Built Space, Written Space: Baroque Spatialities between Architecture and Text in Lucan, Statius, and the Palaces of Imperial Rome

Because of the rapid development of digital media and the extended reality (XR) area, the concept of architectural space has gradually shifted from physical reality to narrative spaces in virtual and augmented reality. Moreover, game scenes serve not only as entertainment vehicles but also as important experimental platforms, constructing player behaviour and feelings through architectural language (including spatial order, scale, light and shadow, materials, landmarks, and so on). Starting from three psychological experiences: "horror space," "pleasure space," and "real space", this article explores the impact of gamified architectural language on human emotional perception and behavioural control, drawing on games such as Dead Space and Monument Valley, and some XR practical examples. This article aims to discuss how architectural elements in virtual space influence users behaviour by using different spatial strategies. Then explore the possibility and potential value of using these design logics in real spaces and XR interactive environments. Finally aims to provide reference and inspiration for the design of future immersive narrative spaces and interactive spaces.

The Convergence Effect: Real and Virtual Encounters in Augmented Reality Art

The category of space presents a most complex philosophical universal, which has been researched by physicians, philosophers, aestheticians, linguists and literary critics. The incorporation of a systemic approach by the author of the article stipulated a conscious rejection of viewing spatial subsystems in their customary sequence – the real, perceptual and conceptual spaces, since this type of sequence, in his opinion, contradicts the actual existence and functioning of this category in music. Thus, real space is disclosed through the musical poetics of construction of the various concert halls of the world in correlation with the unique compositions of contemporary music by Pierre Boulez, Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Analogies presented between architectural and musical structures have made it possible to assume the existence of an interconnection between the forms of works of art with paradigms of social consciousness and simultaneity of existence of the real and conceptual spaces in music. The acoustic and perceptual spaces exist in a direct connection with real space. In the second half of the 20th century acousticians have established a tight interconnection between objective physical and acoustic parameters of the interiors of concert halls and subjective criteria of perception. Thereby the functioning of acoustic space is stipulated by the non-additive principle of interconnection with perceptual space, when indicators of one dynamic system may influence a similarly complex, open and dynamic system and upon departure from it may considerably change and improve its parameters. For this reason, the search for new strategies of research of the category of space in music may disclose numerous other regular laws imminent for subsystems and establish a specificity of their interconnection with each other. Keywords: the category of space in music, the real, the perceptual, and the conceptual spaces, music and architecture, concert halls of the world.

David Summers sets forth that current formalist, contextual and post-structural approaches fail to provide an adequate account of all art, particularly art produced outside the Western tradition. He argues that there are profound problems right at the heart of Western thinking about art, and his new framework is an attempt to resolve these problems. At the core of the argument is a proposal to replace the notion of the 'visual arts' with that of the 'spatial arts', comprising two fundamental categories: 'real space' and 'virtual space'. Real space is the space we share with other people and things: the fundamental arts of real space are sculpture (the art of personal space) and architecture (the art of social space). Virtual space - which always entails a format in real space (thus making real space the primary category) - is space represented in two dimensions, as in paintings, drawings and prints. Adopting a wide definition of art that in principle embraces anything that is made, and underpinning his arguments with detailed examination of artefacts and architecture from all over the world, Summers develops his thesis in a series of chapters that broadly trace the progress of human skill in many different traditions: from the simple facture of the first tools to the sophisticated universal three-dimensional grid of modern technology, which he describes as 'metaoptical' space. In a sequence of far-reaching and revealing discussions of facture, places, centres, three-dimensional and planar images, virtuality and perspective, and the centreless metaoptical world of Western modernism, Summers creates a conceptual framework that always relates art to human use, and enables us to treat all traditions on an equal footing within universal categories. At the same time, this infrastructure can help to understand the dynamics of opposition and conflict both within and between cultures. Formalism and other theories of art are not rejected. Rather, in this wider context they can be identified and evaluated within the Western tradition whence they originated, without some naive universal validity being ascribed to them. Within this broad plan there is incredible wealth of detail and energy of description. The author's constant engagement with actual works of art is always lively and convincing; his analysis of the concrete metaphors that lie behind our critical vocabulary is revealing and thought-provoking; and his clear-headed and courageous engagement with important issues is most impressive. Some of the author's language and terminology may, for the novice, prove an alluring challenge at first. However, Summers writes with exceptional clarity: new terms are carefully defined and explained in such a way, that the reader will not only understand them but also appreciate why such terminology is essential to a work of such profound philosophy. What is striking is that the author is always using language in order to think about the real world, and not in order to retreat into a closed world of academic scholasticism. He insists that all art is made to fit human uses, and can never be separated from the primary spatial conditions of those uses. With its universal scope and its sympathetic understanding of the innumerable forms that art can adopt, this is a book that will stimulate people to think in entirely new and fruitful ways about the human purposes of art, and also to think more deeply and critically about the intricate relations between art, political order and technology.

