Explorations — observe, create, test, revise
Five complementary, open-ended explorations. They reveal correspondences among phenomena, test interactions through technical, artistic and phenomenological practices, then document discrepancies, limits and new hypotheses. Each exploration may reshape a field, redirect an axis or open a new line of enquiry.
Exploration is a situated mode of enquiry connecting scientific investigation, aesthetic experimentation and descriptions of lived experience. Observing, questioning, formulating, modelling and prototyping are not compulsory sequential steps, but five possible entry points into research.
Explore, test and transform hypotheses.
A research study follows an open chain: initiating field, cross-disciplinary axis, observation technique, translation between disciplines, measurable outcome, qualitative experience and observed limits. The order may be revised in response to results.
Research records retain protocols and instruments, artistic decisions, anonymised phenomenological accounts where appropriate, raw data, model iterations and design changes. Test plans separately assess technical validity, artistic coherence and lived relevance.
M.01OBSERVE
Observation begins with a situated survey: spatial configuration, construction, material condition, incident light, acoustic ambience and the unfolding of time. Data are dated, located and described within their context. The protocol separates observable facts, instrument readings and accounts of lived experience.
Instruments and surveys
Depending on the enquiry: metric and photogrammetric surveys, sections and maps, illuminance readings, temperature and humidity monitoring, sound recording, spectral analysis, controlled-exposure photography, video sequences and observation diaries. Units, acquisition conditions, uncertainty and instrument limits are recorded; a measurement is valid only within its conditions of production.
Artistic observation
Drawing, serial photography, imprints, material sampling and attentive listening function as instruments of knowledge as well as representation. Framing, focal length, viewpoint, grazing light, contrast, grain, sonic persistence and duration may reveal phenomena omitted by quantitative surveys.
Phenomenological description
Describe what appears to the subject before explaining it: sequences of thresholds, changing perceived distances, bodily orientation, attention, anticipation, enclosure or openness. First-person accounts are identified as situated testimony, not confused with physical measurement. Different itineraries and observers may be compared.
Research record
Establish a documented baseline: survey drawings, parameter logs, visual and sonic atlas, context sheets and a journal preserving contradictions and unexpected observations.
Cross-disciplinary operation
Collect dated observations, distinguishing instrument, setting and observer; link quantitative measurements, artistic traces and first-person accounts with their respective uncertainties.
Evolving research trajectory
Compare architectural observations, artistic traces and lived descriptions of the same event.
Synchronise surveys, light or sound measurements, images and situated field notes.
Archive context, acquisition conditions, uncertainty and disagreements so an observation can be repeated.
Documented connections
F.01 — Space & architectureF.02 — Matter & transformationF.03 — Perception & spatial cognitionF.04 — Image, sound & representationF.05 — Dynamics & complexity
A.01 — Silent architecturesA.02 — Active matterA.03 — Morphogenesis & emergent formsA.04 — Hybrid environmentsA.05 — Augmented perception
M.02QUESTION
Questioning transforms heterogeneous observations into a researchable problem without eliminating their sensory depth. A tension between use and geometry, structure and light, matter and time, or artistic intention and perception becomes a relation to investigate.
Technical decomposition
Define the system and its boundaries, the controllable variables and those beyond experimental control. Map interactions, alternative causal mechanisms and unknowns. Identify disciplinary interfaces: acoustics and volume, roughness and light, joints and motion, temperature and sensation.
Artistic enquiry
Frame problems in terms of gesture and presence as well as performance. What does repetition produce? How does scale transform a mark? When does noise become texture, shadow a boundary, or surface a sense of depth? Preserve the possibility of outcomes not initially anticipated.
Phenomenological suspension
Temporarily bracket habitual uses and interpretations to describe how a phenomenon becomes apparent. Distinguish observable thresholds, experienced thresholds and the words used to report them, rather than treating impressions as natural facts.
Research brief
Produce a principal question, secondary questions, variables, recorded discrepancies and possible experimental routes, with criteria for stopping or changing direction.
Cross-disciplinary operation
Translate anomalies in one field into questions for another. Separate mechanics, perception and interpretation, and state hypotheses that can be challenged by subsequent tests.
Evolving research trajectory
Identify analogies or gaps between disciplines and turn them into researchable questions.
Separate causes, correlations, aesthetic interpretation and subjective experience; locate translation variables.
Formulate alternative questions, including those that may challenge the initial assumption.
Documented connections
F.01 — Space & architectureF.03 — Perception & spatial cognitionF.04 — Image, sound & representationF.05 — Dynamics & complexity
A.01 — Silent architecturesA.04 — Hybrid environmentsA.05 — Augmented perception
M.03FORMULATE
A hypothesis is made explicit and, wherever appropriate, capable of being disproved. It relates physical parameters, formal organisation and sensory appearance without claiming that aesthetic experience can be reduced to one metric.
Experimental framework
Specify inputs, simplifications, families of variants, baselines, testing protocols and comparison methods. Define in advance what would support, challenge or qualify the hypothesis. Keep structural, thermal, lighting and acoustic assessments distinct from accounts of use and perception.
Artistic hypothesis
An artistic proposition may take the form of a compositional rule, gesture protocol, material constraint, sonic score or translation between media. Controlled variation of one parameter—thickness, frequency, density, speed or contrast—helps reveal its effect on the work or space.
