QUANTIFYING THE POETICS OF SPACE

By PIK KI HO, FIONA NEWELL (IE)] 2018

When referring to an environment, the word ‘intimacy’ is often defined as “a cosy and private or relaxed atmosphere.” Creating this sense of comfort in privacy has been one of the central goals of architects and interior designers alike throughout the world. A sense of intimacy can arise not only when we enter environments that we are familiar with, like our own homes, but also places that are unfamiliar, public or even outdoors. So what exactly is the psychological basis of intimacy? Can we quantify intimacy?

This interactive experiment will help researchers find out what properties in an environment contribute to our perception of intimacy, and whether these properties coincide with aesthetic preferences that have an evolutionary origin.

BIO

Fiona is a professor of experimental psychology in Trinity College Dublin, where her research focuses on the processes of human perception. Fiona leads the multisensory cognition group at the Trinity College Dublin Institute of Neuroscience. The main goal of their research is to understand the brain and behavioural processes involved in the multisensory perception of objects, faces, bodies and scenes.

Pikki is a final year Ph.D. student in the multisensory cognition group. Her thesis looks at the psychological basis of visual aesthetics, with a focus on facial attractiveness and architectural spaces using behavioural and eye-tracking paradigms.