The depiction of space in literature is crucial to every story as it guides the reader’s imagination regarding the story’s location and the characters’ surroundings. This paper studies the relationship between architecture, interiors, and literary spaces by using a methodology that draws on architectural literary analysis, a methodology that uses literature as a medium to define and analyze architectural spaces and cues. Specifically, it investigates the connections between architectural and spatial references and their influences on societal concerns in literature – the literary space within The Ladies’ Paradise (1883), a novel by Émile Zola (1840-1902). The retail space portrayed within the novel dominates the narrative. Thus, the architectural spaces are described to support the storyline. These spatial cues indicate a specific overall theme, namely capitalism – an important issue to discuss within architectural discourse. Zola reveals a new perspective on the social and architectural impacts on society under capitalism through the public interior space of Ladies’ Paradise. The research also indicates the correlation between architecture, public space, and retailing culture through the birth of the “department store,” thus forever altering society’s ideology on retail culture. Although the novel is categorized as fictitious, the representation of 19th-century retailing culture, women’s role within society, and the significance of architecture are shown to be realistic to that time. In conclusion, this paper reveals the dialogue between architecture, societal gender issues, and the evolvement of retail culture through the medium of literature and derives lessons from this dialogue.

Spatial Experience Of Physical And Virtual Space

The development of the Internet drove significant changes in the social and economic functioning of people and spatial units. In the case of geography, the Internet changed its nature as a science about space, by expanding on the available topics and methods of study by which geographers come to know the world. New possibilities were a result, though also challenges, above all in relation to the role in geographical research played by the Internet and digital space (data generated through the use of the Internet). Major developments to the World Wide Web and to the Internet as a whole, as well as new solutions made possible by the latter’s creation combine with phenomena subject to scientific analysis to leave as insufficient previous state-of-the-art research methods in the field of Internet geography. The aim of this article is therefore to identify the main problems with research in digital space. Emphasis is put on relationships between real and digital space from the two complementary perspectives of digital space as a source of information about real space for research and of digital space as the subject of research. Explored first is the way in which digital space furnishes data upon which descriptions of real space can be based. An attempt is then made to discover the nature of digital space in its spatial aspects, with the relationship between digital and real space determined. A literature review further serves as the basis for the presentation of four research topics relating to the geography of the Internet, i.e. digital-divide analysis, issues of the management of socio-economic processes, cyber-balkanisation, and the relationships between real and digital spaces. The digital divide relates to access or skills, as well as to individual motivations and socio-cultural preferences, which can also be observed in the different ways people use the Internet. The digital divide is subject to constant change amid the rapid development of the Internet and the increasing importance of the Web in everyday life. Growing interest in concepts relating to the functionality of various areas in so-called smart cities and smart rural areas arises out of issues of spatial management. Cyber-balkanisation in turn constitutes a fragmentation of the Internet more and more manifested by users as they have increased control over online content. The final research topic, concerned with the relationships between real and digital spaces, is crucial to an understanding of the Internet’s role in geography. The presented areas of research on the Internet and digital space, as well as the research directions referred to, should be treated as a starting point for a broader discussion. In the case of analyses of Internet geography, it is essential for basic terms to be determined and defined. Also of importance is a general determination of the role and importance of the Internet in geography.

Accessible games, both for serious and for entertainment purposes, would allow inclusion and participation for those with disabilities. Research into the development of accessible games, and accessible virtual environments, is discussed. Research into accessible Virtual Environments has demonstrated great potential for allowing people who are blind to explore new spaces, reduce their reliance on guides and aid development of more efficient spatial maps and strategies. Importantly, Lahav and Mioduser (2005, 2008) have demonstrated that, when exploring virtual spaces, people who are blind use more and different strategies than when exploring real physical spaces, and develop relatively accurate spatial representations of them. The present paper describes the design, development and evaluation of a system in which a virtual environment may be explored by people who are blind using Nintendo Wii devices, with auditory and haptic feedback. The nature of the various types of feedback is considered, with the aim of creating an intuitive and usable system. Using Wii technology has many advantages: it is mainstream, readily available and cheap. The potential of the system for exploration and navigation is demonstrated. Results strongly support the possibilities of the system for facilitating and supporting the construction of cognitive maps and spatial strategies. Intelligent support is discussed. Systems such as the present one will facilitate the development of accessible games, and thus enable Universal Design and accessible interactive technology to become more accepted and widespread.

