threshold at anomaly detection of uncanny

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Thresholds of Uncanny

By

Mohmmad Daniyal Tariq

Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture

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Thresholds of Uncanny By

Mohmmad Daniyal Tariq

This thesis submitted is partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE, from Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture.

Supervisor(s): Suneela Ahmed

Internal Advisors: Arshad Faruqi Gemma Sharpe

Department of Architecture

Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture Karachi, Pakistan

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Question

What is the perception of Gray State (uncanny threshold) for the Karachiites at sea

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Contents

Acknowledgements ... 5

Abstract ... 6

Introduction ... 7

Literature review ... 10

Phenomenological Place ... 11

Familiar Place and Homeliness ... 14

Unfamiliar Place ... 17

Fear of Unknown ... 20

Gray State ... 24

Conclusion of Literature Review ... 26

Research methodology ... 28

Analysis and Discussion ... 31

Conclusion ... 37

Glossary ... 37

Bibliography ... 38

Appendices ... 40

Interview -1 ... 40

Interview -2 ... 48

Interview -3 ... 55

Interview -4 ... 57

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Acknowledgements

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Abstract

Why do we get scared in our own house? This question drove me to explore the architectural world of familiar and unfamiliar. House is a place that is familiar yet acquires the attributes of unfamiliarity. This ephemeral place created out of this uncanny transformation that only exists for a fleeting moment fascinates me. The source of my fascination is the idea that such a place can leaves a powerful impact on a person. This ephemeral place is termed as Gray State. Paper further aims to explore this phenomenon, in a house of Sea View housing society located within Karachi Pakistan. It also delves into Lovecraftian Myths to explore extreme example of gray state in literature and to draw parallel with its occurrence in the real word. HP Lovecraft is a horror novelist who specialises in the horrors of the unknown. Through his work he explores unfamiliar landscape. How characters in his novels react to such landscape is what I am interested in, which provides hints of its nature.

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Introduction

Gray state is a place that exists between familiar and unfamiliar. This ephemeral place is a result of an interaction between the two spaces. Gray as a colour contains properties of both white and black1, like this place which contains characteristics of both familiar and unfamiliar. Similarly colour gray is the transition between two non-colours, neither black nor white. It takes the middle ground, neither one way nor the other.

If spaces unfolded as ‗events‘2; framing emotions that they wish to inspire and our world is perhaps defined by how we navigate through these events. Questions‘ regarding their nature rises with the possibility of their manipulation. Many horror storywriters have pondered over this idea and even manipulated the ‗events‘, to alter the familiarity of these places without altering the places themselves. One of such writer, HP Lovecraft transforms a normal space into a space of untold terror. A space as familiar as ones room is transformed and made unfamiliar by this event. His stories give an interesting insight in the fundamental experience that unfamiliar evokes; which is a state of anxiety3.

For an understanding of gray state, it is necessary to define to a certain degree what is familiar. Familiar can be defined as having intimate knowledge of a certain element.4 Unfamiliar can then be defined as having little or no knowledge of a certain element. Unfamiliar is another position through which our understanding of familiar can be brought into question. However what seems more fascinating is when they both interact, colliding and overlapping with each other, in shaping our experience of the built environment. These interactions are known in psychology as uncanny. Jentsch introduces the concept as ―the feeling of uncanniness [which] is a fundamental insecurity brought about by a lack of orientation a sense of something new, foreign and hostile invading an old, familiar ,

customary world‖5

. What he seems to be describing is a threshold.

1Smith Kate, ―All About the Color GRAY‖, sensational

color.n.d, web, 15th june 2014

2

Bernard Tschumi. Six Concepts Excerpt from Architecture and Disjunction. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994 Pp 5,6.

3_{‗Anxiety‘ Def. 1a.}

Merriam Webster Online, Merriam Webster, n.d, web, 15th june 2014

4_{‗Familiar‘.Def.6.}

Merriam-Webster Online, Merriam-Webster. n.d, web, 19th November 2013 ,

5_{Vidler Anthony. ―The Architectural Uncanny, Essays in the modern Unhomely‖. Massachusetts ,MIT press}

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Unfamiliar spaces may either lie in the realm of the fantastical or in reality. For the scope of this paper I will explore a specific form of fantastical realm (Lovecraftian6) defined by the creation of HP Lovecraft. Two extreme boundaries that I have defined are spaces such as an ordinary house (familiar) and the haunted houses of HP Lovecraft (unfamiliar). I will attempt to establish a link between the two edges and how they interact in Gray state. Understanding the environments on the extremes will help in establishing reference points with which to study the gray state. These gray spaces are unique in a sense that their position on the

―familiarness‖ scale would be obscure. At one point they are they are extremely familiar like

the spaces in our homes on the other hand they are as unfamiliar as a corner in a dark alley. Their position seems to be in flux.

Anxiety and fear seems to be prevalent with the onset of the gray state. It like an identifier, as gray state is not a real space but a set of condition and anxiety seems to the human response to this condition.

A person feels comfortable in a familiar space such as owns bedroom. The comfort relaxes our senses .Like a person wearing gloves and over the period of time the distinction between the hand and the gloves disappears. Similarly a familiar space undergoes the same transformation and like a gloves it becomes our extension. Examples of such spaces in our house would be corridors, corner, alcoves7, basement etc. These spaces become potential thresholds between familiar and unfamiliar if they are reactivated as special spaces. Suddenly a space that is familiar with becomes something anew and exhibits unfamiliar traits. So a

6_{Prohászková Viktória. ―The Genre of Horror‖}

American International Journal of Contemporary Research ; Vol. 2 No.4 April 2012. pp 1,2, web. AIJCR 16th June 2014

7_{Bachelard Gaston. ―}_{The Poetics of Space”.}

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When describing the characteristics of place which gray state occupies elements like the , light, sound, geometry, material, scale, volume8, associations with the ‗object‘ must be kept in mind. I am interested in the Karachiite‘s perception of gray state and how orientation and intellectual uncertainty have an effect.

