For this project we were divided into groups and asked to focus on “our habitat”, we decided to break off individually and document our areas taking photos of anything that took our interest.
I focused on nature and the various walks I took over the course of lockdown gave me plenty to look back on as well as more current images. Myself and Courtney noticed that our areas and photos are in direct contrast of each other, hers were more of inner city Glasgow, the east end, most dull or chosen to be taken in black and white.
After some discussion we decided to take up the idea of Proxemics, a term coined by Edward T. Hall. The theory looks at not only the way humans interact with space and how it interferes with interpersonal interactions but how space is organised within place and community. We discovered that all of my walks were taken leisurely vs hers being quite hurried not wanting to spend too much time out, we noticed that this fit well into the idea of proxemics and would be really strong to portray visually. As part of our group wasn’t present for this I decided to create a small p5 sketch to showcase our idea visually.
https://editor.p5js.org/Stewart.M98/sketches/wZva6-7qo
This was made to help showcase the interactive nature of proxemics as well as to showcase the various different zones of proxemics.
We also realised that what we did was essentially what Smithson did for the text, it was a light hearted take on his part, he focused on his thoughts and details of things that in the grand scheme of things was of no importance to the text, but he chose to include them. This inspired me to take a more relaxed approach to the project and experiment more.
For the mapping exercise I decided to take inspiration from my photos and use them directly but to showcase how they relate to each other. A map, to me, is something that conveys information mostly visually.
I chose to focus on how to relate the images to each other using text but also to tie it back with proxemics, how the text would interact with that environment being worn away, flowing behind roots and trees etc. After this workshop we each decided to choose one of the 4 proxemics zones consisting of; Public Space, Social Space, Personal Space and Intimate Space. I chose Social Space
Social Space is where most of our every day interactions take place, it can be seen as almost a “gateway” space. As Proxemics is always about being comfortable and the way you feel, I decided to look into colour theory and research a bit more about current proxemics.
As proxemics is all to do with how you perceive your space it is different for everyone. It also has changed a lot since lockdown started. Italian psychologists last year discovered that our idea of personal space has doubled this idea interested me and inspired me to create the image above, an abstraction of an ever expanding “social space”, will it be we must be miles away from another person to feel comfortable? Probably not, but it’s entertaining to think about how the pandemic has effected the way we interact with others in this context.
Again continuing with the ideas of colour theory I decided to render the idea of proxemics in 3d. Experimenting with objects and lighting.
The blue colour is to represent comfort in that peoples space is being respected, yellow to represent discomfort and a heightened anxiety and red to represent the overwhelming nature of being close to people in the pandemic.
I decided to conduct some digital mark making using code to try and get ideas for proxemics visually
I then used colour and text in order to put proxemics into these images.
Blue and squares to represent a secure social space vs orange and red to represent the encroached social space.
I then went back into maya using lighting. I took inspiration from installation artists such as James Turrell and Hitoshi Kuriyama. Also looked at other installation work such as PROXEMIA by NIKOLAUS GANSTERER for a more specific take on proxemics and space.
I specifically liked how they were all displayed in a room, something I took forward for experimentation. It gives the idea of “space” a more personal context.
Experimenting with different lighting colours to portray mood as well as lighting intensity to help further portray this.
Due to the human nature of proxemics I decided to literally portray this using 3D heads.
I liked the result of these renders and wanted to continue experimenting with light.
Experimented with different lighting intensity using a single face as if youre in the perspective of one of the faces. I also experimented with a blur texture made in photoshop intended to give the face an air of mystery, representing a mask or glass screen.
I decided to also experiment with incorporating type into the image
Due to the almost overwhelming nature of the face I decided to continue with the idea of keeping my text small to juxtapose the idea that the poster conveys. I continued this to my final. I conducted an interview with one of my friends who attends Dundee uni to get his take on things living in a different city etc and he stated that he felt “overwhelmed, high levels of discomfort” and many other emotions due to these changes, I found his words very informative and inspirational to take forward to my final.
Again wanted to portray the idea of always being behind something due to covid hence the lowered opacity and clipping mask, I took this forward slightly adjusting the type to make more visually appealing.
Tried to take this one too far without realising what I actually had, I realised that having the text actually mapped to the face hindered as you were unable to read the text. I used the initial as part of my final outcome as it was also more similar to the red face making it seem more uniform and from the same outcome.
My three finals intended to portray the feeling of being in an interaction and how proxemics and the idea of space changes depending on the person, as well as how looking from the outside . I feel like my final is a successful solution as it shows all aspects of my side of Social Space proxemics.
Given more time with this project I would have liked to tie it in better with my group in order to create an interactive proxemics experience where its easy to view all 4 of our works and show the finals together.
Stewart Marshall IxD 