Luz industrial e imagen tecnificada: de Moholy Nagy al C.A.V.S. (Center for Advanced Visual Studies)

El desarrollo de la tecnología de la luz implicará la transformación de la vida social, cultural y económica. Tanto las consideraciones espaciales del Movimiento Moderno, como los efectos producidos por la segunda Guerra Mundial, tendrán efectos visibles en las nuevas configuraciones espaciales y en la relación simbiótica y recíproca que se dará entre ideología y tecnología. La transformación en la comprensión de la articulación espacial, asociada al desarrollo tecnológico, afectará al modo en que este espacio es experimentado y percibido. El espacio expositivo y el espacio escénico se convertirán en laboratorio práctico donde desarrollar y hacer comprensible todo el potencial ilusorio de la luz, la proyección y la imagen, como parámetros modificadores y dinamizadores del espacio arquitectónico. Esta experimentación espacial estará precedida por la investigación y creación conceptual en el mundo plástico, donde los nuevos medios mecánicos serán responsables de la construcción de una nueva mirada moderna mediatizada por los elementos técnicos. La experimentación óptica, a través de la fotografía, el cine, o el movimiento de la luz y su percepción, vinculada a nuevos modos de representación y comunicación, se convertirá en elemento fundamental en la configuración espacial. Este ámbito de experimentación se hará patente en la Escuela de la Bauhaus, de la mano de Gropius, Schlemmer o Moholy Nagy entre otros; tanto en reflexiones teóricas como en el desarrollo de proyectos expositivos, arquitectónicos o teatrales, que evolucionarán en base a la tecnología y la modificación de la relación con el espectador. El espacio expositivo y el espacio escénico se tomarán como oportunidad de investigación espacial y de análisis de los modos de percepción, convirtiéndose en lugares de experimentación básicos para el aprendizaje. El teatro se postula como punto de encuentro entre el arte y la técnica, cobrando especial importancia la intersección con otras disciplinas en la definición espacial. Las múltiples innovaciones técnicas ligadas a los nuevos fundamentos teatrales en la modificación de la relación con la escena, que se producen a principios del siglo XX, tendrán como consecuencia la transformación del espacio en un espacio dinámico, tanto física como perceptivamente, que dará lugar a nuevas concepciones espaciales, muchas de ellas utópicas. La luz, la proyección y la creación de ilusión en base a estímulos visuales y sonoros, aparecen como elementos proyectuales efímeros e inmateriales, que tendrán una gran incidencia en el espacio y su modo de ser experimentado. La implicación de la tecnología en el arte conllevará modificaciones en la visualización, así como en la configuración espacial de los espacios destinados a esta. Destacaremos como propuesta el Teatro Total de Walter Gropius, en cuyo desarrollo se recogen de algún modo las experiencias espaciales y las investigaciones desarrolladas sobre la estructura formal de la percepción realizadas por Moholy Nagy, además de los conceptos acerca del espacio escénico desarrollados en el taller de Teatro de la Bauhaus por Oskar Schlemmer. En el Teatro Total, Gropius incorporará su propia visión de cuestiones que pertenecen a la tradición de la arquitectura teatral y las innovaciones conceptuales que estaban teniendo lugar desde finales del s.XIX, tales como la participación activa del público o la superación entre escena y auditorio, estableciendo en el proyecto una nueva relación perceptual entre sala, espectáculo y espectador; aumentando la sensación de inmersión, a través del uso de la física, la óptica, y la acústica, creando una energía concéntrica capaz de extenderse en todas direcciones. El Teatro Total será uno de los primeros ejemplos en los que desde el punto de partida del proyecto, se conjuga la imagen como elemento comunicativo con la configuración espacial. Las nuevas configuraciones escénicas tendrán como premisa de desarrollo la capacidad de transformación tanto perceptiva, como física. En la segunda mitad del s.XX, la creación de centros de investigación como el CAVS (The Center for Advanced Visual Studies,1967), o el EAT (Experiments in Art and Technology, 1966), favorecerán la colaboración interdisciplinar entre arte y ciencia, implicando a empresas de carácter tecnológico, como Siemens, HP, IBM o Philips, facilitando soporte técnico y económico para el desarrollo de nuevos sistemas. Esta colaboración interdisciplinar dará lugar a una serie de intervenciones espaciales que tendrán su mayor visibilidad en algunas Exposiciones Universales. El resultado será, en la mayoría de los casos, la creación de espacios de carácter inmersivo, donde se establecerá una relación simbiótica entre espacio, imagen, sonido, y espectador. La colocación del espectador en el centro de la escena y la disposición dinámica de imagen y sonido, crearán una particular narrativa espacial no lineal, concebida para la experiencia. Desde las primeras proyecciones de