For a comprehensive understanding of the phenomena, gray state was broken down to its components. Each component was then studied. I used various literatures to build a greater understanding of these components: familiar, unfamiliar and fear. It also provided me with an opportunity to establish reference points and identify thresholds, where the struggle of familiar and unfamiliar manifests itself in a form of fear. The unfamiliar, is a place that has a potential to inspire an architect to push the boundaries of architecture. The primary research was based on mainly site analysis and interviews. The data that was gathered in the primary research was mainly qualitative as the focus of this paper is based on how we perceive such a space that has uncanny attributes. Through the analysis of personal accounts of gray space within their house an attempt was made to achieve an intimate understanding of the subject.

8_{Ching Francis D.K, ―Architecture: Form , Space and Order, 3}rd_{edition‖, New Jersey USA and Canada, John}

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Literature review

The nature of this phenomenon was explored through a process of answering a series of question. The study began with examination of the place where it occurs. It explores what a place was? It then proceeds to examine the nature of these dual places; familiar and unfamiliar and how humans perceive and experience them. This examination would highlight the humans experience on the extreme positions (familiar and unfamiliar) where by setting the stage for inspection of threshold (Gray State) between the two extreme positions. The examination of threshold leads to a process of examining human response to experience (fear of unknown) of this threshold.

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Phenomenological Place

In order to examine, the nature of an uncanny threshold where a person experiences anxiety or fear9, there is a need to first examine the place10 of its occurrence. This leads a question of what is a place.

Place is defined as a totality made up of concrete things having material, substance, shape, texture, and colour. Together these things determine an environmental character which is the essence of place. A place is therefore a qualitative, total phenomenon which we cannot reduce to any of its properties such as spatial relationships without losing its concrete nature out of sight.11

In his essay ‗The phenomenon of place (essay)‟, Christian Norberg-Schulz highlights the

nature of ‗place‘ this definition deals with place as a holistic phenomenon. This insight sets up argument that a place can be familiar, unfamiliar and uncanny as it is ‗qualitative in

nature‘12

. Every activity occurs in a certain place13. Every such activity requires certain conditions that need to be met14. Activities such as studying or dancing may have totally different set of requirement, so may need a totally different place. Even accidental activities such as getting scared or anxious may require a different place for it to occur. This would imply that the places where uncanny threshold seems to exist will have similar set of conditions and may even be qualitatively the same place.

9_{fear‘ Def. 1a.}

Merriam Webster Online, Merriam Webster, n.d, web, 15th june 2014

10

Norberg-Schulz Christian. „The phenomenon of place‟ .Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture:: An Anthology of Architectural Theory.Ed .Nesbitt Kate, city, Princeton architectural press published, March 1, 1996 printp 414

11

Norberg-Schulz Christian. „The phenomenon of place‟ .Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture:: An Anthology of Architectural Theory.Ed .Nesbitt Kate, city, Princeton architectural press published, March 1, 1996 print

12 _{Norberg-Schulz Christian.}„The phenomenon of place‟_._{Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture:: An}

Anthology of Architectural Theory.Ed .Nesbitt Kate, city, Princeton architectural press published, March 1, 1996 print

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Martin Heidegger in his work ―thinking on architecture15‖ defines a place as a thing16. This is explained through human experience. He uses the metaphors of a picnic to express this idea. In essence a picnic place is an arbitrary place for everyone else except the people who are out for a picnic and have chosen the picnic place. For them this picnic space is place which meets their perception of what a picnic place should be. The place is highlighted by the activities that happen in it. In this respect the place of an uncanny threshold (gray state) will differ for each person. As each person will have their own personal experiences but occasionally these thresholds can exist as a result of collective experiences meaning the same place17 will be at a gray state for more than one person. Just like the shared experience of a picnic.

To Heidegger space only comes into being because we‘re able to identify places18.Another aspect which Heidegger reveals is the element of memory19 and how it influences our perception and understanding of place20. Places are segments of spaces form within a

―generality of space‖21, which are formed as a result of human experience. To solidify this experience, memory is utilized. Memory is used to form an association of a past experience with a physical space which would imply that the person will be reminded of the experience whenever they interact with that place, forming an identity of a place.22 In the context of the

15 _{Norberg-Schulz Christian.} „Heidegger‟s „thinking on architecture‟_._{Theorizing a New Agenda for}

Architecture:: An Anthology of Architectural Theory.Ed .Nesbitt Kate, city, Princeton architectural press published, March 1, 1996 print

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Familiar Place and Homeliness

The exploration of uncanny threshold (gray state) begins not in the some uncharted unknown regions but in fact in the most intimate centres of human activity that is home.

Home is a special place for the family23. It is a place of comfort and familiarity24. If explore the origins of this word we find that in the old English it was called ‗ham‘ meaning dwelling , house , estate village, in old Norse ‗heimr‘ meaning residence world, in Greek it was kome and in Sanskrit it was kseti‘25

. The linguistic origins suggest that a home may be considered a space to which a person is physically and emotionally attached to. It is their part of the earth, a place where they are most familiar with.

In ‗poetics of space‟26

, Gaston Bachelard explores the human interaction with their house. ―A

house constitutes a body of images that give mankind proofs or illusions of stability.‖27 This

―illusion of stability,‖ is an important factor in making the person feels comfortable in his house. The more he feels comfortable the more he is familiar with his surroundings. The metaphorical images to which Gaston Bachelard refers to are then placed in order by two interconnected ideas regarding the house. The house is imagined as a ―vertical being‖28 and

as a ―concentrated being‖29

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By establishing an image of a watchtower31 guarding us, Gaston Bachelard is portraying a home as a ―place of refuge‖32 whose purpose is to protect from the horrors of the unknown.