This research aims to create short stories with PTSD themes by applying the creative writing technique for short stories as the initial product of digital audio-visual illustration, which will be used as an alternative for trauma healing. The product of this research is a part of art therapy that can assist in expressing various emotions of both the creator of the work and its audience. This study applies the creative writing technique for short stories by Edward Archibald Markham, consisting of 10 key points in creative writing for short stories, namely: (1) preparing for the short story, (2) revision, (3) the opening paragraph, (4) revision 2 - paying attention to detail, (5) shape: structure and form, (6) revision 3, (7) character, (8) dialogue, (9) literary conceits and extended metaphors, and (10) advanced exercises. This technique was chosen because it is highly relevant in developing a short story that vividly portrays traumatic experiences for the readers to empathize with. This research is a continuous study and a collaboration of researchers from the Faculty of Language and Arts at Universitas Negeri Jakarta, with expertise in literary studies, music composition, and visual arts. Therefore, this short story serves as the initial product that will be further developed into a digital audio-visual illustration (mixed art) that will play a role as an alternative art therapy for trauma healing. Keywords: creative writing, short story, PTSD, trauma healing, narrative text

Reviewed by: La Géocritique: réel, fiction, espace Robert T. Tally Jr. Bertrand Westphal. La Géocritique: réel, fiction, espace. Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 2007. Pp. 304. Price 20 €. Literature abounds with the description and exploration of spaces. The writer maps the world, combining a representation of real places with the imaginary space of fiction. In some cases, what I have elsewhere called literary cartography serves to map a well-known space (e.g., Dostoevsky’s St. Petersburg or Twain’s Mississippi River); in others, the places mapped may be wholly imaginary (More’s Utopia or Tolkien’s Middle Earth). Most often, the two combine, as the literary representation of a seemingly real place is never the purely mimetic image of that space. In a sense, all writing partakes in a form of cartography, since even the most realistic map does not truly depict the space, but, like literature, figures it forth in a complex skein of imaginary relations. In La Géocritique: réel, fiction, espace, Bertrand Westphal provides a theory and a method for analyzing this interplay of spatial practices in literary texts. Westphal directs the Espaces Humains et Interactions Culturelles research team at the Université de Limoges, which has produced several “geocritical” projects; La Géocritique is a programmatic statement of the theoretical and practical foundations for this novel approach to literature. The term géocritique calls to mind Gilles Deleuze’s idea of geophilosophy, and Deleuze is one of the theorists with whom Westphal engages. But Westphal’s argument also draws from many disciplinary formations and cultural discourses, including architecture, urban studies, film, philosophy, sociology, postcolonial theory, gender studies, and, of course, geography and literary criticism. The wide-ranging argument befits the topic, as geocriticism seeks to explore the spaces of literature in multiple senses. Westphal’s first three chapters lay out a landscape of theoretical positions. Modernism and postmodernism fundamentally altered the ways in which we understand space, no longer as a stable or inert category but rather as complex, heterogeneous practice. This concept of space allows for a more dynamic or transgressive movement that literature explores in the always problematic representation of space, in which the lines between fictional and real spaces are constantly crossed and recrossed. This sets the stage for the methodological discussion of geocriticism, which—according to Westphal—has four elements: (1) multifocalization, in which many different points of view are needed to establish the literary space; (2) polysensoriality, inasmuch as the space may not be perceived by vision alone, but also by smell, sound, and so on; (3) stratographic vision, in which the topos is understood to comprise multiple layers of meaning, deterritorialized and reterritorialized; and (4) intertextuality, in that all textual spaces necessarily encompass, “interface” with, or relate to other spaces in literature and in reality. The geocritical approach thus pries criticism loose from an egocentrism (vis-à-vis the writer or the reader) and opens literary studies to a polyvalent interaction of spatial and discursive practices. La Géocritique is an impressive book, surveying a rich, interdisciplinary field while providing elegant readings of a number of texts. A geocritical approach offers new insights to literary studies, while also establishing fruitful connections to other areas of cultural and social theory. Robert T. Tally Jr. Texas State University Copyright © 2009 L’Esprit Créateur

