Perceptive destabilizations

Abstract

Contemporary sensory reality has been dominated by the sole sense of vision. This has largely affected the design process and eventually the relationship between designer and the work. This dominance of the image creates a distancing effect. Consequently, designers lack both proprioceptive and haptic performative abilities. This article explores the importance of both of these abilities for the design process, and looks to Augmented Reality as the medium that re-establishes these abilities within digital design. Moreover, the role of augmented perception in enabling unforeseen organizations, and in synthesizing bodily movement and interaction with objects and spaces, is highlighted and discussed. This article capitalizes on two distinct characteristics that enrich the design process, which are multiple readings of the same, and non-linear spatio-temporal immersion. The former allows for all appearing and absent information to be incorporated in the design decisions, whereas the latter enables a destabilization of perceptive capacities. Both incite a more profound investigation of the formal, the experiential, the spatial, and eventually the design narrative. As such, this article considers design not as an act of mere formation, but as an incessant performance of multiple decisions, direction, forms, experiences, and perceptive relations. The role of Augmented Reality in capitalizing on these notions and abilities is highlighted and explained through real-life examples.