Home has a long history reference to be the cultural symbol for comfort. The typical scenario to convey this symbol is the image of a domestic context with a family sitting in of a open fire in a severe winter night. While in the image, the open fire plays an important role to convey the notion of comfort psychologically and thermally. However, both of these comfort notions are invisible visually, but they are metaphysically presence to legitimize the homy domestic living.

Therefore, “Modeling Invisible Comfort (MIC)” is a project emerged from the pragmatism of fulfilling the requirement of my MIT MArch thesis – “Home Sweet Home: Domestic Comfort Formalism,” in which the relation of architectural design and human physiological response to thermal comfort is inquired in order to develop a new formal language for the domestic design. And MIC is a multi-disciplinary project to engages human physiology, architecture, building and environment science to unpick their interrelation of human thermal comfort in domestic domain.

And MIC will consist of two stages, and different modeling subjects are going to be modeled. (Refer to following sketch)

1st. Climate Chamber

In order to model the comfort, it is important to understand the environmental condition contributed to human comfort. Thus Climate Chambers is a testing apparatus to modeling the basic environmental scenario of sun, wind, temperature and humidity, which all have impact on human comfort. Meanwhile the Climate chamber will serve as a testing machine for architectural models in order to test out the comfort standard in the models.

(top left: Climate chamber for experiment; top right, middle left: Comfort experiment with human subjects; middle right: Wind tunnel; bottom left and right: Thermal load test of clothing.)

2nd. Comfort Response

Different from human body, architectural model is lack of sensory system to receive external signals regarding comfort conditions, for example: temperature and humidity in order to produce response to recreate response for comfort. Thus, the second part will be to model the thermal comfort sense for architectural models by the aid of sensors and visualization technology.

(top left: Women shivering; top right: Body sensor; bottom left and right: Building stimulation.)

The link between visual art – color, shape, texture – and music – harmony, rhythm, dynamics, etc. – has a long history. In his book “Opticks: or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light,” Isaac Newton described sound’s propagation through air to establish a new dimension in the study of music. He described the correlations he perceived between the color spectrum and the musical scale and suggested that the spectrum of seven colors was governed by the same ratios underlying the diatonic scale.

Newton’s Color Wheel from “Opticks.”

Later, Voltaire would make Newton’s optical theories accessible to a wider public in his “Elemens de la philosophie de Neuton” by illustrating Newton’s mathematical foundation for music’s 7-note diatonic scale (a scale containing only notes proper to the prevailing key without chromatic alteration) and the corresponding colors of the spectrum.

Voltaire’s “Table des couleurs & des tons de la Musique”

Inspired by Newton’s color studies Alexander Scriabin invented the “Clavier a Lumieres” a keyboard with keys mapped to his synesthetic system, based on his so-called synesthetic experiences. This was later refuted by numerous synesthesia researchers who realized that the re-ordering of the colors in the circle of fifths revealed a close connection to Newton’s color theory, not Scriabin’s synesthesia.

Other artists like Wassily Kadinsky, Oskar Fischinger and Norman McLaren have also attempted to visualize music.

Today, visual representations of audio can are often purely informational, described and illustrated by grids, waveforms, and linear graphs (found in popular software like Protools, Ableton Live, Logic, etc). while music visualizations found on computers, packaged with the operating system (eg. iTunes visualizer) are wholly decorative. In the realm of “information art & design,” creative coders like Aaron Koblin, Ben Fry and Casey Raes access programming environments (Processing, openFrameworks, etc.) to create languages that are capable of expressing music in new data-driven expressions and visualizations.

View in “Arrangement View” in Ableton Live, showing graphical visualization of waveforms, sections, measures, etc.

My “case study” involves a consideration of these “visual music” precedents to which I will be adding my own interpretation. Creating an analog representation of the abstract quality of music is an unsolved “puzzle”. In my experiment I am not aiming to solve the problem of how music can be visualized, rather I will explore alternative methods of visualization.  Departing from the golden section (or ratio), my model will consist of a cube, divided into sections following the geometric relationships expressed in the golden ratio. This will allow for the model to be able to translate into several different sculptures / models.

Layout / view of cube built on the principle of the geometry of the golden ratio.

Additional configurations of the cube, based on the geometric principles of the golden ratio/section.

Using video projection, and mapping onto the cube, I will attempt to create several visual representations of analysis of J.S. Bach’s work, specifically the first fugue of his “The Art of the Fugue.”  A first test (of the cube, but on a smaller scale) will be presented on 10/16, using a computer running Resolume Avenue, Syphon, MadMapper, and controlled using TouchOSC on a wireless network (see diagram). MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) of the four voices of the fugue can be translated into visuals and will be used to represent the voices.