Lived hypothesis
Formulate expected changes in situated experience: slowing movement, shifting apparent depth, sensing a cadence, encountering silence, or tension between near and far. Such propositions can be compared through descriptions, but are not universal conclusions in themselves.
Critical traceability
Version each hypothesis and record references, validity conditions, disagreements and reasons for abandoning it. Negative and ambiguous outcomes retain the same documentary value as expected ones.
Cross-disciplinary operation
For each hypothesis specify the manipulated variable, expected phenomena, comparative conditions, artistic medium, sensory criteria and boundaries of validity.
Evolving research trajectory
Connect technical and sensory propositions without reducing them to one criterion.
Define measurable variables, artistic gestures and perceptual effects for comparison.
Version hypotheses, state disconfirmation criteria and record revisions.
Documented connections
F.02 — Matter & transformationF.04 — Image, sound & representationF.05 — Dynamics & complexity
M.04MODEL
Modelling isolates relationships and enables parameter changes without equating representation with reality. Geometric, physical, constructional, sensory and temporal models are combined—from diagrams and maquettes to simulations.
Technical models
Analytical and parametric drawings, models at multiple scales, construction sections, variant matrices, preliminary calculations and environmental simulations. Material properties, boundary conditions, meshes, tolerances, load assumptions and error margins must be stated. Digital predictions are confronted with material samples when their limits become uncertain.
Artistic models and transcodings
Build graphic scores, gesture archives, photographic sequences, texture matrices or generative structures. Translate data into form, frequencies into rhythm, trajectories into sound and duration into visual density, while making the conversion rule and its arbitrariness explicit.
Models of experience
Develop sequences of movement, attention maps, lighting scenarios, spatial listening tests and perceptual maquettes. Still images cannot fully reproduce proprioception, reverberation, temperature or movement; in-situ confrontation remains necessary.
Assessment
Compare constructability, economy of means, parameter sensitivity, environmental implications, intelligibility and the quality of experience. Divergences between models and observations drive the next iteration.
Cross-disciplinary operation
Translate information among drawings, physical models, simulations, images and audio signals; archive mapping rules and document any loss of meaning in translation.
Evolving research trajectory
Represent phenomena through physical, geometric, visual or sonic models with stated limits.
Test transfers between models and identify lost data, scales and implicit assumptions.
Compare models to situated observations and correct representations rather than treating them as proof.
Documented connections
F.01 — Space & architectureF.02 — Matter & transformationF.03 — Perception & spatial cognitionF.04 — Image, sound & representationF.05 — Dynamics & complexity
A.01 — Silent architecturesA.02 — Active matterA.03 — Morphogenesis & emergent formsA.04 — Hybrid environmentsA.05 — Augmented perception
M.05PROTOTYPE
A prototype materialises a hypothesis at a scale where resistance, assembly, duration and perception can be experienced. It may be a construction detail, furniture element, material surface, lighting device, sonic composition or spatial installation.
Material and technical protocol
Set out a bill of materials, tolerances, assembly method, fabrication conditions, risks, instrumentation and test sequences. Record implementation, deformation, joint behaviour, moisture conditions, acoustic or lighting effects and the possibilities of dismantling, repair and reuse. Experimental tests do not constitute regulatory certification.
Artistic experimentation
Vary material, tool, pressure, speed, layering, light, density or sonic duration. Preserve traces, accidents, revisions and intermediate states: deviation may become a generative artistic operation rather than a defect to eliminate. Record fabrication protocols and their sensory effects.
Phenomenological trial
Test the device through lived space and time: approach, crossing, immersion, departure, listening and recollection. Compare impressions before and after experience, across contexts and viewpoints. Distinguish observers’ responses from the designer’s intentions and preserve interpretive plurality.
Verification and transmission
Create a prototype record with drawings, settings, photographs, audio, test conditions, deviations, corrections and decisions. The outcome may be a feasibility demonstration, an experimental artwork, a documented negative result or a new research question.
Cross-disciplinary operation
Use prototypes as shared tests of fabrication, instrumental performance, user activity and aesthetic experience. Record discrepancies and feed their causes back into the research question.
Evolving research trajectory
Materialise the passage between physical hypothesis, artistic form and lived experience.
Test assembly, signal, light, acoustics, matter and use at a relevant scale.
Record making, discrepancies, feedback and corrections; the outcome may reopen a field or redirect an axis.
Documented connections
F.01 — Space & architectureF.02 — Matter & transformationF.03 — Perception & spatial cognitionF.04 — Image, sound & representationF.05 — Dynamics & complexity
A.01 — Silent architecturesA.02 — Active matterA.03 — Morphogenesis & emergent formsA.04 — Hybrid environmentsA.05 — Augmented perception
The protocol remains reversible: each test questions the measurements, hypotheses and quality of experience. Data, artworks, discrepancies and limits are retained as research records.
One matrix, three interdependent operations.
Each enquiry can cross several fields, engage multiple axes and combine several explorations. Outcomes, including contradictory ones, may redirect correspondences, protocols and the original research question.
CORRESPONDENCES
Identify resonances without confusing analogy with evidence.
INTERACTIONS
Test hypotheses against material behaviour, spatial conditions and lived experience.
PROCESSES
Document, compare, revise and renew the investigation.