cine a la pantalla múltiple de los Eames, las técnicas espaciales de difusión del sonido en Stockhausen, o los experimentos con el movimiento físico interactivo, la imagen, la luz en movimiento y el sonido, quedan inevitablemente convertidos en material arquitectónico. ABSTRACT. Light technology development would lead to a social, cultural and economic transformation. Both spatial consideration of “Modern Movement” and Second World War effects on technology, would have a visible aftereffect on spatial configuration and on the symbiotic and mutual relationship between ideology & technology. Comprehension adjustment on the articulation of space together with technology development, would impact on how space is perceived and felt. Exhibition space and scenic space would turn into a laboratory where developing and making comprehensive all illusory potential of light, projection and image. These new parameters would modify and revitalize the architectonic space. as modifying and revitalizing parameters of architectonic space. Spatial experimentation would be preceded by conceptual creation and investigation on the sculptural field, where new mechanic media would be responsible for a fresh and modern look influenced by technical elements. Optical experimentation, through photography, cinema or light movement and its perception, would turn into essential components for spatial arrangement linked to new ways of performance and communication. This experimentation sphere would be clear at The Bauhaus School, by the hand of Gropius, Schlemmer or Moholy Nag among others; in theoretical, theatrical or architectural performance’s projects, that would evolve based on technology and also based on the transformation of the relationship with the observer. Exhibition and perfor-mance areas would be taken as opportunities of spatial investigation and for the analysis of the different ways of perception, thus becoming key places for learning. Theater is postulated as a meeting point between art and technique, taking on a new significance at its intersection with other disciplines working with spatial definition too. The multiple innovation techniques linked to the new foundations for the theater regarding stage relation, would have as a consequence the regeneration of the space. Space would turn dynamic, both physically and perceptibly, bringing innovative spatial conceptions, many of them unrealistic. Light, projection and illusory creation based on sound and visual stimulus would appear as intangible and momentary design components, which would have a great impact on the space and on the way it is experienced. Implication of technology in art would bring changes on the observer as well as on the spatial configuration of the art spaces2. It would stand out as a proposal Walter Groupis Total Theater, whose development would include somehow the spatial experiments and studies about formal structure of perception accomplished by Moholy Nagy besides the concepts regarding stage space enhanced at the Bauhaus Theater Studio by Oskar Schlemmer. Within Total Theater, Groupis would incorporate his own view about traditional theatric architecture and conceptual innovations that were taking place since the end of the nineteenth century, such as active audience participation or the diffusing limits between scene and audience, establishing a new perception relationship between auditorium, performance and audience, improving the feeling of immersion through the use of physics, optics and acoustics, creating a concentric energy capable of spreading in all directions. Total Theater would be one of the first example in which, from the beginning of the Project, image is combined as a communicating element with the spatial configuration. As a premise of development, new stage arrangement would have the capacity of transformation, both perceptive and physically. During the second half or the twentieth century, the creation of investigation centers such as CAVS (Center for Advanced Visual Studies, 1967) or EAT (Experiments in Art and Technology, 1966), would help to the interdisciplinary collaboration between art and science, involving technology companies like Siemens, HP, IBM or Philips, providing technical and economic support to the development of new systems. This interdisciplinary collaboration would give room to a series of spatial interventions which would have visibility in some Universal Exhibitions. The result would be, in most cases, the creation of immersive character spaces, where a symbiotic relationship would be stablished between space, image, sound and audience. The new location of the audience in the middle of the display, together with the dynamic arrangement of sound and image would create a particular, no lineal narrative conceived to be experienced. Since the first cinema projections, the multiple screen of Eames, the spatial techniques for sound dissemination at Stockhausen or the interactive physical movement experimentation, image, motion light and sound would turn inevitably into architectural material.