―With the example of the hut and the light that keeps vigil on the far horizon we have shown the concentration of intimacy in the refuge in its most simplified form‖.33 Home becomes a place which offers not only stability but also refuge. It is a place of comfort and intimacy for its inhabitants. This emotional attachment and association with spaces is critical to my argument of the existence of gray space. This attachment according to Gaston Bachelard is explained by our memory. Every space in homes houses a particular memory, a facet of our childhood and all the spaces that we encounter later in life are reinterpreted according to our initial experiences34. Memories become instrumental in a way a person perceives a space even before they experience it.

Another important idea is that a home must be a place of familiarity and therefore should be a place through which he identifies himself. This identification represented through a given address is his assertion of his place on earth. His house lets him orient himself. This orientation provides him psychological sense of security as it helps in grounding himself and it also offers him a physical direction which provides him knowledge of his houses location.35 This idea is expressed in Christian norberg-schulz paper ‗The phenomenon of place‘36,

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…To gain an existential foothold man has to be able to orientate himself he has to know where he is. But he also has to identify himself with the environment that is; he has to know how he is in a certain place…37

In Lovecraftian Myths Spatially the world of man was governed by the laws of Euclidean geometry38. It is ordered and predictable and hence offered stability to its residence. This correlates to description of a home explained in the poetics of space. Interestingly enough HP Lovecraft uses orientation 39to emphasize contrast between the unfamiliar and familiar.

38 _{Ingwersen Moritz,}_{Monstrous Geometries in the fiction of Hp Lovecraft,}_{(Presented at the Monstrous}

Geographies 2nd Global Conference May 2013),

39 _{Ingwersen Moritz,}_{Monstrous Geometries in the fiction of Hp Lovecraft,}_{(Presented at the Monstrous}

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Unfamiliar Place

Unfamiliar Place is explored through a fictitious short story a ―The dreams in the witch house (short story)‖40 by HP Lovecraft. The story presents a vivid description of an unfamiliar place. It also provides insight on how people react to such environment and establishes an extreme position in the familiar scale.

‗The darkness always teemed with unexplained sound – and yet he sometimes shook with fear least the noise he heard should subside and allow him to hear certain other, fainter,

noises which he suspected were lurking behind them‘41

The atmosphere is manipulated by HP Lovecraft as he overlaps two explanations of the noises which Gilman42 (protagonist) hears. It‘s an acknowledgment of the notion that both familiar and unfamiliar does exist in the same place. Like in the story it lurks behind the window had been boarded up at a very remote date. The loft above the ceiling - which must have had a slanting floor - was likewise inaccessible.‖43

Description of Gilman‗s room, Lovecraft highlights three important features; it had irregular shape, boarded windows and inaccessible loft. The irregular shape hints towards the

geometry of the room. It‘s an attic with qualities of a cellar44

. Acts such as boarded windows and inaccessible spaces creates a sense of anxiety as we are unable to identify what is in those spaces.

40

Lovecraft Howard Phillips ―the dreams in the witch house”. Houston. Halcyon. 2010.n.p 41

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Lovecraftian world was governed by the Non-Euclidean geometry (chaotic and seemingly incomprehensible)45. From his text we understand that geometry has a strong role to play when making a space, unfamiliar or familiar. All of HP Lovecraft s monsters and incomprehensible geometry is aimed at creation of an almost alien atmosphere in familiar

surroundings. The ―Angled masses, prisms, cubes and planes here interweave in arabesque patterns with the bizarre organic forms of centipedes and octopi to arouse a sense of ultimate

alienation‖, 46

an ultimate horror for HP Lovecraft.

―The house provided an especially favoured site for uncanny disturbances: its apparent

domesticity, its residue of family history and nostalgia, its role as a last and most intimate

shelter of private comfort sharpened by contrast the terror of invasion by alien spirits.‖47

Anthony Vidler in ‗Unhomely houses (book)‘48 investigates elements that transform a familiar place into an unfamiliar place through fictional horror stories. He works points to my early exploration of the relationship between place, experience and memory.

Lack of orientation49 and obscurity can make a place unhomely. By orientation I am referring to effects it has on a person. It provides them with certainty and clarity. He argues that even a well maintained house can be made unhomely, if the house surrounds itself in mystery and if activity which helped indentify it disappears50. Lack of knowledge and unanswered questions creates a sense of uncertainty about the house. Secrets and silence transforms it51. Elements of a house when no longer perform their intended functions, then it begins to transform into an unfamiliar place. For instance if the window whose purpose is to provide

1992

48 Vidler Anthony. ―The Architectural Uncanny, Essays in the modern Unhomely‖. Massachusetts ,MIT press

1992

1992 p23

1992 p20

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light to the house and to show hints of life inside is walled up then people will feel anxious around that house. Because now outsiders can‘t view what‘s happening inside and visible activities disappears which is replaced by uncertainty and lifelessness52. ―Finally the silence

and emptiness contributes the aura of a tomb‖53

1992 pp 19 20

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Fear of Unknown

In an essay, ―On the Psychology of the Uncanny (essay)”54. Jentsch defines Uncanny55 as an outcome of intellectual uncertainty. Which would imply that uncanny is an element which

is defined by its obscurity. ―The human desire for the intellectual mastery of one‘s

environment is a strong one. Intellectual certainty provides psychical shelter in the struggle

for existence‖.

A key idea in his definition was orientation. Intellectual uncertainty he argued was caused by lack of orientation of the environment and ignorance about the nature of phenomena. In his essay he highlighted that certain environmental conditions amplify this sense of uncertainty.

\"…when this doubt only makes itself felt obscurely in one‘s consciousness…(the) same emotion occurs when, as has been described, a wild man has his first sight of a locomotive or

a steamboat, for example, perhaps at night…‖

In his example the wild man is limited by his intellectual capacity which prevents him from understanding a steamboat. To him it feels alien. The environment adds to the confusion and fuels his uncertainty. Night conceals the whole form and presents a false image of the steamboat. As wild man is unable to fathom the object in front of him, he cannot decide whether it is dangerous or not. This uncertainty and lack of control over his environment creates a feeling of uncanny. The environment in which the Wild man exists is a place of gray state.

