TOWARD· A · POST-DIGITAL PRACTICE· OF· ARCHITECTURAL REPRESENTATION: AN ANIMATED· RE-ENGAGEMENT· OF ARCHITECTURE, VISUAL· EFFECTS AND· THE· MOVING· IMAGE. · MATHANRAJ· RATINAM· Doctor of Philosophy School of Architecture and Design RMIT University 2012 An•Animated•Re-Engagement•of•Architecture,•Visual•Effects•and•the•Moving•Image. I Toward a Post-Digital Practice of Architectural Representation: An Animated Re-Engagement of Architecture, Visual Effects and the Moving Image. A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Mathanraj Ratinam B. Arch. School of Architecture and Design College of Design and Social Context Portfolio RMIT University August 2012 Toward•a•Post-Digital•Practice•of•Architectural•Representation: Declaration An•Animated•Re-Engagement•of•Architecture,•Visual•Effects•and•the•Moving•Image. III Declaration I certify that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of the author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award; the content of the thesis is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved research program; any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged; and, ethics procedures and guidelines have been followed. Mathanraj Ratinam 10th August 2012 Toward•a•Post-Digital•Practice•of•Architectural•Representation: Acknowledgements For Lisa and our two cheeky monkeys. An•Animated•Re-Engagement•of•Architecture,•Visual•Effects•and•the•Moving•Image. V Acknowledgments he immediate and short list of people to thank also happen to be the people this PhD is for: my wife Lisa who only a couple of years ear- Tlier completed her own doctorate despite encountering some of life’s greatest challenges and our two wonderful young sons who were born after I began pursuing this PhD and on more than one occasion had passages of it read to them at bedtime. Had they not been so forgiving I would never have crossed the line. The longer list of people I’d like to thank includes those in other time zones who were directly involved in shaping the depth and flow of this study. Hélène Frichot who generously and patiently counseled me through the research and helped me to narrow down my many nomadic thoughts. Brent Allpress who’s questioning set many of my thoughts in motion in the first place. Laurene Vaughan who with the eyes of a cryptographer could always see how a PhD was coming together and when it was whole. Martyn Hook who encouraged me to find the best voice for the work, and Charles Anderson, Inger Mewburn, Miodrag Mitrasinovic and Terry Rosenberg for the wonderful conversations that revealed inspiring new ways of unraveling my ideas. Then there were the people who made the film possible, from the actors Katie Scherer and John Pelham, David Fano and Georg Mahnke for their technical support and critical friendship, my brother Nishan Ratinam for composing and producing the musical score for the animation, and of course Paul, Marc and David of Lewis Tsuramaki Lewis for the architectural proposi- tion, visual language and critique. Finally there were people who contributed to the refinement and finalizing of this work in a manner I still have trouble fully accounting for but nonetheless fully appreciate. Penny Modra and Mel Campbell who made for a smoother reading with their editing of the text, Stuart Geddes who with his delicate eye gave this publication so much life through his thoughtful and sensitive approach to its design, and Jacqueline Cooksey for her assistance in preparing the document for print. A PhD can seem like a lonely pursuit but everyone above made it feel wonderfully collaborative and collegial and to all of them I owe thanks and remain grateful. Toward•a•Post-Digital•Practice•of•Architectural•Representation: Contents Contents III Declaration V Acknowledgments 1 Abstract 5 Introduction Chapter One — Scope and Structure 11 Scope and Aim 12 Exegesis Structure 14 Outline of Chapters 15 Research Methodology 16 Project-Based Research and Practitioner-Led Investigations Chapter Two — Project One: Digital Quadratura 21 The Architecture of Animation 22 Digital Panoramas and Photogrammetry 23 Visual Effects Techniques and Perspective 25 Digital Modelmaking 26 Constructing a Panoramic Image 30 Allowing for Movement 32 Falling into the Image 34 Still Frames from Digital Quadratura Chapter Three — A History of Visual Effects 37 Compositing and its Beginning 41 Significant Examples from Film as Precedents for Architecture 44 Perspective: A Visual Effect 52 Contemporary Perspective Machines and Techniques 54 The Slippery Slope of Truth Surrounding Perspective 56 Divergence 58 Narrating Perspective 60 Manipulating Perspective 62 Other Architectural Visionaries Who Mediated Perspectives 