-changing experience at MIT would not be the same without each of you. Thank you to amazing people at Self-Assembly Lab: Professor Sky- lar Tibbits, Jared, Schendy and Björn for an inspiring research culture and insightful conversations. Thank you to Professor Patrick Winston for encouraging me to tell my story and insightful class discussions in 6xxx. Thank you to my Design and Computation friends especially — Jackie, Kate, Paloma, Athina, Diego, Alex, Cagri, and Moa — for sup- port, feedback and occasional breaks. Thank you MIT Department of Architecture, and everyone at Archi- tecture Headquarters especially Cynthia and Inala for continuous help throughout the past two years. Thank you Sahar, Zeinab, Oumaima and Huma for your continued friendship, support and long FaceTime calls. Thank you to my parents, Mohammad Hassan and Zahra, and my kind sister, Maryam, for your unconditional support, love and patient. I could not be here if it was not for your support, encouragement and love. And Finally, to my husband, Siavash: Thank you for being by my side on this not easy adventure. Thank you for your inspiring un- conditional love, support, encouragement and dedication throughout these years. You are the reason that I am here. I want to dedicate this thesis to my husband, to my parents and to my greatest loss — my best friend, Dr. Maryam Gharibdoost — who waited for a long time and made us wait forever. Contents Introduction 11 Time and Us 13 Philosophy: What is Time? 14 Now as a Temporally Extended Window 14 Now as a Discrete Instant 15 Summary 16 Neuroscience: How do Humans Perceive Time? 16 The Dedicated Neural Mechanism for Temporal Processing 17 The Intrinsic Models of Temporal Processing 18 Summary 18 Psychology: How do Humans Perceive Time? 19 Prospective Timing 20 Attentional Gate Model (AGM) for Prospective Timing 21 Scale of Timing in Prospective Timing 22 Discussion and Limitation in Prospective Timing 23 Retrospective Timing 23 Contextual Change Model for Retrospective Timing 24 Scale of Timing in Retrospective Timing 25 How Are Prospective and Retrospective Timings Related? 25 Discussion of Retrospective Timing 25 Summary 26 Design: Temporality of Space 29 Introduction 30 8 Non-Geometric Spatial Features and Temporality 30 Method 31 Participants and Procedure 31 The Waiting Period 32 Results 32 Discussion 32 Geometric Spatial Features and Temporality 34 Method 35 Participants and Procedure 35 The Waiting Period 36 Results 36 Discussion 36 Summary 37 Contribution and Future Works 39 Contributions 40 Future Works 40 Appendix 41 List of Figures 1 “Space is the Now; Now is the Time!” by the author. 13 2 The central idea behind the specious Present theory is that hu- man perception is presented by a temporally extended window of events instead of just a single snapshot of the world at the time. Diagram by the author. 15 3 In contrast with the theory of specious present which defines the present time as a durational window of time, there is another view in philosophy which defines the present time as a duration-less discrete instant. In this view which supported by philosopher Thomas Reid, the flow of time is divided into past and future by the instantaneous present as the meeting point. Diagram by the author. 16 4 Two ends of the spectrum in the conceptualization of time. At one end, the present time is defined as a temporally extended win- dow which has some duration and at the other end, the present time is defined as a discrete instantaneous phenomenon which is duration-less.Diagram by the author. 16 5 The dedicated model of temporal processing assumes that there is a specific mechanism in the brain that represent the temporal relationship between events. Diagram by the author. 18 6 The non-dedicated neural mechanism model assumes that timing and representation for temporal information are inherent in neu- ral dynamics and are modality-specific mechanisms. Diagram by the author. 18 7 There are two main models which describe the neural temporal processing. The first one (top diagram) is the dedicated neural mechanism such as central clock in the brain and the second (bot- tom diagram) is the non-dedicated neural mechanism which as- sumes each sensory modality is responsible for its temporal pro- cessing. Diagram by the author. 19 8 Schematic of the main methods used in the study of timing and time perception adapted from Grondin 2010. 20 9 The Thomas and Cantor’ Functional equation diagram adapted from Block and Zakay, 1996. 21 10 10 The Attentional Gate Model of prospective duration timing adapted from Block and Zakay, 1996. 22 11 Schematic of the main methods used in the study of timing and time perception adapted from Grondin 2010. 23 12 The Contextual Change Model of retrospective duration timing adapted from Block and Zakay, 1996. 24 13 The Contextual Change Model of retrospective duration timing adapted from Block and Zakay, 1996. 25 14 I hypothesize that spatial features within the space, either geo- metric or non-geometric, affect our temporal aspects of perception through environmental context information. This diagram is the proposed hypothesis based on the Contextual Change Model of retrospective timing. The Contextual Change Model is adapted from Block and Zakay, 1996. 26 15 Reported duration in experimental room with white color lighting and two different brightness levels. 33 16 Reported duration in experimental room with white color lighting and two different brightness levels. 34 17 Experimental rooms designed and modeled in VR environment. Left: Rectilinear design, Right: Curvilinear design. Diagram by the author. 35 18 Duration judgment