Our massive multitouch table for the marine science cluster „The Future Ocean” will be shown in the German Museum in Munich from 23th March to 30th August 2010.
The exhibition which contains the Future Ocean Explorer  is about the questions and answers of the maritime sciences again and we designed some new and impressive graphics for the walls and banners. You will find the exhibition in the „Center New Technologies” which is the latest extension of the huge German Museum, the world’s largest museum of technology and science.

Until now this is the longest period the Ocean Explorer has to perform and we (especially Chris Engler) developed some advanced features to maintain the table by internet connection and added some automatic setups.
So if you haven’t seen the beauty yet it’s time to make your way to the south. As you know, the Deutsches Museum is always worth a visit, too.

→ Deutsches Museum Munich
→ Future Ocean Explorer by iin

Greta Gröttrups large video projection on the façade of the opera building in Kiel won the Dr. Hans Hoch Award for media art 2010.
Greta created the concept for this work as her diploma in communication and interaction design and i am very glad for both: That the creation has been implemented with the support of chiffren, forum for contemporary music, in November 2009 and now for the distinction of the Schleswig-Holstein media award 2010. Well done, Mrs. Greatrupp!
Greta has also a smart documentation of the project online where the concept and artwork is explained. So have a look behind the façades and contact her if you got something similar large to project on.

→ Lucent Lines Project Website

Until April 11 2010 the V&A museum in London showcases latest developments in digital and interactive design. The exhibition explores three themes: Code, interactivity and network. I haven’t seen the exhibition yet, but I have experienced Mark Hansens and Ben Rubins „Listening Post” which is one of the exhibits and at the same time one of my all time favorite digital installations.  It is an impressive visualization of today’s communication overflow but in an ruminant and melanchilic disposition. Exclusively to relive this artwork again is worth a visit of the exhibition.

→ V&A exhibition site
→ Listening Post

Fourteen months and 1394 photographs later after the birth of my lovely son I am ready to continue the d-load blog. What a different year…

The intention for this new season is to watch and filter upcoming technologies and developments in information/interaction design and media architecture. I hope this time I will find more time for continuous writing. We will see…

interior interactive is the new network which we established for further collective works. Founder members of iin are Chris Engler from wirmachenbunt, Manfred Schulz (MS Design & Architecture) and of course d-load.

The ambition of iin is to offer the members combined competence to implement projects in the field of digital media and spartial/exhibition design.

The site is still in development, but have a look at our new project, a multitouch-table named OceanExplorer.

Nico Uthe and Bastian Böhm, two students at Muthesius Academy of Arts and participators of my ”360° experiment” seminar won the ‘Best of Show’ award at the Domefest 2008 in Chicago. For the first time ever a student production won the desirable first prize, congratulations to them!
Their 360° - Shortfilm „Sciafobia” is a quotation to the 60ties main title aesthetics and tells the story of a person taking refuge from his own shadow. I linked the 4:3 version which gives of course only a small impression of the fulldome experience.

In our studies and researches at Muthesius Academy we are developing concepts of immersive media and new ideas for the expanded cinema. In my opinion, immersive media does not inevitably mean supernaturalistic renderings and highlevel cumputergraphics. We also did this in the science fiction persiflage „Alien Action”, but it is more important how to use the 360° projection for new kinds of dramaturgy. Unusual narratives and an artistic stage setting are more crucial to get the audience involved than massive effects and fancy multimedia fireworks. Also at the dome, fresh content is king. This is my personal interpretation of 2008 Domefest results and we are very glad to be on the right path.
„Sciafobia” uses that principles in an elaborated way, the reduced graphical images generate endless horizons (the train-scene) like there isn’t a 360° projection but a superhuge videowall with no ends. The movie is a perfect quote to Saul Bass’ graphical style of the 60ties main title trailers and the swinging beat gives a lot of dynamics and good vibrations to the image. Perfectly done, Nico and Bastian!

More on fulldome productions:
→ Immersive Media
→ ICH² - experimental fulldome dance performance

This book written by Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cloe Phillips is a very fresh and contemporary look on how print an interactive graphic design influences each other. And what also makes this book different: It is not only a lookbook with stunning images but a lecture book which draws the connection from classical bauhaus compositions to generative media and visualization methods of complex structures, including Casy Rear’s processing artwork. Five stars for that manifesto of digital modernism.

→ www.gdbasics.com

A highlight in the 2007 exhibitions was „Vom Funken zum Pixel” (From spark to pixel) at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin. Richard Castelli, who curated the exhibition, has combined a impressive collection of digital media art works from various decades. Most of the works are refelxions about electricity and light, for example Christian Partos’ impressive rotating installation ”Visp“. It consists of 5000 LED’s controlled by a computer an is very hypnotizing.

But the installation which impressed me most was ”Ondulation”, a composition for water, light and sound designed by Thomas McIntosh in collaboration with the composer Emmanuel Madan and Mikko Hynninen.

In a room plunged into darkness, concentric waves go all over a huge pool. Intuitively, the visitor understands that the surrounding sounds, the movements on water surface and the light waves on the wall are closely connected. The installation is subtle and contemplative, the experience is startling: it seems possible to see the sound and hear the image.

→ www.ondulation.net

In the last few years some concepts and architectural artworks have been developed regarding to intelligent walls and responsive environments.

HeHe Association: LightBrix (2001)
LightBrix is a modular light system that responds to touch: through the electromagnetic fields of the human body. The hexagonal units can be assembled in any shape and modulated to compose multiple lighting situations. Light Brix is architecture composed by light.
→ hehe.org

Jason Bruges: Art Wall (2005)
Jason Bruges Studio implemented several LED and projection wall like the Art Wall in Covent Garden at the boardroom of the Live Five television channel . It is an interactive wall which artistically interpretes a number of different feeds. The inputs inlclude movement through the room and a Live Five programme transmission.
→ jasonbruges.com

Studio Roosegaarde: 4D-Pixel (2004)
4D-Pixel is a smart surface which physically reacts to your voice, music and shows relievo letters. This interactive sculpture is a merging of electromagnetics, software and electronics. The dynamic of the wall is made of hundreds of pixels which react on the dynamic in soundfrequencies.
→ studioroosegaarde.net

SmartSlab
Not an specific artwork, but a modular interactive system for diverse uses of large scale LED projections.
→ smartslab.co.uk

Electronic Shadow: Fiac Luxe! (2006)
Electronic Shadow played at taking images out of the frame or screen so visitors could step into them. The theme of this iconoclastic installation was the “idea garden”: its walls and floors came alive with dream visions that alternated with scenes from an idealized Paris, revisited using graphics techniques.
→ electronicshadow.com

Since 2003 I am tracking the projects of the london based interactive design group UnitedVisualArtists (UVA). They did the impressive Massive Attack 100th Window live visuals and projections, beaming the mood and atmosphere of the massive-website created by HiRes! onto the stage.
UVA continued to invent extraordinary installations, using light as their main creative element.
For the latest project UVA were commissioned by the ICA as part of their 60th anniversary celebrations to produce a special one-off live collaboration with The Chemical Brothers in Trafalgar Square. UVA created a set of generative, realtime graphics which can be viewed at YouTube.