65 Framing Devices 66 A Practitioner’s Perspective Chapter Four — A Review of the Architectural Flythrough 69 Research Background 69 On Representation 71 Architecture and the Moving Image 76 A Description of a Flythrough An•Animated•Re-Engagement•of•Architecture,•Visual•Effects•and•the•Moving•Image. VII Chapter Four (Continued) 76 The Trouble with a Flythrough 77 The Flythrough, Architectural Representation and Drawing 81 Photorealism and Verisimilitude 83 Objective/Subjective 83 Embodiment 86 Closing — on Architectural Representation 88 The Flythrough and Animation 88 Drawn to Animation 89 Narrative and Liveliness 92 Closing — on Animation 94 The Flythrough and the Cinematic 95 Here’s the Plan 98 Bird’s point of view 100 Architecture Unedited 101 Closing — on the Cinematic 103 In Isolation Chapter Five — Project Two: Park Tower 107 A Broader Context 110 Assessing the Transition 111 Outlining the Intention 112 The Planning 116 A New Practice 121 The Outcome 122 Construction of Greenscreen Studio 124 Storyboard Frames 132 Still Frames from Park Tower Chapter Six — Discussion and Conclusion 139 Interstitial Practices 141 Intervening Between Projects 146 Addressing the Initial Concerns 146 Looking Back 147 Limits and Expansions 148 A Summary of Discoveries 150 From Here On 151 Conclusion 154 Bibliography 158 Filmography TOWARD·A POST-DIGITAL·PRACTICE OF·ARCHITECTURAL REPRESENTATION: AN·ANIMATED·RE-ENGAGEMENT OF·ARCHITECTURE, VISUAL·EFFECTS AND·THE·MOVING·IMAGE. his research is about the ways Page 1 in which architects communi- Tcate architecture. It sits within a larger context enquiring into the role of representation in architec- Abstract ture and more specifically concerns itself with contemporary practices of architectural representation and their relationship to certain fields of the moving image, namely animation, vis- ual effects, and cinema. For over a decade there has been a great deal of interest in the creation of architectural forms from digital processes, or what is commonly referred to as generative architecture. Though this has undergone extensive experi- mentation and critique in academia with some highly inventive outcomes that are emerging in the professional sphere of architecture, there has been significantly less attention paid to the way architects digitally represent architecture, generative or otherwise. Amid the abundance of digitally ren- dered images and animations of late, which have provided new opportunities for illustrating and disseminating architectural ideas, there are some con- cerning trends. They include: the narrowing of aesthetic outcomes through the current digital methods, leading to greater homogeneity and limiting the communicative potential of the outcomes; the complex, inappropriate and redundant techniques employed to develop imagery and animations; the privileging of a geometric description over the poetic qualities of archi- tecture; and, perhaps unintentionally yet importantly, the re-characterising of representation as primarily an explicative practice as distinct from the equally reflective, reflexive and contemplative practice it once was. Exploring and addressing these concerns is the interest of this research. This research examines through theoretical writings the current practices of digital representation and their results, and through two projects proposes more appropriate methodologies that would enhance the outcomes. The first of the two projects reconsiders the existing digital modelling and render- ing conventions. These conventions largely emulate physical model making even though they don’t intend to produce an outcome that is tangible. The approach I propose looks instead to a historical example of perspective con- struction developed by Andrea Pozzo, along with contemporary developments in cinematic visual effects as precedents in putting forward a new digital tech- nique more aligned with established practices of architectural perspectival representation. The approach is not merely to couple cinematic visual effects with the long-established tradition of architectural drawing as a fashion- able counter, but rather to recognise their historic overlap; there was a time before the medium of film when visual effects sat clearly within the domain of architecture and painting. Returning to the birth of Renaissance perspec- tive, which is largely credited to Filippo Brunelleschi, we find ourselves not only at a point where architectural representation began to flourish but also, as I argue, at the birth of visual effects. Today we see the overlapping of visual effects practices in film and architectural representation once again; their disciplinary boundaries are merging