Subjective responses and eye fixations to visual displays of spatial sequences

Abstract

In the selection of spatial sequences for this study importance was given to an understanding of the architect's design intentions, Chapters IV and VIII. The displays of the Sydney Opera House have revealed an incomplete structure, and the contrast of some completed spaces with substantial environmental noise of scaffold and workmens' ramps has been an important part of the study. In many cases the provision of a temporary path through space has been accepted by a group of subjects, and its importance "has been illustrated from eye fixations to the displays.In Displays 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12 a conflict has not generally arisen between the designer's intentions of subjective experience and the responses of the subjects. But in Displays 1, 2, 5 and 10 the architect's design for the completed building and the recording of space in the incomplete building are at variance.The forty subjects who have taken part in the experiments represented a range of architectural training in addition to variations of personality and general conditioning. The group of subjects was not a sample of the general population, and for this reason the average creativity score was considerably higher than the average for the general population.