Chronostasis —— An Immersive Urban Space App

Abstract

This thesis is a multidisciplinary exploration for the overlay of the architectural reality of a defined space, with artificial or alternative architectural realities within the image of chronostasis (distortion perception of time or stopped-clock illusion) and Einstein’s theory of relativity, through augmented reality and virtual reality technologies. The setup shall allow the beholder to interact with the functional conditions and various spatial overlays of the space by shifting and overlapping different experiences of the same space during users’ journeys to enhance and provide another perception of spatial experience. In this setup, the illusion is no more fake but another type of reality that connects each individual through the architectural space. The immersive journey takes place in Ullens Center of Contemporary Art Tunnel in 798 Art District, Beijing, China. Under the pandemic era, this project provides a new media solution to vitalize the urban space by mobile AR/VR application design experiments. It creates architectural artifact stimuli overlaying on the physical reality as an interactive interface between users and the urban space. This application focuses more on the users’ intuitive experience during the browsing tour of the urban space rather than exploring the physical space itself.