Jentsch idea of uncanny was expanded by Freud but he refused to accept the idea of uncertainty. A psychoanalytical principle is used to explain the phenomena. The explanation for the occurrence of uncanny was as a consequence ofthe “return of the repressed”56. The story of ―Councillor Krespel”57

by Hoffmann is a peculiar tale which begins with Krespel building his own house without the help of an architect. About the house Vidler observed:

54_{Jentsch Ernst ―}_{On the Psychology of the Uncanny”(1906)}_{trans Sellars, Roy.web accessed 10 april 2014} 55_{Jentsch Ernst ―}_{On the Psychology of the Uncanny”(1906)}

trans Sellars, Roy.web accessed 10 april 2014

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―...the result of his manoeuvres was a home ‗presenting a most unusual appearance from the outside—no two windows being alike and so on—but whose interior arrangements aroused a

very special feeling of ease‘ ‖58

The house displayed a dichotomy between the outside and inside with the entrance forming as a threshold. Freud highlighted the connection between a haunted house and homely house

was through a ―single passage‖ where it contains secrets that ought to remain hidden and are filled with terrors59. Environment that seems familiar and homely will contain dormant element of unfamiliarity60. The unearthing and its realization, of its existence, in familiar surroundings results in an uncanny experience61.

1992, p29

1992 p30

1992 p 32

1992

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Thus it can be summarized here that the uncanny experience contains;

 Disorientation

 Intellectual uncertainty

 Return of the repressed

The paper ―Monstrous Geometries in the fiction of Hp Lovecraft (paper)”62, by Moritz Ingwersen63 establishes a couple of things which seems to work in the world of HP

Lovecraft but also could be applied to the real world, a notion that ―alienation64

of familiar forms can induce fear65. He goes on to argue that fear is grounded in uncertainties66. When certain ideas or situation challenge our conception of reality we experience fear because the framework of our reality is questioned67. The point where our reality is questioned (intellectual uncertainty) is a point which I described as a threshold between the familiar space and unfamiliar space. Ingwersen describes this threshold as an experience where

―[W]e are so strongly affected and terrified because it is our world which ceases to be reliable, […] it presupposes that the categories which apply to our world view become

inapplicable.‖ 68

Ingwersen allows us to understand the ways in which science, and geometry in particular, is used to emphasize Intellectual uncertainty. ―In many cases it is specifically their un unassimilable geometrical properties in form of elusive angles and ambiguous symmetries

62_{Ingwersen Moritz is a professor at the University of Cologne, and is currently working on his Ph.D. in the}

field of science and literature at Trent University, Canada

63_{Ingwersen Moritz is a professor at the University of Cologne, and is currently working on his Ph.D. in the}

field of science and literature at Trent University, Canada

64_{Alienation here means either disorientation or intellectual uncertainty}

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that arouse an immediate sense of dread‖.69

Later he relates it to as a rupture that is felt by the contemporary readers of Riemann and Einstein in whose writings the everyday grasp of geometry [is] so violently put at stake70. Geometry is performing an ironic role here. It is used to create uncertainties rather than perform its original task that is measure and define certainties.

Ingwersen provides a direction to develop in terms of linkages that he forms with geometry, familiarity and fear. On the other hand questions could and should be raised as to why must the logic of a horror story be applicable in the real world?

69

Ingwersen Moritz, Monstrous Geometries in the fiction of Hp Lovecraft, (Presented at the Monstrous Geographies 2nd Global Conference May 2013),pp1

70

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Gray State

In ―The dreams in the witch house ( short story) ‖71 by HP Lovecraft, he describes a potential hypothetical gray space. This space is no other then the protagonist‘s room72. First he tells us the history of the room and its surroundings. As described below:

―He was in the changeless, legend haunted city of Arkham, with its clustering gambrel roofs

that sway and sag over attics where witches hid from the king‘s men in the dark, olden days of the Province. Nor was any spot in that city more steeped in macabre memory than the

gable room which harboured him.‖73

The Room74 exists in the attic and it is here where he encounters the unknown. Attic is a threshold where he travels between the real and the fantastical75, where the familiar merges with the unfamiliar thus becoming an extreme example of Gray state. For Gilman, the room with old angles becomes familiar and unfamiliar becomes the spaces that surrounds the attic which are unreachable76.

The strange geometry77 of the room is difficult to conceive for the readers making readers loose sense of orientation78 and as for the Gilman the odd angles and unreachable spaces breaks intellectual certainly of what lies within them. The rat hole is a metaphorical representation of the repressed which as the story unfolds comes forth engulfing Gilman in uncanny world. As for the readers unconceivable spaces puts them in a position where they

can‘t properly imagine where the story is unfolding. This loss of control puts the reader in Gilman‘s shoes and the sense of uncanny sets in as the reader like Gilman is filled with uncertainty and doubt. Gilman‘s interaction with the unknown propels the reader into exploring their own depts. of their repressed fears as they try imagining the horrors faced by

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Gilman. By providing a patchwork of images describing the unknown79 HP Lovecraft forces the reader into filling the gaps with their own fragments of repressed fear.

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26 Conclusion of Literature Review

Basic understanding of the phenomena was provided through the secondary research. It helped in defining and expanding the key concepts which explain how people perceive spaces but it had certain shortcomings. The chosen literature was not compiled or created by Pakistani authors; this implies that there could be a possibility that the definitions of key ideas such as the uncanny or unfamiliar might be different. Various societies describe and interpret these ideas differently. For this reason and to get a clearer understanding of how a typical Pakistani perceives and interact with these ideas a decision was made to interview practicing psychologists. Another inherent weakness in the literature was the fictional writings of HP Lovecraft as means of investigating an unfamiliar space. Although this technique had its roots in phenomenology, I felt that by focusing on one writer‘s interpretation of unfamiliar meant that the interpretation was personal rather than general. A much wider insight could have been reached had I chosen more than one author and more specifically had I chosen a local author. My choice of one author was because the exploration was not about the physical description of the unfamiliar but rather the impact it has on humans and also due to time constrain.

