C M Frankson

Visual Manipulation - 2016

An experiment in using notions of graphic design, painting and photography to manipulate space and understand the idea of "viewer" in interior architecture.

Visual Manipulation warps the interpretation of space by investigating the relationship between flat compositional representations of space and 3-dimensional interventions. Driven by the Maori concept of Turangawaewae – A Place to Stand, experimentation of the viewer’s position and the alternate spatial experience given to the viewer create the artistic expression that is Visual Manipulation. This experimentation is an adaptation of the illusionistic qualities of deciphering space, considerate of techniques used in painting and other fine arts; an affinity between architecture, spatial design and painting. Experimental development of a linear and planar language is used to express a qualitative analysis in the performance of light and geometry for tangibility and viewer perception. Localized in the Kuku Stream Sheds, the proposed installations play with personal and spatial identity.

Sensibility: refers to an acute perception of or responsiveness toward something, such as emotions of another... associated with sense perception as the means through which information is gathered.
Spatial sensibility: atmosphere – sensorial qualities that a space emits – an immediate form of physical perception, and is recognized through emotional sensibility.

1. Breaking the Frame

Photographed in a manner which presents the sketch models as flat compositions, the inclusion of people and furniture "breaks the frame" and allows a spatial quality to be read through contextualisation and scale. This creates a certain depth of field and changes viewer perception in terms of scale and sensibility. The composition must be inhabited in order to be understood both spatially and atmospherically. The space transforms the person in their perception, likewise, the space is being transformed by the user/viewer. Atmospherically this entails a degree of identifying oneself within the space, where the challenge is facing the obscure scale in manipulating perception.

2. Viewer

Using photography to experiment with viewpoints, focus, and composition for spatial interpretation and defining the space. This photographic experiment requires the sketch models to be scaled up to 1 : 1 using viewpoints, as reference to “breaking the frame”, and manipulating the viewer reading the space for depth of field with the details in focus and the obscured geometries blurred. Composition is required to understand the graphic in 2-dimensions, and the lens representative of viewer creates affinities between flat composition and spatial understanding.

3. Spatial Graphic; Light

This experiment focuses on the relationship between environmental and spatial conditions; manipulating natural light entering the space and obscuring the perception of scale and spatial arrangement. Light is used as a spatial language in the presentation of a 3-dimensional element in a 2-dimensional graphic, yet also suggests the presence of light as the 2-dimensional graphic in a 3-dimensional space. This ambiguity is dependent on the stance of the viewer, with spatial reading variable to the light and compositional arrangement.

3. Spatial Graphic; Geometry

Expansive from the performance analysis of light in creating graphic and atmospheric qualities, is the performance of geometry as a spatial condition. Mostly dependent on viewer stance, the linear and planar language plays with the eye in making the depth of field shallow and alters any preconceived understanding of the space. This test is made valid by the 2-dimensional qualities created in an attempt to create affinities with painting techniques, and through an emergent development of spatial arrangement. The planar language expresses an artistic approach to spatial design; an interior architecture lacking detail encourages abstract composition to obscure scale and viewer perception.