This paper presents the findings from a comparative study of an architectural space communicated as the space itself and its two different representations, i.e. a virtual reality model and traditional plan and section drawings. Using eye tracking technology in combination with qualitative questionnaires, a case study of an architectural space is investigated in physical reality, a virtual reality 3D BIM model, and finally through representation of the space in plan and section drawings. In this study, the virtual reality scenario seems closer to reality than the experience of the same space experienced through plan and section drawings. There is an overall higher correlation of both the conscious reflections and the less conscious behaviour between the real physical architectural space and the virtual reality space, than there is between the real space and the space communicated through plan and section drawings. We can conclude that the scenario with the best overall size estimations, compared to the actual measures, is the virtual reality scenario. The paper further discusses the future applications of virtual reality in architecture.

We showed previously that macaque monkeys (Macaca mulatta) could orient in real space using abstract visual stimuli presented on a computer screen. They made correct choices according to both spatial stimuli (designed as an abstract representation of a real space) and nonspatial stimuli (pictures lacking any inner configuration information). However, we suggested that there were differences in processing spatial and nonspatial stimuli. In the present experiment we show that monkeys could also use as a cue abstract spatial stimuli rotated with respect to the real response space. We studied the ability of monkeys to decode abstract spatial information provided in one spatial frame (computer screen) and to perform spatial choices in another spatial frame (touch panel separated from the screen). We analyzed how the monkeys were affected by the type of training, whether they perceived the stimuli as "spatial" or "nonspatial," and which cues they used to decode them. We compared humans to monkeys in a similar test to find out which cognitive strategy they used and whether they perceive spatial stimuli in the same way. We demonstrated that there were two possible strategies to solve the task, simple "fitting" ignoring rotations and "remapping," when the stimulus was represented as an "abstract space" per se.

Examples of the interaction of literature and architectural space are considered in this article. The considered examples demonstrate the role of literature in solving various architectural problems. For example, social tasks related to the safety of the urban environment, in the creation of a unique image of the city, the development of stylistic trends, environmental problems. Human perception of architectural space, described in the literature, can make an invaluable contribution to scientific research in the social and humanitarian direction. The description of architectural spaces allows us to identify the level of comfort, the influence of architectural objects and landscape on people, the correspondence of the urban environment to the worldview of the townspeople. Both directions have huge scientific potential in research activities. The result of this research is the interpretation of the literary description of the subject environment of applied folk art in a modern interior. The architectural space has a scenic character reflecting the literary descriptions of the yurt's interior. This approach can be used as the main direction in the development of the concept of architectural spaces for different functional purposes. This article examines an example of a kindergarten organized according to the principle of "the walls teach".

People explore and navigate in physical and virtual environments. Do we acquire and utilize spatial information differently in front of a monitor screen than actually moving in real spaces? In this paper, we present an experiment where strategy pattern formation during free spatial exploration was compared between two environments: a real room and an equivalent desktop virtual simulation. Both environments contained five identical landmarks situated at the same relative locations in the rooms. Each of these five landmarks contained a different object. Our data showed that in the physical environment participants were moving through space in patterns that reflected distinguishable and meaningful strategy. In contrast, the exploratory behaviour in the virtual environment was not organized along qualitatively different strategy patterns. One plausible interpretation is that people in physical environment are more confident and experienced in ‘cognitive investments’ into various spatial strategies, whereas they are not in virtual environments. The lack of strategic patterns in the exploration of the virtual environment resulted in relatively inefficient subsequent navigation performance. However, the initial investment in exploration of the physical environment resulted in efficient navigation in the equivalent navigation tasks. Based on these findings, we argue that spatial cognition and behaviour maybe fundamentally different in the real world and in equivalent desktop virtual realities.

Following the results of field research, the main (grand) staircase in the architecture of the entrance spaces of residential buildings in Eastern Galicia at the end of the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century was analysed. Main (grand) staircases are classified according to the principles of shaping (single-marching, double-marching, and multi-marching, spiral), the material of manufacture (wood, metal, stone and concrete) and the stylistics of the artistic design of railings (using geometric motifs, with floral ornaments that are combined and plastered). The leading manufacturers of main staircases were identified, the products of which decorated the entrance spaces of residential buildings in Eastern Galicia in the late nineteenth and first third of the twentieth century. The relationship between the main staircase and other arts in the decor of the entrance spaces of residential buildings in Eastern Galicia from this period were traced.