The only reason which prevented me from using a local author was because work would then had to be analyzed through the techniques and definitions grounded in western thought and I felt that my analysis of the work using those principles would end up giving me a

foreigner‘s interpretation of local work and so it would pollute the result.

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 These elements were:

 disorientation

 intellectual uncertainty

 return of repressed

Disorientation and intellectual uncertainty were the focus of my primary research as they deal with physical80 aspect of the phenomena. Spatially these elements could occur through these factors:

 Geometry of the space

 Lighting of the room.

 Unreachable / inaccessible spaces

 Lack of control of the space (example: a room with many doors and windows)

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Research methodology

The epistemological position that I took for this study was Constructivism81. The reason was that my study did not require an objective truth82 .The constructionist stance maintains that different people may construct meaning in different ways, even in relation to the same phenomenon83. My position led me to theoretical perspective of Interpretivism.84 Interpretivism is theoretical position which places importance on understanding of the word from an individual perspective. Which is the reason why the methodology for the data I am using phenomenological technique of narrative inquiry85 and interviews. The narratives are then juxtaposed with Lovecraftian text and both are later analyzed by extracting their similarities

This paper explores the phenomena of gray state through a phenomenological lens. Specific human spatial experience as explored here, sheds light on how human understanding of spaces and their experiences is in flux. It explores the two extreme positions of spatial interpretations (familiar and unfamiliar) and the uncanny threshold (gray state)that lies in between. The uncanny threshold becomes the medium through which the identity of place is investigated.

As stated earlier in the conclusion of the literature review the four elements will be the focus of the site survey. One houses were arbitrary chosen within Sea View housing scheme as case study. This particular housing scheme was chosen because:

Secure surroundings (within and outside the scheme)

81_{Feast Luke and Gavin Melles. ‗}

Epistemological Positions in Design Research: A Brief Review of the Literature‟, Melbourne, july 2010, .academia.edu, web web, 19th_{may 2014 , accessed pp 2,4}

82_{Feast Luke and}Gavin Melles. ‗_{Epistemological Positions in Design Research: A Brief Review of the}

Literature’, Melbourne, july 2010, .academia.edu, web web, 19th may 2014 , accessed pp 2,4

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Every block is surrounded by trees with a small park (lights from various blocks are defused by the tree buffer making night darker)

Clam and silent neighborhood (person is not constantly reminded of the city)

I have lived here for more than 10 years (more easily to conduct interview regarding sensitive topics such as fear, also if they know me than they will not feel intimidated and the process of othering 86will not occur)

The arbitrary nature of the choice distilled any biasness or placebos that could be generated otherwise. An inherent strength which this investigation received by studying a housing scheme was that their planning was identical. While this produces a level filed from which to ground my work it also provides me an exciting opportunity to highlight the relationship humans have with architecture. The date collective is qualitative in nature as it deals spaces and how people experience and interpret them.

The house was analyzed through the descriptions provided by its residence. These descriptions were about the moment were they felt scared .They had to first specify the time and location where it happened and then proceed to describe what they felt about the space. Within the narrative they had to mention, the light, geometry, any unreachable spaces and the presence of doors and windows or any other element which they felt that challenged their control over the moment of its occurrence.

To further understand the nature the human response to architecture and the cause of fear two psychologists were interviewed and to understand architectural spaces with respect to people, an architect was interviewed via email.

An assumption was made before hand that the fear that people associate with supernatural is in fact atmospheric and psychological. The reason for this assumption was that I did not want to study the cause of the fear but rather the atmosphere of the space where it exists. The data collected are personal accounts and so are naturally questionable evidence and subjected to

86

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fictionalization by the individuals when they were narrating it. This process provides insight to how they interpret and perceive their environments where they experience this phenomenon87

The primary research will try to sketch a profile of how a Karachiite defines fear and how do they perceive the space where gray state exists.

87

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Analysis and Discussion

To understand the dynamics of the phenomena, there is a need to understand how Karachiites define and perceives it. For that I conducted two interviews with practicing psychologist. It provided guidance through which the initial literature could be adjusted to better suit the conditions in Karachi.

Dr Saba Suleman88,a practicing psychologist in an interview defined fear of the unknown as a presumption of the worst possible outcome for the person89. While another psychologist Dr Yahya Hussain90defined it as ―Fake, emotions which appear real‖91.Both of these definitions seems to be a case of anxiety. This is a similar response to a person experiencing disorientation or intellectual uncertainty. Ar Salman Arif92 in his interview regarded that

―Deserted space‖93

as a place which was unfamiliar and was prone to cause fear. Ar Ramiz Baig94 regarded an― ostentatious space‖95 as frightening but not necessary fearful. His insight on the human response is such that while an unfamiliar space might be more fearful

but people are prepared so they won‘t be frightened on the other a familiar space can become

frightening as a person is less alert96. These definitions provide an insight to what people may feel in a gray state.

Another factor that influences the nature of perception was memory97. As earlier stated; Heidegger placed great importance to memory claiming it an essential element in place identification. Memory is linked to an activity with the space98 just as suggested earlier in ‗

88_{Suleman Saba, interview conducted in person: 2}nd_{April 2014. Transcribed from recording} 89_{Suleman Saba, interview conducted in person: 2}nd_{April 2014. Transcribed from recording} 90_{Hussain Yahya.interview conducted in person: 2}nd_{April 2014. Transcribed from recording} 91_{Hussain Yahya.interview conducted in person: 2}nd_{April 2014. Transcribed from recording} 92_{Arif Salman}_,_{Conducted by email}_:₁₈th_-20th _{May 2014}

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The phenomenon of place‟(essay). This idea of association99 with spaces was expanded by both Dr Suleman and Dr Hussain , who linked this with fear of certain spaces and events 100 ,

101

. For example a person was robed in a dark alley, now every dark alley will be a source of anxiety.102 For Heidegger this memory was not restricted to just personal memory. Similarly Dr Hussain also expressed that associations that are formed due to experiences of these events does not necessary be their own103.

