Palace of Public Opinions

The visitor is treated to a constantly morphing land­scape of public opinions. As the off-site public votes on issues (online), they become topics of discussion virtually represented at the site. 

The Palace of Public Opinions is an attempt to reim­agine our interaction and attitude towards political opinions. It offers a spatial and temporal interval that allows for public discussions and criticisms of political issues of the country to be generated. It serves as an interactive three dimensional diagrammatic archive of public opinions that deal with the underlying politics of the physical transformation of land and disputes over territorial ownership. The virtual space allows for the visitors to view real-time opinions. It also serves as a mass gathering space for when there are events such as an election. The visitors are encircled by the live virtual scoring process of the poll. This infrastruc­ture of public opinions is an operable representation of reality that is measured and evaluated by the citi­zens of today’s digital democratic society.

The Palace of Public Opinions, a real-time measure of public satisfaction and attitude towards the current political issues, takes on a collaborative approach in order to accumulate information which is used for observation, measurement and assessment of reality that has minimal amount of distortion and filtering. Current political status of the nation is then abstract­ed and translated into a spatial representation.

The virtual space treats human as a measuring tool to measure the values of both quantitative and qualita­tive public opinions. It aims to work as a generative platform where the matters of fact or the pragmatic reference to the real world will be observed and re­constructed as an abstraction of reality. It serves as a space where the non-pragmatic reference will be cre­ated upon. This includes the more specific interpreta­tion that is driven by culture, sophistication, emotion, imagination, or speculation. The users of the space will be able to experience this accumulative data spatially.

The project displays a symbiotic relationship between the past, the present and the future of the people, of the system and of their coexistence. Our lives inevita­bly revolve around politics either in a direct or indirect way. Since the beginning of civilization, humankind has created systems of governing where the most pow­erful entity is the one who would rule his constituents. We, the governed, rely our lives on the stability of our leader.

In recent years, social media has become influential and increasingly used in political context. Social net­work websites and blogging services become the cur­rent platform for political communication. They allow the public to actively and constantly participate not only to share information in general but also to give political opinions through the network.

In this era of digital democracy, the virtual space acts as a political communication platform that sources its data from an online infrastructure and monitors rea-time opinions of the citizens both quantitatively and qualitatively. The project speculates the working of political communication platform and how public opinions can be represented to offer access to a more transparent politics.

Data dynamically shifts as opinions are formed. Each issue is generated around the Sanphet Mahaprasat Palace. Each representation of issue is structured by two types of facts, facts about the issue and facts about the voters. The former comprises of what the is­sue is about and where it is happening in the country. The latter displays occupation and age-range which are factors necessary to know in order to understand the value of the opinions. Occupation here is classified into five sectors as follows

Primary Sector: agriculture, mining, forestry, farm­ing, grazing, hunting, fishing and quarrying.

Secondary Sector: metal working and smelting, auto­mobile production, textile production, chemical and engineering industries, aerospace mnufcturing, en­ergy utilities, shipbuilding and construction.

Tertiary Sector: retail and wholesale sales, transport and distribution, entertainment, restaurants, clerical services, media, tourism, insurance, banking, health­care and law.

Quaternary Sector: government, culture, libraries, sci­entific research, education, information technology

Quinary Sector: top executives or officials in fields as government, science, universities, nonprofit, health­care, culture and the media

The height tells how long the issue has been brought up for. The issue moves towards the center once it has been nominated by more than 50% of the eligible off-site voters.

The visualization of data within the virtual space is made possible with an aid of a digital prosthetics. A bionic contact lens becomes the tool for measurement and evaluation of public opinions, of reality. This digi­tal tool will be given to the first time eligible voter at the age of 18. It will be given out by a non-governmen­tal organization that only aims to provide public ac­cess to transparent politics. To wear it or not is up to one’s own decision.

The lens allows for the public to perceive representa­tions of opinions of their fellow citizens wherever they are in the country and to get an overall view of the country at the site. With modern scientific and tech­nological developments, we are now able to visualize and interact with live data. Yet despite these advances, this innovation is still speculative and subject to er­rors.

When we are entering into the digital age, the risk of being virtually fed with filtered information or being under government surveillance is greater than ever. The lens is, on the contrary, turning the uncertainty into an opportunity, a possibility. Instead of the gov­erning watching you, you are now watching the gov­ernment. 

The cultivation of opinions reflects the working of the nation’s political domain in its bright light of appraisal and respectively, the inevitable refusal and denial. We are assimilated to this political culture so deeply that undeniably we grumble and resent the system. Our discontents are eventually manifested in protests and mass gatherings. The Palace of Public Opinions ac­commodates public gatherings, allowing people to ex­change opinions, to make up their minds, to reassess reality.