Shift in speed selectivity of visual cortical neurons: A neural basis of perceived motion contrast

The perceived speed of motion in one part of the visual field is influenced by the speed of motion in its surrounding fields. Little is known about the cellular mechanisms causing this phenomenon. Recordings from mammalian visual cortex revealed that speed preference of the cortical cells could be changed by displaying a contrast speed in the field surrounding the cell’s classical receptive field. The neuron’s selectivity shifted to prefer faster speed if the contextual surround motion was set at a relatively lower speed, and vice versa. These specific center–surround interactions may underlie the perceptual enhancement of speed contrast between adjacent fields.

Bond orientational order, molecular motion, and free energy of high-density DNA mesophases.

By equilibrating condensed DNA arrays against reservoirs of known osmotic stress and examining them with several structural probes, it has been possible to achieve a detailed thermodynamic and structural characterization of the change between two distinct regions on the liquid-crystalline phase diagram: (i) a higher density hexagonally packed region with long-range bond orientational order in the plane perpendicular to the average molecular direction and (ii) a lower density cholesteric region with fluid-like positional order. X-ray scattering on highly ordered DNA arrays at high density and with the helical axis oriented parallel to the incoming beam showed a sixfold azimuthal modulation of the first-order diffraction peak that reflects the macroscopic bond-orientational order. Transition to the less-dense cholesteric phase through osmotically controlled swelling shows the loss of this bond orientational order, which had been expected from the change in optical birefringence patterns and which is consistent with a rapid onset of molecular positional disorder. This change in order was previously inferred from intermolecular force measurements and is now confirmed by 31P NMR. Controlled reversible swelling and compaction under osmotic stress, spanning a range of densities between approximately 120 mg/ml to approximately 600 mg/ml, allow measurement of the free-energy changes throughout each phase and at the phase transition, essential information for theories of liquid-crystalline states.

Alterations in energy metabolism, neuroprotection and visual signal transduction in the retina of parkinsonian, MPTP-treated monkeys

Parkinson disease is mainly characterized by the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the central nervous system, including the retina. Different interrelated molecular mechanisms underlying Parkinson disease-associated neuronal death have been put forward in the brain, including oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. Systemic injection of the proneurotoxin 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) to monkeys elicits the appearance of a parkinsonian syndrome, including morphological and functional impairments in the retina. However, the intracellular events leading to derangement of dopaminergic and other retinal neurons in MPTP-treated animal models have not been so far investigated. Here we have used a comparative proteomics approach to identify proteins differentially expressed in the retina of MPTP-treated monkeys. Proteins were solubilized from the neural retinas of control and MPTP-treated animals, labelled separately with two different cyanine fluorophores and run pairwise on 2D DIGE gels. Out of >700 protein spots resolved and quantified, 36 were found to exhibit statistically significant differences in their expression levels, of at least ±1.4-fold, in the parkinsonian monkey retina compared with controls. Most of these spots were excised from preparative 2D gels, trypsinized and subjected to MALDI-TOF MS and LC-MS/MS analyses. Data obtained were used for protein sequence database interrogation, and 15 different proteins were successfully identified, of which 13 were underexpressed and 2 overexpressed. These proteins were involved in key cellular functional pathways such as glycolysis and mitochondrial electron transport, neuronal protection against stress and survival, and phototransduction processes. These functional categories underscore that alterations in energy metabolism, neuroprotective mechanisms and signal transduction are involved in MPTPinduced neuronal degeneration in the retina, in similarity to mechanisms thought to underlie neuronal death in the Parkinson’s diseased brain and neurodegenerative diseases of the retina proper.