Childhood experiences become pertinent as this is the time when the person learns to associate certain responses to certain events. We are conditioned to fear dark spaces 104 . The conditioning105 begins with parents and later society through movies and other media, which reinforces our perception and directs are response towards it.

Both psychologists felt that the narrative of jinn in our culture played an important role in the way we experience unfamiliar spaces106 and associated with places which are less populated (unknown) 107. Jinns for many become the source intellectual uncertainty.

Dr Hussain through the theory of personality called locus of control108 he explains external and internal factors controlling the way a person perceive (feel) the space in a particular manner. This means that gray state can be an external locus of control. The theory highlights an under lying tension that exists in our interaction with the threshold (gray state), which is the struggle of control between the person and the place. Whether the place is responsible for

evoking the perception or the person‘s inner self is projection it on the place.109

The presence of these underlying tensions was also acknowledge by Ar Salman Arif in his interview110. Who felt that their effect was very real in the way we experience these space. Expanding on

this idea he defined a place :

99_{association.Def.4.}_{Merriam-Webster Online}_{, Merriam-Webster. n.d, web, 19}th_{November 2013 ,} 100_{Suleman Saba, interview conducted in person: 2}nd_{April 2014. Transcribed from recording} 101_{Hussain Yahya. interview conducted in person: 2}nd_{April 2014. Transcribed from recording}

102

Hussain Yahya .interview conducted in person: 2nd April 2014. Transcribed from recording

103

Hussain Yahya .interview conducted in person: 2nd April 2014. Transcribed from recording

104

Suleman Saba, interview conducted in person: 2nd April 2014. Transcribed from recording

105_{Suleman Saba, interview conducted in person: 2}nd_{April 2014. Transcribed from recording} 106_{Suleman Saba, interview conducted in person: 2}nd_{April 2014. Transcribed from recording} 107_{Suleman Saba, interview conducted in person: 2}nd_{April 2014. Transcribed from recording}

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The particular portion of space, region or area occupied by things, whether of definite

or indefinite extent and how we associate with these things determine as to how we treat the

place which they occupy.

From literature review, the paper established that a person experiences disorientation and intellectual uncertainty in a gray state which leads to anxiety which makes them perceive the place as frightening. This is further expanded in terms of lighting, geometry, unreachability and lack of control over space. Dr Suleman and Dr Hussain highlighted the importance of light, the association of shapes and colours, time and the presence of openings. 111

Dr Hussain discusses the importance of geometry and peoples‗s perception of it. He used the

example of square and circular shape rooms to discuss the comfort zone. Claimed that square as a shape is more familiar as a room and less likely to cause uncertainty on the other hand as the circular rooms are rare so are unfamiliar112 . For a person to feel oriented in a space Ar

Salman Arif felt that colours and shapes played an important role.113 Any elements that that

give identity to a space will help a person orient themselves in it. Light is an important factor

as its presence is vital in intellectual certainty, as light adds clarity to environment helping the

person make sense of it. Both the architects and psychologists felt that gray state was a place

which had conflicting and opposing characters114and was an ―Inexplicable space‖.115

Sea view was a relatively quite housing community with lots of tall trees and iconic communal green spaces. The area was relatively safe and just about 35 years old. The captivating view of the vast endless sea from these houses is one of its unique features.

The house was located on the ground floor. It has one dinning, kitchen, lounge, drawing, servant quarter and three bedrooms. The house has corridor which forms its datum. All bedrooms ,dining rooms and kitchen seem to open into the lounge. The lounge becomes the hearth of the house. The spaces themselves seem brightly lit and house feels well ventilated. The house has two floors over it

111_{Hussain Yahya.interview conducted in person: 2}nd_{April 2014. Transcribed from recording}

112

Hussain Yahya.interview conducted in person: 2nd April 2014. Transcribed from recording

113_{Arif Salman}_,_{Conducted by email}_:₁₈th_-20th _{May 2014}

114

ArifSalman ,Conducted by email: 18th -20th May 2014 115

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A resident of 58 Ground floor Three, Javeria Faisal a resident and a house wife narrated an incident where she experienced the Uncanny threshold (Gary state). They described it as momentary experience which was unnerving to say the least. This narrative was later

juxtaposed with a passage from Lovecraftian fiction ―The Dreams in the Witch House”(short story) and the similarities analysed .

―it was late night, umm may be two ish I think, I had woken up because you see the light had

just gone. It was suddenly dark and...Umm... everyone was sleeping. Umm and so see I got up to get the torch. It was in kitchen so I had to go and get it. Because I needed it to open the generator. well Acha (okay) so it was very silent and dark. I somehow managed to navigate through the room without breaking anything , as I was crossing the dining room towards the kitchen I suddenly stopped. .. Acha(Okay) so ..On my right was the entrance corridor which at the moment was very dark and creepy. I turned towards the dining room and I saw windows filled with dark silhouettes of trees. Freaky huh. After a moment I stated to walk again but by now my mind my preoccupied with the windows and dark corridors and suddenly I hear a noise. At that time I thought it was so loud that I freaked out and quickly

grabbed the torch and left. It‘s funny now as the sound was coming from upstairs...‖ 116

The incident occurred at the node where the corridor, dinning and kitchen meet. The node is a cuboids open ended space with three options to move towards. Because it was dark and there was more than one direction to move towards the node created a disorienting effect. The gray state in this case was as a result of a build up and with sound the threshold was crossed and the familiar space became unfamiliar, resulted in her speeding the task at hand and getting out

of there. Residence‘s intellectual mastery was questioned by the node which challenged her control over the space, irregular shadow of the trees and the abrupt sound. The end of the dark corridor seems inaccessible and so does the space surrounding the trees outside the windows. As these spaces are covered in darkness she is unable to figure out if something is there which causes uncertainty. The very thought of possibility of something lurking in the

116

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unknown resulted in her attempt to piece together a picture by using her repressed fears. The irrationality of the situation is evidence of intellectual uncertainty.

