Media Architecture: Overview of Practices

Written by Stavros Didakis, Professor, NYU Shanghai.

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A. Media Facades

Description

Media facades is a term used to describe architectural exteriors that utilize various forms of media devices and technologies to display (audio)visual content that is needed for a range of aesthetic, functional, or advertising reasons. In most of the cases the technologies used are LED panels, video projections, or lighting fixtures, and depending on the purpose the building’s owners want to attribute to the facade, engineers, designers, and artists work together to accomplish the needed task. Besides the functional or practical applications we may have (i.e. displaying advertisements or public announcements), there are many other cases where high level of creativity and expression is demonstrated that captures successfully public’s attention, showing an alternative version of the architectural normality (i.e. static/unaltered). Below, there are a few selected examples that explain multidisciplinary practices utilized for media facades.

Communication Skin

The architectural “skin” becomes important in communicating information. Patterns carved on stone, marble, plaster, and so on, are usually sophisticated crafts that connect with citizens and inhabitants on a certain cultural, political, economic, or emotional level. The magnificent facades found on middle ages cathedrals, for example, are exquisite samples of visual narratives frozen in time. With the use of recent forms of media, facades can now display a wider range of compositional properties that do not have to be static, but to utilize the time domain for larger audience engagement and participation, quite often. The possibilities to communicate information, emotion, human expression, and anything seemingly possible, can exponentially increase.

The following example displays BIX, a renowned media facade in Kunsthaus in Graz, which engulfs a fascinating architectural structure designed by architect Peter Cook – the founder of the most radical architectural group of the 20th century, Archigram. The building uses large lighting tubes that are controlled independently as pixels on a TV screen, and has as its main objective to properly reflected cultural content that seems appropriate for the art venue.

Click arrow on the left for further details about this work:

“The idea of the media installation BIX arose out of considerations on how to equip the interior of tahe Kunsthaus in Graz with media. BIX was created as an additional feature at a time when overall planning of the building had already reached an advanced stage. In addition to the late date and technical complexity of the project, it was also a challenge to integrate an architectural concept of foreign authorship into the expressive building design by Peter Cook. After all, BIX was a new element designed to entirely dominate the building’s riverside frontage, thereby radically redefining the architectural concept of the building’s skin. It received approval from the client and the architects because it was based on the architect’s original ideas for the sleek, blue, shimmering façade: Constructed from about 1,300 individually shaped, translucent Plexiglas panels covering the biomorphic building, the so-called skin was intended to feature different nuances of transparency, which would have created varying communicative relationships between interior and exterior. For both technical and budgetary reasons, the skin’s physical transparency had to be abandoned, degrading the material’s transparency into mere decoration.

The introduction of BIX revived the communicative conception of the façade, even if in a mediated way, at the same time delivering the required political arguments for the use of Plexiglas for the final construction of the skin. BIX consists of a matrix of 930 conventional circular fluorescent light tubes integrated into 900 square meters of the Plexiglas façade on the east side of the Kunsthaus. The individual, continuous adjustability of the lamps’ brightness with a frequency of 18 frames per second makes it possible to display images, films, and animations. During the development of BIX, key performance features of conventional large-scale displays were radically abandoned in exchange for a number of substantial advantages. The resolution of the matrix is extremely low. There are only 930 pixels—a mere 0.2% of the pixels found in a conventional TV screen—and they are monochrome. Although such a low image resolution imposes strong limitations, it enables both the modular structure and the large size of BIX to become part of the architecture instead of an additional gadget like so many other media displays. Reduction and intensity are well-established strategies of contemporary art to advance toward the inner essentials. In this way, BIX not only extends the Kunsthaus Graz’s communication range; the installation also replenishes the overall program of the Kunsthaus.

The architecture and the media installation form a strong symbiosis projecting the internal artistic processes of the Kunsthaus in an abstract and mediated form onto the façade and to the public. BIX constitutes an amorphous light matrix tailored to the complex shape of the building and gradually fading away toward the edges, instead of offering straight and clearly visible borders. The installation’s edges are hardly perceptible, as if the light patterns could dance freely on the building’s outer skin, and the 930 lights seem to be rather “tattooed” into the skin of the building like individual spots of pigment. In regard to the themes of size and resolution, integration in the façade and dissolution of the visible boundaries of the monitor screen, BIX is the starting point for investigations that were continued in later projects.

