Given the assignment, I wondered how to make architecture with a moving image. I
concluded that the experience of space was the common link between architecture and the
moving image. So I sought to find a building that I had experienced personally that would suit
my needs. When I chose this building to do a film on, I had considered mainly that I had taken
so many pictures and videos out of personal interest when I visited it, that I knew I could
remember very well what the experience was walking through the building, what I was
thinking, and what it felt like. It is my wish to express the experience I had, and given the
medium I felt it best to show the space in the order it was shown to me. With that decided, I
had to figure out a way to convey space. With a moving image, there is only light and the
absence of light. This is much like the large idea of architecture being solid and void. With this
in common, I decided that I would express the void and emphasize the solid with light and the
absence of light. This is where I got the idea of using negative space on the screen to create the
feeling of “walls” and “ceilings” relative to my experience of the space. For instance, in the
entrance hall at the beginning of the film (see above), the top half of the screen is negative
space, making the scene feel covered especially in contrast to the previous outside scene with
no negative space.
Along with the image, I chose to use a music sound track. This was in effort to evoke the
feeling of the building over all using music that reflected the character of the building. I chose
songs that were; calm, yet had a rhythm; light, but came down once in a while; airy, but
sometimes full; using traditional instruments like piano and violin, yet had a modern
experimental twist not unlike the plan of the building. The organization of the moving image is
much like that of the building; it is experienced in a certain order but in the end you should have
a feel for the whole. The series of spaces are separated by doors in the real world, and that
transition of walking from one room to the next is difficult to express in two dimensions. To
identify this I’ve chosen to use a visual transition to identify that the space is changing using a
total screen white fade out and fade in. This is a “refresh” for the eyes, in preparation for the
new space. I have used fades within rooms between views, but the negative space is not faded
until the room changes. Also, for dark spaces with no windows, such as the large auditorium, I
have used fade to black to indicate the background in this room has no light. Also, when
possible, I’ll foreshadow the coming of a room transition with a view focusing on the exit to
the room, be it a door or just the light at the end of the room. Click here to view a pdf of my
paper.
The Moving Image and Architecture: History and Theory Seminar, fall 2008
shylo s shepherd . com
personal web portfolio and creative catalogue