Issues move in towards the ruins of the Sanphet Mahaprasat Palace according to current trend.

A virtual map on the sky represents current issues happening across the country.

Final Research: The Sanphet Mahaprasat Palace, Ayutthaya, Thailand

Drawing of the Sanphet Mahaprasat in the past based on the hypothesis of Dr.Santi Leksukhum,  the replica of the palace at Muang Boran (Ancient City) and information and documents from the Ayutthaya Research Center and the Fine Arts Department in Ayutthaya.

Ruins of The Sanphet Mahaprasat Palace, 2013

 The Sanphet Maprasat Palace is situated within the boundary of the Ayutthaya Royal Palace. The Royal Palace was divided into three distinct areas, the front or the outer, the middle and the rear or the inner. The Sanphet Maprasat is one of the three halls that is located in the middle area.


The The Sanphet Maprasat was built in the reign of King Borommatrailokanat. It was one of the most important structures of the whole Ayutthaya kingdom. It was used for royal purposes such as receiveing ambassadors from foreign countries.

Ruins of The Sanphet Mahaprasat Palace, 2013

It was also used for other purposes. Coronations of significant kings Autthaya, including Phra Phetracha, Phra Chao Sua, Phra Chao Ekathat, Phra Chao Uthumphon, took place here. It also hold the tonsure ceremony during the reign of Phra Phetracha.

The Sanphet Mahaprasat Palace signifies the centralization of power, the power that the monarch holds supreme authority in governing the nation. The architecture of the building symbolizes religious beliefs. The five-tiered roof symbolizes Mount Meru which is the place where the gods reside, and the belief in the idea of the Hindu and Buddhist cosmology. The kings had divine power and were considered an avatar of god, the incarnation of the Vishnu, or more commonly known in Thai as Narayana, the supreme god that preserves, sustains and governs the universe.

Significant events that happened during the time mainly revolved around the aspects of conflicts, trading and foreign settlements. These issues deal with territory, land use, land ownership and transformation of land which have great impacts on the development of the nation. During Ayutthaya period, the Portuguese came and built their quarter, churches and trading stations on a plot of land that was allocated by the king as opposed to the Dutch whose interests laid solely in trading. Their soldiers served the kings of Ayutthaya in exchange for trade privileges. The French’s advancement in technology was applied to the design and construction of fortifications and city walls while the English did not fare very well and had bad relations with the country. The power of Ayutthaya was also challenged by both the internal and external conflicts. Good political relationship with the Portuguese and the Dutch resulted in them volunteering to help serve Ayutthaya in various uprisings. These issues have great impacts on the development of the nation.

Animated Thoroughfare Diagram

(The voice-over is not yet a proper recording)

Revised Storyboard

Here I have rearranged the sequence of the storyboard from the beginning to the end. I have also included the revised narratives that should match with the thesis that I am now working on. Texts that are in blue are those that I do not have a clear script for yet. I will measure how much time each narrative takes and will animate the diagrams accordingly.

Storyboard of presentation video

This is the storyboard showing the sequence of the final presentation video. The Virtual Pavilion has not yet been included as I am still deciding where and when it should be mentioned to make a coherent presentation.

Diagram update

This is additional research that leads towards the choice of topics that will be covered within the virtual space which deals primarily with land use. The diagram represents the link between different issues related land use (circled with brown) and international relations during Ayutthaya which symbolize power and security of the kingdom.

There will be another diagram that will derive from this diagram. It will cover how the issue of land use is integrated with the three pillars of sustainability i.e. environmental, economic and social sustainability.

Project Mindmap

Update

Isometric Drawing of the Sanphet Mahaprasat Palace

The color of the tree has been changed to magenta to correspond with other information that tells the present apart from the past. I have also added annotations to better describe the drawing. However, I think some of the information here is not correct (names of the people). I will look into the research and fix it accordingly.

Video test: camera tracking

Sanphet Mahaprasat ISO drawing update

 Here's an update on the ISO drawing of the Sanphet Mahaprasat Palace. The past and the present states of the structure are overlaying one another. Part of the palace has been taken away in order to show its constructions, interior as well as activities that happened within the building. On the other hand, the ruins of the palace can be spotted within magenta outlines.

These historical figures above will be placed according to their position based on this diagram translated from the book "Du royaume de Siam", written by Simon de la Louber (A French diplomat who led an embassy to Siam in 1687).

I'll work on how the surrounding context would be represesnted on the drawing and also on how different ground levels can be shown and easily understood.

