Closer

There is a room that is just like any other.  It has a ceiling and four walls and an entrance.  The faces of the walls are sheets of drywall that have been attached to the wooden two by fours that form the room's structure.  Every surface inside is painted white -- the white of the walls of a new apartment.  The space inside is small, but big enough to fit a mattress.  The room stands alone in a behemoth space.  Upon approaching the room, the exterior walls are visible, also painted white.  The roof is just over eight feet high.  There is a doorway with no door.  The room's interior emits a dim white glow that shines out through the doorway and draws a person in.  The person has a moment to observe the room.  Then the room starts to change.  The white glow becomes more intense and the space inside the room shrinks.  The wall opposite the doorway slowly moves towards the doorway.  The room's light brightens and its volume decreases gradually until both processes simultaneously reach a maximum point.  This leaves the person in a space that is much smaller and lighter than the one he or she entered.  There is a moment to observe. The person then empties the room, back into the larger outside space, as the room slowly dims and gets larger.
Plan of a room The construction of this room is like any other.  Anyone who sees the room associates it with nothing besides the fact that it is a room.  The room's size, color, and materials conform to the definition of "room" for anyone living in the Western world within the past fifty years.  This room is an installation at an upcoming art exhibit in Chelsea, but it could be anywhere.  It has no external references and it is not culturally or historically rooted to its location -- it is generic and self-contained.  The process by which this type of room has grown to be interpreted as "generic" is described by J.B. Jackson in Landscape in Sight.  The designs responsible for such rooms can be traced back to the International style of architecture.  This early 20th century style is rooted in "a desire to create pure geometrical forms ... independent of the past, independent of earth and of life."  As the style became more popular, it spawned an abundance of cheap knock-offs which comprise the majority of buildings we encounter in daily life.  Now the layman is accustomed to the visual language of this style.  We see so much of the same white painted drywall in our lives that we never stop to think of anything about it as odd or unusual.
Jackson goes on to critique this phenomenon.  He notes that "real American buildings have a purpose different than that suggested by the theories of modern architects.  They are required to sell goods, to establish social position, to inspire confidence, to impress or elevate or excite."  The buildings of the International style do none of this because they are "intended to serve a very heterogeneous public."  Contrary to vernacular, or "real American," architecture, Modernist architecture simply provides a blank slate upon which any type of activity can take place.  In doing so, the International style is more concerned with form than function.  The main formal criteria of a Modernist space is not to be conducive to any sort of specific human activity, it is to be clean, minimal, geometric, etc.  Jackson argues that Modernist spaces "are free to be works of art.  They are undeniably beautiful; but they are not architecture.  They cannot be thought of as true expressions of domestic or communal life.  They have been inspired less by a desire to accommodate existence as we know it than by an almost fanatic rationalism."
The room previously described, although it conforms to some version of Modernist ideals, does not function as architecture.  It is architectural in its form, but it is not forcing anyone to use it beyond its intended purpose as an art installation. No one has to come and sit in this room from nine to five every day; its only purpose is to be itself -- an interactive sculpture. In this sense, by only functioning as art, the room compliments Jackson's criticism that Modernism excels as an art form where it falls short as an architectural style.
One of art's main functions is, arguably, to elicit an emotional response from the viewer. This room highlights that function with its interactive component. The viewer assumes he or she is entering a room -- an architectural space with a practical function. When the room is "activated" by the viewer's motion, it warrants the opportunity for an aesthetic and cognitive response from the viewer. In Existence, Location, and Function: The Appreciation of Architecture, Allen Carlson writes that "essential to aesthetic appreciation is active engagement, involving cognitive and emotional interaction between the appreciator and the object of appreciation...the latter explicitly or implicitly poses certain questions or problems and the former finds the answers or solutions. This process of realizing...employs the imagination so as to produce that unique combination of admiration and awe that is central to aesthetic experience." (197) Following this general framework for the process by which an object or a space can influence a viewer's mental state, the room engages the viewer by altering its light and physical volume. This triggers a "cognitive and emotional interaction" which prompts a cognitive and emotional response from the viewer. Any space or place has the ability to call up such a response, but the room's interactivity "emphasizes, rather than ignores, its functionality" (200) in order to evoke a response. The room alone would not be enough to force a response because it is too commonplace.
By employing a minimum of decoration and materials, the space describes a simplified version of the relationship between people and any other place. Because there is little to no information about the room's origin, history, context, or any use of unusual materials, it becomes solely about the space's physical transformation, and the viewer's experience in the space, not about the space itself. Instead of wondering about the physical qualities of the room, the viewer can focus on its function as an emotionally evocative, immersive environment.
The minimal nature of this installation allows it to be interpreted in a number of different ways. It can elicit feelings of claustrophobia or anxiety about the physical surroundings. As a new and unusual experience, it can also cause a cognitive reaction of excitement and curiosity. The viewer is free to use his or own cognitive style to interpret the space and its transformation. In the end, it is not paramount that the viewer feel or think a specific thing, it is merely intended that he or she think or feel something.

The installation is on view from March 12th to April 11th on 10th avenue between 20th and 21st street.

Works Cited:
Carlson, Allen. Aesthetics and the Environment: The Appreciation of Nature, Art and Architecture. Routledge, 2002. Google Scholar. .

Location