XR Telepresence- Social Media

UCLA IDEAS Technology Studio Winter 2018

Research Lead: Guvenc Ozel 

Instructors: Guvenc Ozel, Benjamin Ennemoser 

Technologies: gaming engines, XR, digital fabrication, projection mapping

Students: Yibing Wu, Jeremy Nguyen, Roxana Perez-Antonio, Peitong Zhang, Lingjie Wu, Hengzhi Ye, Ning Zhu, Qianqian Song, Shiyi Xin

Telepresence: The Architectural Subject in the Digital and the Physical 

Architecture of Data/ Data Architecture:

As the most dominant platform for communication, the Internet is often referred to as “cyberspace”. Current forms of interface design and organizational logics of information over the Internet however exist as environments only in the world of allegories, preventing the participants from interacting spatially with these streams of data. Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies have the potential to transform information navigation, social media interaction and other modes of communication, productivity and entertainment into environments that can be designed with architectural considerations. Viewed as an ecosystem of technologies rather than tectonic assemblage of materials, architecture is shifting toward a non-static and non-physical form of experience, opening up potentials for it to be considered as a medium that merges the worlds of media and materiality. Based on these observations, the studio will explore environmental applications of media in the form of virtual and augmented reality, sensor interaction with environments and real time control and transformation of architectural spaces. Primarily concerned with digital display and representation of objects and consumption of media, the studio will translate these ideas by re-thinking architectural conventions and building and urban typologies. The research will aim to give form to dominant web based platforms, transforming their interaction into an architectural scale through Virtual Reality. Meanwhile the studio will investigate media integration to existing architectures of communication and socialization, such as museums, convention and performance halls, shared business spaces, spaces of learning and other environments of public display and exchange of information, images and sounds.

Social Media, Telepresence and the New Representation of Self:

Constructing architecture enhanced by and built with media, the studio will investigate scenarios where occupants of such architectures travel seamlessly between the digital and physical worlds. Through the proliferation of social media, virtual avatars, sensory simulations and holograms, current and future forms of technological communications simulate experiences with precision and without exclusively relying on the physical presence of their subjects. In these radically different new social environments, architecture is conceived as a cyberphysical system, designed not only for the use of people but also for the digital occupancy of avatars as its new subjects. By questioning the role of representation in the process of constructing realities and environments, the studio will focus on the potentials of such virtual tools to formulate a reformed agenda for the role of the digital in the contemporary practice of architecture.