With the choice of an “old” technology, BIX addresses the issue of “technological sustainability.“ Due to the industry’s rapid innovation cycles, technologies for large screens become outdated at a very fast rate. However, by using as pixels industrial fluorescent tubes—known since the 1960s as kitchen lamps that are almost a design classic today—the question of being technologically up-to-date does not arise and BIX meets the architectural demand of constancy. Nevertheless, BIX is not a “low-tech” project. The capability of each lamp to adopt a brightness level between 0% and 100% in 1⁄18 of a second is the result of a groundbreaking tuning process that required the development of special hard- and software.

The BIX screen matrix acts as an architectural “enabler” enhancing the building’s communicative possibilities considerably and offers significantly more than just a spectacular presentational touch. The media façade extends the communication range of the Kunsthaus Graz, complementing its programmatically formulated communicative purpose and becomes an important factor for the identity and image of the Kunsthaus. BIX remains an experimental laboratory until today. As the content producer, the Kunsthaus has the chance to continuously explore and develop methods for a dynamic communication between building and surroundings. In 2010 BIX was selected for inclusion in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City”.

BIX (realities:united, 2003)

Projection Mapping

Projection Mapping uses video projectors to display visual content instead of projecting on a flat screen (e.g. to display a PowerPoint presentation), light in this case is mapped onto any surface, turning common objects of any 3D shape into a visual space. More formally, projection mapping is the display of an image on a non-flat or non-white surface. Projection mapping is often used on architectural facades to create novel and imaginative ideas for entertainment and artistic purposes, mainly.

🔗 What is projection mapping? – Projection Mapping Central — Credits: Sydney Opera House Facade Projection by URBANSCREEN Jennifer Lopez on American Idol Katy Perry at the Super Bowl 2015 Pixel (dance) by Adrien M / Claire B Company Box by Bot & Dolly DisplayMapper by Projection Artworks New Balance Test by Hayoung Jung Lil Wayne’s TRUKFIT by Go2 Productions

🔗 Inspiration – Projection Mapping Central — Projection Mapping Central is a community resource for all things projection mapping.

Additional historical examples and related literature in relation to projection mapping can be found in the following link.

🔗 The Illustrated History of Projection Mapping – Projection Mapping… — While projection mapping has recently exploded into the consciousness of artists and advertisers everywhere, the history of projection mapping dates back longer than you may imagine. If you try Googling for “Projection Mapping” you won’t find anything older than 3 years. That is because…

AntiVJ is a visual label initiated by a group of European artists whose work is focused on the use of projected light and its influence on our perception. Clearly stepping away from standard setups & techniques, AntiVJ present live performances and installations, providing to the audience a senses challenging experience, as it is demonstrated in the following audiovisual work at the Bains Numériques festival, Enghien-les-Bains, France.

Enghien (AntiVJ, 2009)

Obscura Digital developed a large scale architectural mapping and projection design for the 40th Anniversary of the United Arab Emirates National Day Celebration at the Sheikh, Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. 49 projectors were used to project on a total surface measuring 19,474 square meters, which included 4 minarets and 12 domes necessitating detailed accuracy of 3-D mapping and content quality on incredibly complex geometry of flat walls with intricate hand carved details and arcades with rows of columns. The studio’s objective enhance the cultural properties with a mesmerizing and well-crafted show.

More details about this work:

Interactive developer and artist Mary Franck who worked on the project had this to say: “It was certainly a dream projection-mapping job: incredible architecture, all white marble, completely artistic and cultural content. It was absolutely an honor to be a part of it”.

The first step in the pipeline was to get the model of the structure involved. In this instance, the team used a laser scanner to output a 3d point cloud of the building. This point cloud then was to turned into a mesh, which was then re-topologized into a simpler mesh that can be easily handled in realtime.

