Multisensory exhibition and mediation concept

For the first time, a large exhibition offered the opportunity for a sensual and cognitive examination of the dancing human being. The aesthetic mediation principle used the narrative power of original texts, notations, images, graphics, sculptures, textiles and digital artifacts from the past and present of dance.

Trail of knowledge

A trail of knowledge followed intellectual paths from the ancient statue of Nike to the sculptural work of Camille Claudel, from Emil Nolde’s paintings to Andreas Gursky’s photography, from ritual tribal dances to current experiments by William Forsythe. The traces of the moving human body formed the design principle from which various zones of rest and activity developed on 1,200 square meters of exhibition space. Visitors were guided by visible and invisible lines of force that encouraged them to actively perceive, reflect, marvel and participate. In addition to numerous pictorial and sculptural artifacts, a cinematic event developed on over 70 monitors, from which all visitors could discover the cross-cultural temporal and spatial continuity of dance.

“The present is the sensation.” Paul Valery

“Video dance! How we move ourselves and the world by DHMDresden

Dance track

At the same time, the dance track led from a choreography of larger-than-life haptically movable balls to interactive spatial installations that combined aesthetic and auditory experiences with diverse movement experiences. Multi-sensory spatial installations challenged all visitors to dance, allowing people of all ages to physically experience and remember the essence of dance.

Cooperation Interactions: Schnellebuntebilder Berlin

German Hygiene Museum
Lingnerplatz 1,
, 01069 Dresden

Exhibition period: October 2013 – July 2014

Curator:Colleen M. Schmitz, Deutsches Hygiene-Museum

Artistic direction (mediation and design): Prof. Dr. Axel Buether (team responsible: exhibition architecture: Büroberlin, animations and interaction: Schnellebuntebilder, graphic design: Timo Rieke)

Project partners:

Forsythe Company
Hellerau – European Center for the Arts
Palucca University of Dance
Semperoper Dresden

Der Beitrag More than 100,000 visitors to the “Dance! How we move ourselves and the world” erschien zuerst auf Farbpsychologie.

The experts from the respective disciplines (e.g. neurobiological basics, storytelling, screenplay, visual effects, auto alignment, stitching, projection technology; hardware) will present the current state of research, applications and prospects for the areas of marketing, education, entertainment and medical applications. The reference book closes the gap between developments that are taking place and publications that are scarce and barely linked.

Link to the publisher 360lab.net

Preview of the book contribution “Spatial thinking and the brain”

The technical, content-related and dramaturgical potential of 360° projections opens up a space for experimentation in which we can create more realistic and fantastic worlds and present and solve more complex problems than with any previously known audiovisual media. The spherical projection of information gives us a descriptive language system that comes far closer to the processing of spatial-visual data in the brain than the standard image formats available. This enables us to express all sensually experienced and cognitively recognized environmental relationships much better than before in a descriptive and auditory way. Even if I have to limit myself to the visual potential in this article, the common structures between the language of words and the language of images are intended to encourage the use of synergies and promote the legibility of our messages. The information potential of 360° projections will therefore have an impact on our communication behavior, the design of our environment  and our intelligence development to the extent that we succeed in understanding the associated sensory-physiological and cognitive requirements and translating them into practical life applications.

Link to the publisher’s page “Springer Science+Business Media”

Der Beitrag Fullspace projection 360°- Spatial thinking and the brain erschien zuerst auf Farbpsychologie.

Concept light painting

More than 3,000 visitors to Kugulu Park sent polychromatic light pulses into the room using auditory signals such as sounds, speech and music.

The light pulses continued from tree to tree in the abstract form of a wind, creating changing atmospheres of color, light and sound. The visitors themselves became creative and used this form of light painting to create a temporary interactive spatial artwork of great sensual power.

The scenes, animated by the activities of many people, were created by the dynamic form of light painting, the haptic qualities of the trees and the auditory compositions of electronic sounds. The spectrum of light moods alternated between calm atmospheres such as calm winds and increased to light breezes and fresh winds and storm-like scenes.

Media art: Axel Buether with Susa Pankrath

Composer: Mehmet Can Özer

Organizer: Ankara Music Festival

Funding: Goethe Institute Ankara

“Color is like a gesture”, link to the interview with the Goethe-Institut

İnteraktif Işık Gösterisi

“Işık Rüzgarı “Kuğulu Park’a gelenler kendilerini elektroakustik müzik eşliğinde interaktif bir ışık gösterisinin içinde bulacaklardır. Bu ziyaretçiler hareketleri ile ağaçtan ağaca esen soyut bir rüzgarı başlatarak renk ve ışıktan oluşan bir atmosfer yaratacaklardır. Bu sihirli ışık oyunu sakin bir rüzgarla başlayıp hafif esintilerden taze rüzgarlara ve oradan da fırtınalı bir sahneye dönüşecektir.