―Gilman‘s room had been having a strange, almost hypnotic effect on him; and as the bleak

winter advanced he had found himself staring more and more intently at the corner where the down-slanting ceiling met the inward-slanting wall. About this period his inability to concentrate on his formal studies worried him considerably, his apprehensions about the mid-year examinations being very acute. But the exaggerated sense of hearing was scarcely less annoying. Life had become an insistent and almost unendurable cacophony, and there was that constant, terrifying impression of other sounds—perhaps from regions beyond life— trembling on the very brink of audibility. So far as concrete noises went, the rats in the ancient partitions were the worst. Sometimes their scratching seemed not only furtive but deliberate. When it came from beyond the slanting north wall it was mixed with a sort of dry rattling—and when it came from the century-closed loft above the slanting ceiling Gilman always braced himself as if expecting some horror which only bided its time before

descending to engulf him utterly.‖117

The passage above describes the Gilman experience of gray state. The space where the phenomena occur is a room with irregular corners. The time of occurrence is at night when he is trying to sleep. His room has a loft which is inaccessible118 and the window is boarded119. The lack of knowledge regarding the loft adds to the air of uncertainty. the shape of the room and the lack of windows makes it difficult to orient himself . As expressed in the literature review these unreachable spaces creates a sense of anxiety. Gilman experiences a loss of control over the space due to the different sounds which he is unable to recognize and differentiate and are reaching him from various directions. These strange sounds add to the disorientation and intellectual uncertainty. This result in him is griped with anxiety as he is un able to figure out the cause and starts to imagine the worst. The gray state here is due to a gradual build up of un reachable spaces and unrecognisable sounds.

The literary text and the narrative of real experience have the characters which are far removed from each other through the situation they are in. If in the text we find that the

117_Lovecraft_{Howard Phillips} ―the dreams in the witch house”. Houston. Halcyon. 2010.n.p 118_Lovecraft_{Howard Phillips} ―the dreams in the witch house”. Houston. Halcyon. 2010.n.p

119

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Conclusion

Through the research the theoretical boundaries of gray state were highlighted. The key elements of the phenomena were then explored through a three tier approach where the ideas were scrutinize from the perspective of psychologist, architects and residents. Three different views helped me create a clearer view of the theoretical model which I had explored through my literature. Results obtained suffer from the issue of representation as only one case study was done. The aim of the research was to highlight the experiential nature of space and how places are constantly changing as our interpretation is changing. I wanted to highlight this ephemeral nature and how even a place that exists for a moment can have a strong impact. The study sheds some light on the nature of the two extreme interpretation of spaces the familiar and unfamiliar through the perspective of both professionals and the ordinary people. Fictional literature was given the same importance as real experience. By juxtaposing the similarities of the two texts (one fiction, other real) I was able to remove the biasness of each text. What remained was the filtered similar response to gray state in spite of different experiences.

The research technique used herein are deliberately qualitative in nature as attempts to highlight the experiential nature of architecture and how the return to the value of experience is essential for our compressive understanding of spatial design.

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38 Bibliography

Bachelard Gaston, “The Poetics of Space”, Boston, Massachusetts. Beacon Press; Reprint edition April 1, 1994 print

Bernard Tschumi. Six Concepts Excerpt from Architecture and Disjunction. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994

Ching Francis D.K, ―Architecture: Form , Space and Order, 3rd _{edition‖, New Jersey USA}

and Canada, John Wiley & Sons, 2007, print

Moritz Ingwersen, Monstrous Geometries in the fiction of Hp Lovecraft, (Presented at the Monstrous Geographies 2nd Global Conference May 2013),

Prohászková Viktória. ―The Genre of Horror‖ American International Journal of

Contemporary Research ; Vol. 2 No.4 April 2012. pp 1,2, web. AIJCR 16th June 2014

Smith Kate, ―All About the Color GRAY‖, sensational color.n.d, web, 15th june 2014

http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-meaning/color-meaning-symbolism-psychology/all-about-the-color-gray-4378#.U56ZZpSSySo

Vidler Anthony. ―The Architectural Uncanny, Essays in the modern Unhomely‖.

Massachusetts ,MIT press 1992

Lovecraft Howard Phillips―the dreams in the witch house”. Houston. Halcyon. 2010.n.p

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Norberg-Schulz Christian. „The phenomenon of place‟ .Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture:: An Anthology of Architectural Theory.Ed .Nesbitt Kate, city, Princeton architectural press published, March 1, 1996 print

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Appendices

Interview -1

Yahya Hussain.interview conducted in person: 2nd April 2014. Transcribed from recording

On the 2nd April 2014 the interview was conducted with psychologist Yahya Hussain.

(Saba Suleman has Master of Science (M.Sc.), Clinical Psychology from Bahria University

Previously was Clinical Psychology Intern at Neurocare Clinic, and is now currently working as a guidance counsellor in Bay View High School)

DANIYAL: Sir, Asalam Alikum

DR YAHYA HUSSAIN :( PSYCHOLOGIST): Walikum Asalam

DANIYAL: Hmm. First of all .I would ask you for your definition of fear of unknown.

DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): Fear. When I was a kid my teachers used to share an abbreviation.

DANIYAL: Hmm.

DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): For its called FEAR; face, emotions, which appear, real.

DANIYAL: Okay.

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DANIYAL: Hmm. Alright. This is very interesting definition. Yeah okay, sir, basically I will explain you the question related to my research. So that you will know exactly what sort of direction I am taking. Basically I am my dissertation right. I am trying to create links between how spaces are transformed.

DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): Okay

DANIYAL: Due to certain for example this space right it can be transformed due to certain change of atmospheric conditions like for example the light, the sounds, time. Hmm even the geometrics if it were to be altered, it would have a dramatic effect on the character of space.

DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): Alright.

DANIYAL: Right. Now I am going to show is how human interacts with this change.

DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): How humans?

