The Denison Archway - Time/Space Project

The Denison Archway - Video Link

For this project, I chose to investigate the interior of the Denison Archway, which serves as an entrance to the Diag.  I chose this location because I pass through it nearly every day while walking to class, so I was intrigued as to how it might change with the passage of time.  Initially, I hoped to investigate the functionality of the archway, but as I shot videos, I discovered that the changes of light and sound were even more interesting.  

An interesting dynamic I observed was the change in interior lighting of the archway from day to night.  During the day, only the two entrances of the archway are highlighted by a soft, natural light, while the center is rather dark.  The gradual influx of light highlights very few features, giving the arch a softer materiality.  At night, the entire interior of the passage way is illuminated by bright, artificial lights.  These artificial lights truly emphasize every aspect of the archway’s interior; sharp, dark shadows are created and every “nook and cranny” can be seen.  This lighting creates more of a hard materiality.  Something that I hadn’t given much thought to until night time was the vaulted ceiling.  The contrast between the red brick and the grey vaults is truly brought out by the artificial light; I hadn’t noticed how nice the vaults looked until night time.  I thought it was very interesting that the lighting of the arch’s interior seems to be almost contradictory: it’s lit up at night and dark during the day.  This is especially noticeable when comparing the two time-lapses in my video.  Another interesting dynamic I observed is that reflections are created in the window glass during the day but not at night.  

My other main focus while examining this archway was the sound.  As audible in the video, there is a lot of “white noise” during both the day and night.  This is presumably because the archway shields the interior from exterior noises.  Also, during both the day and night, the arch has great acoustics; it amplified most noises and created many echoes.  While there seemed to be more activity and noise during the day (bikers, skateboarders, walkers) the noises seemed to be louder at night.  This becomes evident during the part of the video where the girl is walking in high heels: her footsteps are loud and create sharp echoes.  Noises seem louder in the archway at night likely because there are not as many people out.  Overall, every aspect of the interior of the archway seemed more evident and more interesting at night.