At the same time, the physical projector locations had to be decided upon. This depended upon the actual map of the building and surrounding area, where the production team could get access to, and what kind of structures they are allowed to build. According to Mary Franck, this particular job was easy in terms of obstructions of the surrounding area, but difficult because of the sacred nature of the site. All of our projector towers had to be well designed with facades to match the mosque architecture. The projector placement and physical production aspects are a behemoth tasks in themselves; number and placement of projectors has many variables, but in general, maximum brightness, full area coverage and optimal resolution are the major ones.

After the 3d model and general projector spec’ing was completed, a template was made to render the content, which was previously put through an extensive creative process. This was output as video, in this case using a currently-proprietary codec called FireFrame, which were then textured onto the 3d model.

TouchDesigner was utilized for this work.

🔗 OBSCURA DIGITAL Shines 940,000 Lumens in the Desert — Earlier this month Obscura Digital used TouchDesigner to once again raise the bar of large scale architectural mapping and projection design, this time for the 40th Anniversary of the United Arab Emirates National Day Celebration at the Sheikh, Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi.

(Obscura Digital, 2012)

The following media projection was created by Alexander Klein in 2017. It has a surface of approximately 2,500 square meters of video capable LED-RGB pixels. The content for the media façade was chosen by Yumasheva, granddaughter of Boris Yeltsin, who requested 20 separate pieces based on five topics: architecture, nature, urban spaces, culture, and art. Visuals like perpendicular lines, buildings, clouds, handicrafts and Russian tea are featured as well as the work of established Russian artists. The production of the digital media content was a combined effort using analog techniques, from photographing gold pigment in oil to building complex scale models to get the shot before the post-production digital editing began. The result manages to reposition the role of the architectural facade as a time-based three-dimensional canvas that can utilize a range of alternative methods for the engagement of the public.

🔗 Brilliant Media Façade a Beacon for the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center — This 2017 SEGD Global Design Awards Merit Award winning project, Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center Media Façade, brings the Center’s buildings to vibrant life in Ekaterinburg, Russia. Jurors described the work as “impressive” and “literally coming alive,” stating: “The movement and fluctuating nature of this façade is truly breathtaking, but another level of excitement appears when viewing the behind-the-scenes .

Illusionary Practices

d’strict, a Korean media design company, has developed the project ‘WAVE’ that uses anamorphic illusion to create a unique three-dimensional effect. It has been successfully revealed on a DOOH of COEX K-POP SQUARE, the largest & high-definition outdoor advertising screen in S.Korea at 80.1m (w) x 20.1M (h). Dating back to the renaissance, an anamorphic illusion or anamorphosis is a distorted projection that reveals itself once you occupy a specific vantage point. d’strict used this principle to create a wave simulation that is projected on the gigantic screens, crashing into the glass, making passersby feel as if the wave would literally engulf them. The simple gesture results in a powerful experiential project that integrates virtual contents and digital technology into the built environment.

WAVE (d’strict, 2019)

Impossible Skylines

Shenzhen a technological hub located at southeastern China, has been announced as the city of design by UNESCO. For its 40th anniversary, a special celebration took place, where all the buildings at the centre united visually for a one-of-a-kind audiovisual show. Here, we see how the whole city transforms into a media canvas that boosts the cultural industries a few steps ahead.

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B. Fluid Interiors

Description

Computational media technologies possess the property of being able to manipulate and easily change content that stimulates accordingly human sense and perception. The media creations can be displayed in non real-time or real-time with interactive facilitation and to shift to certain conditions. Using a range of implementation combinations of computational systems, media design and artistic creativity, interior spaces can be radically transformed, provoking the role of the designer and our understanding of how spaces can be (re)composed and lived.

Surrealscapes

Media design allows us to create content that expresses our imagination to all possible directions. Through the use of 2D, 3D, animation, video, photography, sound, coding, and more, compositions are able to become “alive”, challenging our senses and aesthetic resonances. The following examples demonstrate works that have utilized many of the aforementioned media tools to enhance the interior design, creating surreal experiences that engage viewers and participants.

This following example by the Moment Factory has been installed in Changi airport in Singapore, an airport that has been voted for many consecutive years as the best one in the world. Here, the passenger experience is a priority, which adds to the overall well-being and identity of the city. A large display incorporates sophisticated media content with main objective to immerse the audience into its visual narratives.