Axel Buether Wuppertal Üniversitesi Sanat ve Tasarım Bölümü’nde “görsel iletişim öğretim bilimi” konusunda profesör olarak ders veren bir medya sanatçısıdır. Sanatçı James Turrell ile EXPO 2000’de gerçekleşen “Bertelsmann Pavilion” veya Leipzig Grassi Müzesi’nde yaptığı “Duyusal Manzaralar” başlıklı interaktif mekan enstalasyonu gibi medya sanatı projeleri ile insanın algılama yönlerini araştırmaktadır. “Deutsches Farbenzentrum” (Alman Renkler Merkezi)nin başkanı olan Axel Buether, her yıl düzenlediği kongrelerde tüm dünyadan bilim adamlarını ve sanatçıları biraraya getirmektedir. Doktorasını “algı mekanının semiyolojisi” üzerine yapan sanatçının birçok eseri yayınlanmıştır.

Susa Pankrath zaman temelli sanat eğitimi almaktadır. İlgi alanı “kendi” ve “karşısındaki” kavramları arasındaki ilişkiye odaklanmaktadır. Çalışmalarının ağırlık noktasını kendini ifade ederken bugünkü teknolojik imkanları kullanması oluşturmaktadır.

Mehmet Can Özer (d. 1981) besteci ve dijital medya sanatçısıdır. Pek çok uluslararası festivalden sıklıkla davet ve eser siparişleri almakta ve ağırlıklı olarak elektroakustik müzik bestelemektedir. Çeşitli yarışmalarda birincilikleri olan Özer’in eserlerinin bazıları 3 solo ve 3 karma albümde yayınlanmıştır. Besteci kendi yazılımlarını geliştirerek ses ve görsel verileri işlemekte, sonuç olarak da görsel/işitsel yerleştirmelerden doğaçlama ve bestelere kadar farklı alanlarda ürünler ortaya çıkartmaktadır. 2012 yılında müzik teknolojileri alanında doçent olan besteci, akademik ve sanatsal çalışmalarını sürdürmektedir.

Der Beitrag LICHTWIND – “Işık Rüzgarı” erschien zuerst auf Farbpsychologie.

Generative sensory space to activate the creativity of all exhibition visitors

Visitors create and shape an immersive space of color, light, form, texture, movement and sound with every body movement. The classic relationship between viewer and exhibit is completely reversed, which is why every visitor suddenly finds themselves at the center of a creative process. All actions influence each other, which makes the design process a shared experience.

In addition to the individual reception of works during the tour, visitors are once again confronted with all stylistic periods in the “Sensory Landscapes”, only this time the focus is on the creative thinking and production process. While the atmosphere of the room continues to fill and intensify through ever new stylistic elements, radical changes or gradual transitions ensure a new beginning time and again. Each incipient style creates space for new inventions, which the visitor can explore in his active role as designer with his senses of sight, hearing, movement and balance. The range of epochs opens with the ornamental sweep of Art Nouveau and ends in the open space of expectation of the present. In the midst of a fragmented flood of images that is constantly fed and updated via links to global art and design forums on the Internet, visitors themselves choose which path they want to follow. When he moves towards an interesting fragment of a picture, a new space opens up through which his thoughts take shape for all those present. The change in style periods makes it clear that every creative act of design begins with a new departure that prompts us to abandon familiar patterns of thought and behavior. Without the will to change and active action, the “sensory landscapes” fade and become part of the individual memory.

Experimental laboratory for the playful mediation of design processes

The seamless 360° projection, generated entirely using mathematical codes, which captures every movement in space and translates it into audiovisual structures, can be seen for the first time worldwide in an artistic application. The “Sensory Landscapes” are the new experimental laboratory of the “Grassimuseum”, where contemporary art is created and can be accompanied in the research process. Younger target groups experience the museum as a place where connections between the past and present of applied art and design can be experienced and explored in a playful way. The computer-generated seating elements can be moved freely around the room and combined to form islands. Their crystalline form has no clear reference planes, which reinforces the feeling of disorientation and impairs the sense of balance. The white cube forms the interface in which every random or action-motivated movement immediately takes shape. The modern generative technology, consisting of the graphic development environment “vvvv”, a 360° projection matrix, an 8-channel audio system and interactive motion sensors from infrared spotlights and video cameras, remains almost invisible. All behavioral states are permanently evaluated by a data stream-oriented programming language and broken down into defined design parameters. Hundreds of nodes form a style matrix that evolves every moment and is still open to creative ideas. Chance thus becomes a constant source of ideas and motivation. Digital impulses are translated into shapes, colors, patterns, movements and sounds and projected into the white cube, whose boundaries, proportions, dimensionality and atmosphere are constantly being generated anew. No two pictures are the same. Everything is variation and shape-seeking change.

The interactive spatial installation “Sensory Landscapes” was developed in collaboration with the Grassi Museum by a team led by Axel Buether. The team includes Sebastian Huber, Johannes Timpernagel, Robert Pohle and Isabella Kolata as well as Marko Ritter, Jakob Korn and Ingolf Heinsch.

“Art Nouveau to the present day”

Permanent exhibition at the Grassimuseum, from March 4, 2012
GRASSI Museum of Applied Arts
Johannisplatz 5–11
04103 Leipzig
Hours: Tue–Sun, including holidays, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

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TV report, radio interview, press review and further downloads

Der Beitrag Media art installation Sensory landscapes erschien zuerst auf Farbpsychologie.