Michael A. Vuksta
This activity is adapted from a theater exercise found in Viola Spolin’s
Improvisations for the Theater
. Recorded data is design specifically to establish criteria by which we experience architectural space.
Procedures:
In groups of threes students will take a blindfold walk through the space in and around the school. One student will be “blind”, one will act as “guide”, and the other will record the verbal responses of the “blind” student. The recorder should also note the time of the tour, registering starting and ending times and also recording it at various locations along the route. He will be furnished with a floor plan and he can note the various locations where responses are solicited. This plan will later be compared to one marked by the “blind” student in trying to retrace his path.
Students should be instructed to respond to sounds, textures, and the path of movement. A list of words that might be utilized to indicate the students reactions include:
Tactile:
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rough; smooth, hot, cold, movable or immovable objects he may encounter;
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Aural:
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natural sounds, such as wind, mechanical sounds, like machines or doors opening loudness and softness, pleasant or discomforting;
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Emotional:
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trust, fear,-enclosing, inviting, repelling;
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Hepatic:
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left, right, up, down, back, front (in relation to movement), wide, narrow, whether spaces feel tall or short; in regards to centeredness, students can venture a guess as to whether they feel lost or are familiar with where they are.
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In guessing where they are students should indicate clues which influenced this decision. Students should be urged to respond from their memory and imagination and feel free to make any associations they might think of, such as, “I remember being in a place like this before in my life,” they should then try to describe it. And there type of imaginative association can take the form of “This place is like a park, or a box, or a train station.
It is not necessary that all students take such a walk, since discussions will consider all three roles. But if students all wish to do so they should be permitted. The guide should encourage responses by asking questions. If a tape recorder is available it can be used to record these responses.
In the discussion that follows, the students should be informed of certain values that are associated with the seven psycho physical coordinates of the hepatic sense. This can be supplemented with reading the section on the hepatic sensibility in Body, Memory, and
Architecture
and from readings adapted from
The Poetics of Space
.