“From optical illusions to cinematic storytelling, the architectural media features transform even the least appreciated traveler moments into surprises of delight and discovery. Passing through security screening, travelers are enveloped by a media wall with an entertaining variety of content capsules. Picturesque high altitude landscapes alternate with virtual bas-relief sculptures that subtly come to life. In the heritage zone, real and virtual traditional shop house façades create an authentic backdrop for local culture and storytelling. Appearing static at first, the two LED façades spring to life with an engaging neighbourhoods love story that brings two Peranakan families together”.

🔗 | Moment Factory

Theatre of Experience (Moment Factory, 2018)

Universe of Water Particles” is a virtual waterfall created in a virtual 3D space using teamLab’s concept of ultrasubjective space, a term that refers to the depiction of space found in premodern Japanese painting. Computer-generated water consisting of hundreds of thousands of water particles is poured onto a virtually sculpted rock. The computer here calculates the movement of the particles to produce a simulation of water that flows in accordance to the laws of physics. The project uses TouchDesigner as the software engine, and Weather API for collecting weather data that influence the responses of the virtual waterfall.

🔗 Universe of Water Particles on the Living Wall | teamLab / チームラボ — teamLab, 2017, Digital Installation, LED, Endless, H: 11810 mm W: 1920 mm 岩石是,種在對面的牆壁上的植物和同種類的植物一起生長,接著 跟隨著日出日沒,改變樣子。 首先在電腦的虛擬空間裡製作立體岩石，在岩石上注入水流。水用無數水粒子的連續體來表現，接著計算粒子之間的相互作用，將這些水流經由物理引擎模擬為擬真的流水活動。 然後在所有的水粒子之中隨機挑選出0.1%的水粒子，根據這些水粒子的舉動在空間中描繪出線。而這些「線的集合」就形成了本作品中的瀑布。 也就是說，在這些無數的線的背後，有著數量超過它們本身1000倍以上的水粒子存在，並且藉著整體之間的交互作用來決定線的曲線性質。 這麼一來這些在三次元空間裡被立體描繪出的瀑布，就能夠以超主觀空間爲名基礎概念上化為一個影像作品。

Universe of Water Particles (teamLab, 2018)

Responsiveness

Interactive technologies are important facilitators in the development of media spaces (as seen from the emergence of media and interactive art in the late 1950s). Sensors and other computer input devices provide a way to communicate in real-time with the generated media. To accomplish this, artists and designers utilize a combination of software and hardware resources that are able to communicate through interfaces and custom-made applications. Software applications such as TouchDesigner, Unity, Notch, or MaxMSP are necessary components for interactive media works.

In the main lobby of the Terrell Place in Washington DC, the media company ESI transformed its lobby with the use of a 1,700-square-feet of motion-activated media. Here, technology and media are seamlessly integrated into the architectural surfaces, creating an ever-evolving artwork that captures the pulse of the building. ESI’s designers unified the expansive first floor lobby space by treating it as a single media canvas. By installing large-scale, reactive media on lobby walls and corridor portals, they created a sense of connection across the building’s common areas. At 80 feet wide x 13 feet high, the large media wall is capturing the attention and curiosity of passersby, who can see it from outside through oversize windows.

More info about this work:

The media installation includes a range of practices involved; some of its highlights include the following:
• Diffused LED wall displays in the main lobbies and corridor are activated by passersby via an infrared camera system, creating beautiful scenes that ebb and flow with the morning rush and the afternoon lull.
• The displays include three content modes – ‘Seasons,’ ‘Color Play,’ and ‘Cityscape’ – offering a selection of scenes that can be programmed with varying durations and sequences, ensuring that tenants never see the same scene even if they arrive and leave at the same time every day.
• The ‘Season’ mode shows the lifecycle of the iconic Washington, DC cherry trees. In the ‘Spring’ phase, as people pass by the screens, their movement causes the trees to blossom until eventually their petals fall off; when people pause in the lobby, they trigger butterflies to flutter.
• ‘Color Play’ shows algorithmically-generated patterns of multi-color threads which spread across the walls, weaving a tapestry that reflects the activity of Terrell Place.
• ‘City Scape’ pays homage to the city of Washington, DC with iconic architecture, statuary and transportation scenes that are brought to life by people passing by.

