it started as an experiment- and a data collection.
i used fish tank thermometers- existing materials.
my initial; intuitive idea was to see how movement can generate heat from the body, and change an environment.
i realized what i needed to do was conduct my experiment on an outside-source- and a credible source- the dance movement of a professional dancer.
i realized my material used to conduct the experiment, (fish tank thermometers) were insignificant in recording accurate data for my purpose of mapping the rhythmic patterns of skin surface temperature.
The liquid crystals are used upon contact with a material to sense surface temperatures.
The thermal imager, uses the same technology as the liquid crystals, but in a different way.
The thermal imager which is used for building inspection to detect heat loss typically takes still images which contain data. these images are put into a Image-view program where the images can be analyzed to see where there is heat loss.
i don't really have a concern, my interest is not heat loss in the building envelop as an economic default. "heat loss" is strange to me because heat (energy) is never lost - it is only transfered. it is transfered to a colder place, distributed over, usually when considered "lost" a larger area. This loss of temperature is natural and it is not crucial that we make our buildings more air tight to resist this natural heat transfer. How about using certain materials and space that work with this natural tendancy. Thermal bridging/ hot to cold transfer- we must retard it so the condensation does not occur and wet material which will mold. What about summer? Windows must open, I will never design a building where the windows don't open. that is prison. that is cruel and people cannot live that way. What i am interested in is the path of heat rhythms of our skin generated by movement of our outer gestures and inter movement (non-visible from the outside body) that occur in the build world (and natural) world. at times these patterns are left unnoticed and unimportant. we make heat. so what, we sweat. so what, we can record these patterns? so what.
they are patterns, none-the less, and a way to see the space-forms studied by Laban. we convert inner energy from the body into surface skin heat to keep us alive. it is important to see what happens to this heat and see if it can be used somehow. instead of 'air-tighting' buildings, exaggerating a technique which has not shown absolute success in its nature, but merely resistance to natural heat flow, lets see what else we have, which resources we have (our bodies), in collaboration with what we can make (architecture) to solve this problem of heat loss from buildings in a way which studies and celebrated the moving body, making our lives a little more enlightened, while tectonically heating buildings.
Studying Laban
With Rebecca Kay- Lewis, a professional dancer of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, i filmed a dance solo. I used 2 regular HD video cameras, and a thermal imager, as mentioned above.
Space forms could be studied alone with regular HD video cameras but one may distracted by the expressive nature of the movement of the dancer. I used a thermal imager to film the dance because i am interested in the importance of surface skin heat, and because the nature of movement alone is easier to observe by removing the visual image of the body from the movement itself. The thermal imager shows the infrared radiation of the body, only. There is no body image for our mind to associate with bodily expression. The heat patterns are the only things captured on the thermal imager camera.
The heat film I recorded was isolated into 6 films: each film shows only one temperatures in 'C. each group has only one 'C:
f0- 18'C
f1- 25'C
f2- 27'C
f3- 29'C
f4- 32'C
f5- 35'C
each film is the whole duration of the original heat film.
so I could see each temperature 'C in isolation.
a) i COMPILIED the frames (of a film) to unify time/space, which resulted in one large time-frozen image. (1 image per film.) Here is it easy to see the area, over time, in which the dancer touches the air with her skin surface heat. what can be done with this heat? how can skin surface heat inform/be used as material-change catalyst in the environment in which she dances (moves)? how can skin surface heat be USED as an "immaterial" material in this architectural condition of a dance floor (studio/room/any space).
b) i froze the frames (of a film) SEQUENTIALLY, in true chronology, to analyze the movements of the dancer in the film.
i chose a key phrase of the dance in the film:
I then froze each frame, and on each frame traced the planes of the dancer's body parts to map out space-trace patterns. I complied all these frames together, so see a time-frozen image of a trace-form.
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with the study of Rudolf Laban's texts on Choreutics, I learnt :
Space forms are traced by the body. These are analyzed to understand our instinctual and inner attitudes which we project, from inside us, into the outer world we share with others. on a performative level, these movements can be dance or mime- movements which express everyday movement and have been developed for entertainment.
what do these trace forms embody? our (inner) attitudes/ and (inner) primal instincts (consciousness).
This led me to conduct an analysis of movement through a filmed dance. But because I am also interested in skin heat patterns, I combined my two interests, movement AND skin heat, and used a thermal video camera to film a dance. I then analyzed this thermal film Laban style.
After analyzing the temperature films as a medium to learn about Laban movement theory AND skin heat I discovered:
movements; dance, mime, or everyday, generate trace forms. these trace forms embody: our (inner) ATTITUDES, (inner) primal INSTINCTS (consciousness) AND allow a secretion of our (inner) physiology, HEAT GENERATION.
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which means, the roll that architecture plays in this research is as follows:
I can set up an architectural condition which inspires and accounts for movement. The movement will generate inner attitudes, inner instincts, and heat, which are projected into the outer world (the world everyone shares).
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a) sense of consciousness through psychological expression- inner attitudes: found w analysis of space-traces
b) sense of consciousness through physiological- body- heat generation: found w analysis of space-traces
both these things need special LENSE to be observed/analyzed/sensed.
a) to sense inner attitude/instinct one needs a consciousness of labans choreutics theory: kinesphere and dynasphere, primal scale, etc.
LENSE A)
CONSCIOUSNESS OF THEORY of choreutics.
materially, labans texts.
LENSE B)
THERMAL IMAGER, HEAT SENSOR: to see/feel heat patterns.
lets look at lense #2 a little deeper, still on a material, architecture level.
this is a thermal imager to see the traces.
this is our skin sensors to feel the heat.
but to dislocate ourselves from our inner skin for a moment, let us take the position of our architectural skin. now we are outside of our bodies.
outside of our bodies how do we detect the heat from the skin surface moving to this outside? we can detect it sense it with precisely those things:
DETECTORS and SENSORS>
but there are a lot of things that are detectors. a trees leaves, moving in the wind are a tactile wind sensor. if we don't feel the wind or see the wind, we can see the movement of the thing it affects/ we can see the movement of the thing it exerts force on.
when moving in space- the heat on our skin moves also. and it exerts an affect on the air. when our skin touches surfaces, it exerts an affect on the surface.
im thinking a steam machine. or a pressure gaudge that is activated by heat. or a wall of sensitve hairs that moves when someone walks by, and on the other side of the wall, something happens?
dont forget Laban, how does movement generates HEAT.
but the same thing that generates HEAT to be used somehow in affecting the materialness of the space, is also important in understanding why the person moved in the first place.
movable WINDOWS, transfering heat to pockets.... storing and compression heat, changing where the 'cold' is, so manipulating where the heat is lost to. but it is transfered to wall like aterials that can really used the heat to transfer to someting else.. like a breathing wall....
a system of thin thin walls making up a spunge like membrane.,..
inform the architecture?
tactile affects on the architectural environment.
the architecture must be a program that makes one move - the subway system, and underground system in nature is for the flow of people. it is a transient space where 1, 2 or 100 ppl may be at once. opportunity for a variety of movement, instinctual, inner attitude manifested, and thermal generating.
so. the thing is, in order to SENSE the heat of our skin, we can look to a steam in the air which changes with temperature? raises? and then has an effect on something else, which cyclically changes the architectural environment?
densify the air? orr..the heat that is exerted by our feet on the surface of the floor generates energy for...lighting?
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