It was but yesterday I thought myself a fragment quivering without rhythm in the sphere of life.
Now I know that I am the sphere, and all life in rhythmic fragments moves within me. –Khalil Gibran, Sand and Foam

In Rhythmic Fragments is a biophilic space for mindful engagement that translates mensurated motion into kinetic architectural boundaries through a diptych of linear and radial automatous fragments. Inspired by the rhythmic flows of liveliness observed at varied scales in the natural environment, the automata aim to engage our mind as a physics engine with contemplative content to evoke memory and inspire the sense of being mesmerized.

 

In a hyper-constructed future where untouched nature is lost, In Rhythmic Fragments aims to evoke our perception of, and connection to, the natural world through interaction with kinetic behaviour in future architectural spaces. As such, concepts of uniformity and randomness, unison and separation shape the rhythm of our own movement; from individuals to parts of a group navigating present space and reconstructions of space in the mind. Engagement with In Rhythmic Fragments primes this awareness of our movement through the interaction of waves falling in synchrony and asynchrony in their kinetic flow.

 

 

Blending their disciplinary backgrounds, Saria Ghaziri and Dalia Todary-Michael explore responsive kinetic architecture and performative concepts of liveliness and spatial cognition in the built environment.

 

Thesis Research:

Todary-Michael, D. (2019) Constructing Liveliness: The Experience of Nature Embodiment in Kinetic Architecture. Available at: http://two.wordpress.test/constructing-liv…tic-architecture.html

Ghaziri, S. (2019) Chasing Existence. Available at: http://two.wordpress.test/chasing-existence.html

 

 

Key References:

Bunn, James H. Wave Forms: A Natural Syntax for Rhythmic Languages. Stanford University Press, 2002.

Chow, K.K.N.. (2013). Animation, Embodiment, and Digital Media: Human Experience of Technological Liveliness. 10.1057/9781137283085.

Helfrich, R.F., 2017. The rhythmic nature of visual perception. Journal of neurophysiology, 119(4), pp.1251-1253.

Johansson, G., 1973. Visual perception of biological motion and a model for its analysis. Perception & psychophysics, 14(2), pp.201-211.

Kimchi, R., Yeshurun, Y., Spehar, B. and Pirkner, Y., 2016. Perceptual organization, visual attention, and objecthood. Vision Research, 126, pp.34-51.

Merleau-Ponty, M. and Smith, C. (1945).Phenomenology of perception.

Pallasmaa, J. (2014). Space, place and atmosphere. Emotion and Peripheral Perception in Architectural Experience. Lebenswelt. Aesthetics and philosophy of experience 4.1, vol, 1934, issue 1987 pp. 239 — 245.

Stelerny, K (2010). Minds: Extended or Scaffolded?

Tye, M. (1995). The Burning House. In: T. Metzinger (ed.), Conscious Experience. Kansas: Imprint Academic.

Von Foerster, H. (2003). On Constructing a Reality. In: Understanding Understanding. Springer, New York.