ELECTRONIC ARTS ATELIER: THE SYNTHESIS OF A BELVEDERE

Abstract

The thesis explores the concept of space in the wake of proliferation of technology and media, which challenge traditional canons of physicality and permanence in architecture. It posits that rather than relinquishing the presence of material space, concepts of technology and virtuality have the potential and further calls for the augmenting of the experience of real space.

The vehicle of an Electronic Arts Atelier takes this investigation further into the potentially dynamic relationship between art and audience, as these new art forms enable novel interpretations and understandings of space, form,experience and information.

Set within the dynamic site of Bugis, the project attempts to harness on the vibrancy and diversity of the site, engaging itself strategically to enhance and intensify its overall urban organisation. The seemingly nondescript and monolithic form of the building acts as a veil to several layers of intricacies within, discretely separating the production and exhibition zones with varied spatial experiences. The EAA is also poised to become a city belvedere and to create a belvedere of the city—inherently it creates a place to view out into the new site context, conversely the city becomes a viewing platform from which the internal covertness of the building can be beheld and deciphered.

With technology bridging physical distance and time, increased significance should be placed in the experience of real-time space emphasing on visual sensibility and the phenomenological experience. Embedded in the new media art is the notion of flux, where narrative, image and plasticity are elastic and ever-changing. With the boundaries between actual and virtual blurred, electronic art acts as an apparatus to enhance the experience of the physical architecture.