Sri Sanphet Maha Prasat Throne Hall: isometric drawing progress

Sri Sanphet Maha Prasat Throne Hall

Ruin of Sri Sanphet Maha Prasat Throne Hall

The Sanphet Mahaprasad Throne Hall: initial idea

The Sanphet Maprasad Throne Hall is a representation of (past) reality. The existence of the Throne Hall signifies the centralization of power. Reality (of that time) was imposed and represented through the design of the building. The Architecture defines spatial boundary which informs a sense of hierachy.

In order to get into the core of how the architecture of the Sanphet Mahaprasad Throne Hall is a representation of Hierachy and Power of the King, the basic of how the structure was built will be the first thing the user experiences.

The virtual space will therefore serve as a generative platform where users and the space interact with each other. The space will act as an archive that allows for contribution and exchange of subjective information.

The user will reconstruct(speculate) the Sanphet Maprasad Throne Hall by extrapolating from what is existed at the site which in this case very little is present (compared to other ruins).

When the visitor first approaches the site, he or she will first learn about the structure of the Throne hall (which is also the structure of the whole system of power). Visitors would contribute to the speculation of reality by first extruding the height of the columns. The visitor extrapolates his vision according to his previous knowledge that columns would stand up from the ground.

Morever, another factor that may inform the decision will be introduces. This factor is the public opinion. The space is for accumulation of subjective data. So, what the previous user extrapolates (subjective data) will be recorded and revealed as the next visitors extrapolate their speculation (eg. height of column). This data (other) could be influential to later visitors and how they would speculate their vision. (eg. Most popular opinion doesn't mean it is the right answer. Thus, it's up to each person how he would measure the weight of those opinions.)

Extrusion of column

The opacity/number tells how many people have the same opinion as you.

White is when the visitor's speculation is closest to how it was in the past.

The most accepted representation of the Sanphet Maprasad Throne Hall will then later be revealed. In this phase, the interface will allow the users to experience the space spatially by choosing to become the character that was associated with the Sanphet Maprasad Throne Hall (King/nobleman/foreign ambassador) --- Visitors will experience the sense of how architecture defines hierachy.

The Virtual Space of Extrapolated Realities

The Virtual Space of Extrapolated Realities

The virtual space is created for the users to explore the concept of extrapolation of analogical realities. It allows for an immersive experience of perceiving different definitions of reality as being the Thing and the Counterthing, including both the matters of fact and the matters of concern.

All the information about the Thing and the Counterthing has been set as design parameters of the virtual space.They are symbolic representation of collected data to communicate information regarding both the Thing and the Counterthing. In this case, the grammar represents time, space, individuals, socio-politics, historical context, as well as what the Thing and the Counterthing do and how they perform.

The video illustrates the experience of a visitor of the proposed Virtual Space. The visitor first explores the matters of fact of the Thing/Counterthing before expereincing how the tools perform as if he, himslef, is the tools. This aims to guide the visitors to explore different qualities of information related to each tool. The visitor then examines the virtual representations of reality as processed by both tools. This stage of the experience shows both the matters of concern and the matters of fact as data collected in different formats represented as coordinates on map and point clouds.

Virtual Pavilion Update

This is the colors I've decided to go with. Below is the updated sketchfab model. Not all the materials show. And I'm using dark background so the white wireframes are visible. In the actual Virtual Pavilion, the background color will still change according to each specific event.

Test Renderings

These are the test renderings I made. The difference between the original and the altered realities are too subtle. I'm going to make changes in the color choices and maybe use colors that are not so natural and brighter for the landscape to make it stand out from the other reality. I will also try playing with transparency.

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Virtual Pavilion Update

These wireframe people will be placed in specific events to tell their historical context (eg. in 1873 to portray Modernization of the country.).

The landscape has been adjusted to accommodate information of both the matter of facts and the matter of concerns for the Thing and the Counterthing.

This is an example of what the viewer's perspective would be like (fixed position at (0,0) ). However, it will have to cover more of the vertical angle. Specific colors will be assigned to certain areas and objects of the virtual pavilion according to time, matter of facts, matter of concerns for both the Thing and the Counterthing.

The plane of Virtual Representation (the white grid) of the Thing has been moved upward and has contour lines of the landscape projected on. It can now be viewed without the visitor having to move to 'another room'. The Virtual Representation or in this case, the 'map' can be viewed  all at once by looking up from the ground plane. The pink lines mark the points or coordinates that were measured by the Thing from Reality to its Virtual Representation (Landscape to map).

Visitor's Perspective

Visitor's Perspective