DANIYAL: How humans interact with this sudden change, for example; there is a space in your house, there is a room. For example; in morning your room has a different character and at night it is totally different.

DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): Alright.

DANIYAL: How humans interact with it or deal with it. My direction was to specify it through fear. For example; I was looking at certain spaces which are normal at normal times, at day time but take on a very sinister or a very different sort of an unfamiliar sort, if a character at certain period of time which causes fear or anxiety to the people who are interacting with the spaces. This is what my overall direction is that I am taking.

DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): So I can have a deeper understanding of your question. To understand what it is on your mind. Do you want to ask that whatever things exists. Same object or same spaces reflects different moods to the humans or vise versa.

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DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): Ill start with being generic. At this moment you sitting in a building. Alright.

DANIYAL: Alright.

DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): This building has a history.

DANIYAL: Yes.

DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): This building is like 200 years old. It‘s said buildings have memories.

DANIYAL: Okay.

DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): Alright. These structures you are looking at are made of Bajri, cement, pillar and sariaye . Alright. This is somebody‘s vision; some human beings thought process and a lot of hard work is going into it. Alright. That‘s a lot of

hard work labors put behind building this room you sitting in.

DANIYAL: Yeah.

DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): And all of this is form of different human behavior.

DANIYAL: Hmm.

DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): Alright, now try to connect that with these psychological perspectives. Alright. Whatever is happening is due to human behaviour. At least the building you looking at, some experience is going on you learning something, the knowledge has an impact and it has an effect. Alright. When you were a kid you thought there was someone under your bed. Whenever there is load shedding you feel scared going to the washroom.

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DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): The reasons though are different, alright,

possibly might be. You are being told since the childhood that you don‘t go in the darkness,

alright, you see black because you know are notions are attached to our upbringing in which there are many negative being said.

DANIYAL: True.

DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): Apparently black itself, colour in one way a mixture or perhaps absence of all colours if you see colour in a positive way than in Islam

khana-e-Kabah‟s cover is black and this black colour is given to us since childhood in a negative way and a mind set is created and then when we talk about those things and we come towards location than whatever is fed in our unconscious they become real.

DANIYAL: Okay

DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): Because of which our moods are inflated on any new place.

DANIYAL: Okay

DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): This is one theory now the second one I am not sure whether you are or have been into it but at least in this continent we live in we focus a lot on super natural powers or energies let me tell you one thing about the latest research about what they have established; a human can 100% differentiate between a placebo effect or actual effect. This has been cleared after many decades that placebo is also doing the same work as antidepressants. Inside a patient it happens let me give you an example I have seen in an emergency ward a patient is laying down and shouting Doctor Sahab I am in acute pain give me a pain killer give me this give me that they bring an injection and gave him that injection and patient sleeps after becoming relaxed. That was actually distilled water and not a pain killer. But now as we speak as in today scientists clearly states human can clearly distinguish placebo effect understand 100%.

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DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): And now speaking of which many devices are invented which can measure electromagnetic waves .These electromagnetic waves tells if there is a lot of energy in one place. Alright. Than because of that also moods of people experience ups and downs. Now this is two directions either as a psychiatrist technically I should say that this is all crap and whatever it is minds imagination .But we cannot ignore these things and they are engraved in our mind. But I don‘t want to take my discussions

towards Jinn‘at but if we are talking about very strong energy and you can measure it also

.Now a days I think you know these things do happen and there is a long theory of colours how colours effect our moods how the climate effects our moods in winters and in summers. In summer we are agitated because of the heat and if we are fasting in the heat than we have a license to kill. If somebody has stops his car in front of ours than you are going to use four abusive words than you will wonder if your fast is there or gone. That is what tells you in our psychiatric bible this term is called SAD (Seasonal Affected Disorder).Alright. You find examples of this in books, countries as Canada or the big northern state of USA where is a lot of cold people are immobile and they are restricted in their homes and wrapping themselves up and then but now these things changes from cold to summers. This colour that you wearing maybe depict your current mood.

DANIYAL: Yes . Yes.

DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): We have associated colours with our moods. In the west they wear white gowns for their weddings here we have red. Here wearing black at our weeding is considered bad omen. Definitely if the bride is wearing black it will not be accepted. There is a whole story in our mind regarding colours this is how it is fed in our unconscious mind and as soon as we go towards the direction we are alarmed that this is right and that is not right.

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unfamiliar .This is one condition in my hypothesis. In your opinion is it not in reference to space and atmosphere. Space itself is affecting the atmosphere rather than vise versa what you were saying before.

DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): I‘ll give you a reference in ancient Greek there

was a practice when philosophers and scientists were gathered they use to come to a conclusion to specify a location where to build a hospital. We are talking about 1000 of years ago this is around 640 B.C we are talking about. In the olden times a known way of cure was light therapy like the coloured glasses of church they created centers for people where they could. Either come take a bath or just lay down on a place where raise from the sun is reflected and they use this light to cure. This was a very basic way than as things developed in science surgery started than these philosophers suggested that the location of the hospital is very important than they thought how to decide the location. What they did was they placed an animal meat in all the four directions and when the result came they found out in some direction there was more humidity and in some places more dryness .The meat was fresher in some areas apparently so that was the area they selected for the hospital away from the humidity. Research always shows the area that is near the sea there the ladies above 50 always feel more pain in the joints you can observe in our family. The more you will move away from the coastal area the more fresh you will feel. If you go towards Punjab you will feel the water is different the air is different and you also feel fresh.

DANIYAL: It physically does affect a person as you saying. Do you feel sir space does transform due to change in time and conditions.

DR YAHYA HUSSAIN (PSYCHOLOGIST): Conditions change not because of geographically for example; I am talking about inside of your house in the room. I am talking about inside if it was morning or evening, raining and light goes, or a bright light, or there is food there, these are all the factors that can change space.

DANIYAL: As an architect I feel that it happens but I am not sure it happens. Do you feel certain things like smell or sounds can bring the changes.