Architecture as the Computer Interface: 4D Gestural Interaction with Socio-Spatial Sonification

Abstract

Architecture today extends far beyond designing building shells and material, peripheral boundaries. Arguably, it has always been, and shifts increasingly in contemporary environments towards, designing space and interaction with space. Hence, the role of the designer includes integration of computing in architecture through ambient display and non-tactile interaction. This paper explores a framework in which the architecture is the computer interface to information soni-fi cation. (Sonification is automatically generated representation of information using sound). The examples in this paper are Emergent Energies, demonstrating a socio-spatially responsive generative design in a sensate environment enabled by pressure mats; Sensor-Cow using wireless gesture controllers to sonify motion; and Sonic Kung Fu which is an interactive sound sculpture facilitated by video co-lour-tracking. The method in this paper connects current information sonification methodologies with gesture controller capabilities to complete a cycle in which gestural, non-tactile control permutes and interacts with automatically-gener-ated information sonification. Gestural pervasive computing negotiates space and computer interaction without conventional interfaces (keyboard/mouse) thus freeing the user to monitor or display information with full mobility, without fixed or expensive devices. Integral computing, a blurring of human-machine boundaries and embedding communication infrastructure, ambient display and interaction in the fabric of architecture are the objectives of this re-thinking.