Computer, software, wireless network and model layout.

1. The discipline with which you work (spheres of knowledge, such as physics, religion, politics, etc)

I would like to take the opportunity available in this class to explore (or expand) the investigation of my MArch thesis — Home Sweet Home: Domestic Comfort Formalism, in which the domestic (thermal) comfort is the main subject to be designed, drawn and modeled. And the notion of thermal comfort is highly related to the thermodynamic physic of the occupied invisible atmospheric conditions.

A. Reflection on previous visits/ lectures/ themes

After visiting the MIT Museum, we are going to work with the curators to establish a frame work for the upcoming MIT international museum theme. Since I am working on my thesis project alongside this class I am hoping to use this opportunity to represent my thesis project using our research and tools learnt from this class.

1. The discipline with which you work (spheres of knowledge, such as physics, religion, politics, etc.)

My name is Behnam from the Architecture Department here at MIT and my interests overlap fully with Urban Design, Structure, Art and culture. 

2. A testing ground (e.g. wind tunnel, creation of their own machine/ device to test the model)

The models that will be provided for this class and my thesis will be a manifestation of social and political agenda in a sophisticated form of structure. In the process of this project there will be areas that the models would be tested for their structural strength and liability.  

3. Potential relationships with the audience (viewer, outsider …)

The attempt of this project for the viewers and critics is for them to feel the hidden agenda through the representational materials. There would be many strategies such as process, stage/ Phase, transformation involve with this project which as the project goes on I can elaborate more.   

4. The relationship between model and exhibition: how the model functions in the display? (Toy & Playground)

The idea is for you to travel through the project and see its development and become more interactive tool that may force the audience to play with the objects.

5.  What is the model for education?

The pedagogical aspect of the project is to represent an interdisciplinary work and expand the bounders of architecture and urban design discipline for making infrastructures that could provide environments for our future.

Below are the requested definitions of my proposed project:

The discipline with which you work (spheres of knowledge, such as physics, religion, politics, etc)

The building industry (client-builder interface as well as the construction trade and the aligned economic/political drivers) and it’s relation to the production of our built habitat.  Also discussed will be the role of the architect, standards of architectural model building, and architectural pedagogy.

 A testing ground (e.g. wind tunnel, creation of their own machine/ device to test the model.)

The models listed above will manifest as scaled and “pre-fabricated” modeling materials which will then be tested in a failed attempt at forming an architectural sketch model.

Potential relationships with the audience (viewer, outsider, …)

To all audiences there will be an evident air of absurdity present in the contrast of obsessively precise materials used to create imprecise, incorrect, or failed models.  It will be evident that a hand has used a source of knowledge to poorly represent basic structure.  The knowledge has clearly come from another source (the maker of their materiel), but the final hand has lacked the ability to put the pieces together with either technical correctness or vision.

Those audiences with backgrounds or experience in building, engineering, or architecture will perceive more.  They will notice the exact standards culled in the creation of the materials and the absurd amount of information present in the material.  This audience will understand exactly what is missing technically or critically from the productions of the previous hand and how their body of knowledge has been either misused or ignored.
The relationship between model and exhibition: how the model functions in the display? (Toy & Playground)

The model is to be perceived as an art object.  Although it tells a story of an artifact found mid-production, it’s presentation and setting makes it clearly a finished work on display.  Separation is to be made between the viewer and the objects to ensure they know not to touch.  The objects are to be on a raised presentation surface and lit.  Their layout on this surface, however, will relate to the story of the objects.  Several sheets of the “material” will be stacked (perhaps with a coffee cup or other remnant of the “hand” to provide a 1:1 scale), a few sheets will be strewn on the surface and some will appear to have been imprecisely cut by scissors, finally several “constructions” of the hand will be present.  It could also be interesting to define part of the exhibition space with walls built out of continuous samplings of the sheet “material.”  For instance, an 8-foot tall wall with a full-scale door in it built from sheets of the “material” which represent 8-foot walls with doors framed out in 1”=1’-0” scale.  This further brings the material into the 1:1 scale, demonstrates its apparent origins as a continuously produced sheet-good, and allows it to produce a space of its own.

What is the model for education?

The object discusses the use of model building in architectural practice and pedagogy, while also criticizing the vectors of education present to the general public that reduce architecture and building down to its most status quo and ubiquitous formations.

The above images is not part of this project, but is an example of model used as an educational tool to describe standard wood framing systems.