The video of my diploma project is online:

HD version on Vimeo

More details on the project page.

Julius von Bismarck did one of the most stunning projects I’ve seen for a long time - the Image Fulgerator. He describes as as follows:

“The Image Fulgurator is a device for physically manipulating photographs. It intervenes when a photo is being taken, without the photographer being able to detect anything. The manipulation is only visible on the photo afterwards.
In principle, the Fulgurator can be used anywhere where there is another camera nearby that is being used with a flash. It operates via a kind of reactive flash projection that enables an image to be projected on an object exactly at the moment when someone else is photographing it.”

See the Image Fulgerator, and very irritated people in action:

via rrrr at vvvv

or: Ben van Berkel meets meso. Portikus/Frankfurt 2007.

ampop during the setup

In the last month I was part of a really nice project here in Frankfurt. Let’s start with some official words:
“Ben van Berkel & the Theatre of Immanence is a combined art and architectural exhibition wherein the different parts in the exhibition are synthesised into a complete whole. The exhibition stages a theatre or space of communication: communication between the visitors and the exhibited works, between the virtual and the real, between the different visitors in the gallery and between the different parts in the exhibition. Throughout its period, the architectural installation will serve as a hub for various events including lectures, art performances, and hosted talks with invited guests, DJ-sessions that are to be broadcast and more.”

Our part was developing a solution for projecting on the piece of architecture, and developing and implementing the interaction. We created a vvvv application which enables us to use the 3dimensional surface for our projections in a very comfortable way, and allows to using more than typical 2d content but also things like volumetric textures and virtual lights. We called it “a case study in augmented architecture”. It is an attempt to create a reactive surface of extraordinary spatial complexity.
The interaction works over the internet - you can try it here (only when the exhibition is opened).
The exhibition ends on January 13th.

Some of my photos made during the setup (that’s why the projections are not fitting perfectly!):

official post at meso.net / official site Portikus / review art-magazin (german) / review transform-magazine (click “interior”)

Ok that’s a lie. Due to acute lack of time it’s actually not a review, but I can tell you that it’s over and it was great. Turin is a lovely city, and the festival itself had a very personal atmosphere and was on a high level concerning the contents. Thanks a lot for the invitation to Nada and ToDo.

And here some photos of mine, but also have a look at the the official ones!

Dazed Digital did a nice behind the scene coverage about three studios/artists from London, working primarily with light. Enjoy listening to the people who did great projects, but be aware of a very bad sound quality:
United Visual Artists (Website), Jason Bruges Studio (Website), David Batchelor.

via interactive architecture (thanks for being back at business finally!)

A nice name for a nice project:
Defetto and his mates from Italy created a very powerful Wii application using vvvv and max. It’s a music and visuals application, using the Wii and Nunchuck for triggering and modifying various samples. Best have a look at the great documentation at de.posi.to/wiiwiiwiiwii/

It’s always fascinating if a new technology is functioning highly intuitive, that also babies are able to use it. I actually avoided blogging about the iPhone, but watching this 2 year old girl navigating through the interface is really interesting for interaction creators:
Could be a very good viral ad as well, but nevertheless, it simply works.

Oh, it’s set as private now. What you can’t see right now is this 2 year old girl navigating through the menu. She perfectly understands the back button and features such as sliding through photos. She also is able to navigate to the music player when she’s told to do.

reminds me of: 22 month old Wii gamer

Back from a way too short stay in Barcelona, I’m still filled with energy from this lovely city, and especially from the Sonar2007 - the exhibition there was quite impressive!
The installation which surprised me most was “delicate boundaries” from Chris Sugrue (currently working at Eyebeam): A tft screen in a black room shows nothing except white grubs. When (almost) touching it, some grubs are slowly searching their way to the hand and start to detach themselves from the screen and continue walking on the hand (enabled by projections from above). A way to play with technology people really seemed to like a lot.

More short reviews and of course photos coming up in the next couple of days.

Moving Brands and Chris O’Shea (blog) created an impressive installation for the launch of new KEF speakers. A 10×5 m LED screen was set up in the Sala del Cenacolo in Milan, which reacts to the given audio signal in a very organic way. The way the animation behaves fits the speaker’s design perfectly - and especially the reflections in the object itself are awesome!

see official documentation
flickr galleries: 1, 2, 3
and a quickie on youtube

update: Chris O’Shea published a documentation on his website.

via toxi.in.process

Interactive artist Daniel Rozin’s work is focussed on mirrors. I especially like his mechanical mirrors, where he creates pixel grids out of real life’s primitives. In the picture above he uses shiny balls, but he also tried it out with wood or trash. A simple principle causing fascinating effects.

Reminds me of: ugly betty mirror
via accentfeed