Speaking of designing exhibits about design, here is a great short video by Walker Art Center about their current exhibition, Graphic Design: Now In Production. It features curator Ellen Lupton from the Cooper-Hewitt, design director Andrew Blauvelt from the Walker … and lots of installation imagery of the exhibit itself. Just in time, too: the show closes on January 22.
chicago-based visual artist christopher baker’s video installation ‘hello world! or: how i learned to stop listening and love the noise’ is now on display at the duke of york square screening room at london’s saatchi gallery. the artist’s massive video-graphical work consisting of 5,000 video diaries projected upon a wall within the gallery space. the personal video collection of ‘hello world’ was compiled through the use of online self-produced video archive resources such as youtube. … in the gallery space the observer may interact with the soundscape in two distinct ways: he/she may focus in upon an individual voice or get lost in the rumble of the thousands of video diaries on display. in this way, the at-once singular and overwhelming quality to baker’s work is consistent with human sentiment towards the internet and democratic, modern media.
Mogees, an experimental interface design by Bruno Zamborlin and Norbert Schnell, creates a gestural interface out of any hard surface using a simple microphone (attached to something we never quite see in the demo video, but it’s great anyway). Um, yeah, but … huh? In Zamborlin’s words:
Through gesture recognition techniques we detect different kind of fingers-touch and associate them with different sounds. In the video we used two different audio synthesis techniques:
- physic modelling, which consists in generating the sound by simulating physical laws;
- concatenative synthesis (audio mosaicing), in which the sound of the contact microphone is associated with its closest frame present in a sound database.
Riiight. Anyway, it seems like a powerful idea and if it works, expect to see (or hear) more on Mogees.
I hear this project, Lumarca, is better in person than in video, and it’s already pretty good as a video. But how the #@%& does it work with just one projector? Get the soon-to-be-released DIY kit and see for yourself, apparently. From the artists:
Lumarca is a truly volumetric display which allows viewers to see three dimensional images and motion. The system requires only a computer, a projector, and common materials found at most hardware stores. This provides an affordable platform for artists to design compelling content that conveys information, narrative, and aesthetic information in a new way. Lumarca is a collaboration between Albert Hwang, Matt Parker, and Elliot Woods.
What would you pay to help create a new interactive sound installation about something meaningful? Indie Go-Go, the project-funding site (a competitor of Kickstarter), has a project you might be interested in: “Resolution” by Stephanie Andreou. Her campaign is worthwhile and her video is informative. Worth watching, worth donating. (Link to the campaign after the jump.)
Speaking of virtual museums, “Road Inc.” is a new iPad app from Pyrolia in France. One reviewer has apparently said “Road Inc. is the closest thing you’ll find to a dynamic museum exhibition [in an iPad, I assume] and some of the best proof that there is life beyond coffee table books.” I’ve heard similar claims before, so I wasn’t optimistic. But this time, there may be cause for optimism.
I paid $4.99, downloaded it, and went through a few cars. (As their blurb says: “The first digital object dedicated to the automobile, Road Inc. comes with 50 iconic models to unveil.”) It comes with a Ferrari “exhibit” preloaded. The rest require individual waits for downloads, but they don’t take long, and otherwise that first download would take most of the day.
This frankly gorgeous app is utterly packed with interesting content of all kinds, from original studio photography to historic schematics to essays. And it’s full of little touches. Three of my favorites: you can choose what order you use to walk through this “museum”: sorted by type (racer, supercar, etc.), price (from 7,000 to yikes, 55,000,000), or (ha!) speed (from 15.6 to 254 mph). When you download a new car, you get to whisk off a little virtual tarpaulin to unveil it. And, at least for the ones I’ve done so far, you can listen to what the car sounds like when it accelerates. That all might not be the same as the real thing, but $4.99 is a little more in my price range than, let’s say, $2,100,000 (for a Pagani Zonda). More on “Road Inc.” after I have visited the whole “museum” but my initial visit made me smile.
Google and JC Decaux have collaborated to create a new permanent interactive exhibit on the future of the city of Paris at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal. My, that’s a lot of screens.
PLOT has some good images of the new Military History Museum in Dresden (Germany). Daniel Libeskind was the architect (as you might expect from the images), and exhibits were done by two firms: HG Merz and Holzer Kobler.
I am told a Norwegian scent artist named Sissel Tolaas created an essence that is the “smell of death” for the museum. I’ll, er, just leave that one and move on. Here is an English version of the text over on PLOT, in case you click your way there (courtesy of Google Translate, all trademark odd turns of phrase theirs alone):
With over 10,000 square feet of space, all designed by HG Merz and Holzer Kobler architectures include new permanent exhibition in the Military History Museum Dresden probably the largest of its kind – not only in Germany. It aims on dialogue classical and unusual perspectives. The two museum designers tap into memorable imagery a new, cross-company access to the complex topic.
“It is clear from the beginning, what will be the basic idea of the museum, the Military Group should only be limited to give much pleasure. Change of perspective”, feels and Stefan Schirmer (Schirmer, Stefan: So the war. In: THE TIME No. 41, 06.10.2011, p. 21). First of all, however, is clear that the issue goes into their design both a symbiotic relationship with the classical old building and the wedge-shaped building by Daniel Libeskind: Sun shows the chronology of the building – structured as a timeline – the story of the German military. The space showcases meandering present selected historical objects in shop windows. The course topics in the new building on the other hand wants to touch the emotions of the visitors. Therefore, the exhibition dealt with individual aspects of different epochs and phenomena of the military, which affect the sustainable society. Walk-in installations, the thematic content is translated effectively into associative images. But not only media stations produce memorable images: The olfaktoriche perception is sharpened: the Norwegian scent artist Sissel Tolass an essence that is the smell of death and the visitors while opening a flap developed the beating.
The naturally-acting blend of exhibition space objects creates a unique museum architecture and presentation of the history of the military as part of our culture. Link as an additional image plane of contemporary media art and space exhibits.
I don’t really need any more proof that the Dutch can out-design us all. But if I did, I could refer to Engaging Spaces: Exhibition Design Explored, a new monograph by Amsterdam “exhibition architects” Kossman.dejong. The book is big, and so are the ideas in it. Highly recommended.
The images I’ve seen of this Design Miami installation by London-based rAndom International are hard to put out of my mind. The video speaks for itself. It’s lovely. (Note to self: hire modern dancer for next portfolio shoot.) And apparently all it took was:
1064 warm white Philips Lumiblade OLEDs, black custom circuit board back plane, aluminium suspension, custom driver software, camera based motion tracking system, custom motion tracking software by Chris O’Shea, computer, iPod touch remote control
Designed by English designer Dominic Harris from the studio Cinimod, here is the project “DJ Light”. It is an outdoor installation that allows the public to participate through movement: they conduct a light and sound space made of 85 balloons.
Fantastic: these wry dioramas by photographer Lori Nix have been reappearing on the web for a few years now, but I like them more every time they force me to look twice. Back in 2007, Cool Hunting went behind the scenes with Nix to see how (and why) she does her dioramas. Video below.
Explorations of new developments in exhibit design, museum planning and interactive space by Jonathan Alger, co-founder of the design firm C&G Partners.
