SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This paper argues that familiarity is the tool that enables the understanding of space abstraction and representation. Familiarity in this context is independent from embodied interaction, and is crudely based on the connection between the various similar images of space; in this particular case, virtual space. Our investigation into the nature of human interaction with space, its abstraction and its representation is based on the critical contrast between the outcomes of interaction with two virtual versions of a physical reality; the first version is a non-linear interactive graphical abstraction of the space where no assertions or indicators are given as to whether or not there is a relationship between the abstraction and its physical reality, whereas the second is a none-linear interactive 3D virtual environment clearly representing the physical space in question. The paper utilises qualitative methods of investigation in order to gain an insight into human embodied experience in space, its abstraction and representation.