Isovists Revisited : Egocentric space, allocentric space,and the logic of the Mannequin
Year: 2012
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: The description of the spatial entities used in space syntax is growingly taking on a direct cognitive character,where for example axial lines are often equated to ‘lines of movement’, convex spaces to ‘spaces of being’,and isovists to ‘visual fields’. While developments of these have served to deepen our understanding of spatial configuration in many ways, it is of importance to revisit the origins of the spatial entities used toinvestigate spatial syntactics and study the implications of alternate definitions. This is a question of whatkind of analysis can be performed and on what sort of objects, but also of positioning of the research field. This paper argues that while the perceiving subject is one valid point of interpretation of the spatial entitiesstudied syntactically, other interpretations enable other questions to be investigated and consequently other results to emerge. In this paper the focus lies on how a de‐centralisation from e.g. subjects’ visual fieldsunearths qualities in the isovist and its consecutive systemization into spatial syntactic relations that risk passby. It furthermore aims to discuss the theory base for analyses of certain phenomena (‘the logic of themannequin’). This discussion revolves around a concept already highlighted in space syntax theory:allocentricy, i.e. the quality of spatial cognition to recognize the situation of ‘elsewhere’, and discusses theimpact of such understanding through systemic operations and through the ‘elsewhere’ of inanimate objects.
Author: Daniel Koch
Language: English
Subfield: Urban Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W630588177