🔗 Terrell Place, Washington, DC | Interactive Architecture — Opportunity: Terrell Place in downtown Washington, D.C., is an office and retail complex comprised of three connected components, resulting in a disjointed ground floor lobby. When Beacon Capital acquired the property, they tasked ESI Design with creating a more harmonious interior and a contemporary, exciting work destination.

Terrell Place (ESI Design, 2016)

Immersive Space

Quite often the media space dominates over traditional design, as screens occupy the largest percentage (if not all) of a particular interior. The virtual space surrounds visitors from all directions, submerging them into audiovisual narratives. The following example created by Tamschick Media+Space has been installed in the Wuxi City Relics Museum, with content that has been specifically designed to introduce visitors to the story of the Kingdom Wu, which, in a sense, becomes a time machine to transport “passengers” to the 5th century BC.

Click arrow on the left for further details about this work:

The completely projected 400 sqm space interactively tells the story of the Kingdom Wu. Visitors are immersed in a 15-minute story about the rise of the Kingdom of Wu during the Spring and Autumn Period between 514–496 BC. In this project, the creators have developed a unique visual style as a mix of cinematic martial arts scenes shot in Shanghai combined with paint-style animations. The linear storytelling is enhanced with interactive elements that reinforces the visitors’ feeling of being transported back in time, away to king HelV’s coming into power, his fight for hegemony, the victory at the battle of Boju and other great legends of that period.

Client: Wu Kingdom HelV Relics Museum Wuxi, Peoples Republic of China
TAMSCHICK MEDIA+SPACE GmbH has developed the following content: Overall Management, Planning and Production of the Spatial Media Design, Conception, Story Development, Creative Direction, Direction, Art Direction, Production of Shooting, Motion Design, Animation, Postproduction, VVVV Programming, Music Composition and Sound Design, Implementation
Media Technology, Hardware: Kraftwerk Living Technologies GmbH, Brainsalt Media GmbH
Hardware used: 22 WUXGA projectors, 14 IR cameras, 36 synchronized computers, 34 audio channels
Floor: with projection and interactive video & audio, size approx. 400sqm, resolution 3600×8500 pixels
Wall: projected and interactive, size approx. 240sqm, resolution: 1900x8500pixel
Program Runtime: 15min

Data-Actuated

‘Virtual Depictions: San Francisco’ is a public art project by media artist Refik Anadol that consists of a series of parametric data sculptures that tell the story of the city and people around it. The main idea of the project is to bring 21st century approaches to public art and define new poetics of space through media arts and architecture. The media wall displays parametric data sculptures that have an intelligence, and are linked to memory and culture.

Through architectural transformations of the media wall located in 350 Mission’ lobby, home of Salesforce, the main motivation was to frame an experience with a meticulously abstract and cinematic site-specific data-driven narration. As a result, the wall turns into a spectacular event making direct and phantasmagorical connections to its surroundings through simultaneous juxtapositions. The project also intends to contribute to contemporary discourse of media art by proposing a hybrid blend of art, technology and architecture. As the artist says, “when creating this artwork my goal was to make the invisible visible by embedding media arts into architecture and create a new way to experience a living urban space”.

Virtual Depictions (Refik Anadol, 2016)

This interactive installation has been developed by i-DAT (www.i-dat.org), an Open Research Lab for playful experimentation with creative technologies that is hosted by the University of Plymouth, School of Art, Design, and Architecture. A fundamental consideration in this work is to use data as manifestations that emerge through multiple digital interactions. This dynamic data-driven artwork analyses content generated through social media, as well as information tracked in the real space, and attempts to represent the identified interactions using realtime visualizations, questioning how behaviour is actuated through algorithmic technologies.

Click arrow on the left for further details about this work:

The intelligence of the system is driven by Quorum, a computational initiative in cultural computation, ludic data and playful experimentation, which focuses on analyzing audience behaviour that emerges from physical and digital interactions. The system incorporates bio-inspired algorithmic swarm decentralized decision-making processes to generate a dynamic and evolving collective behaviour. Its computational infrastructure integrates subjective and objective data, considering its temporal and predictive aspects, variety and quality and correlations through the use of Artificial Neural Networks, Deep Learning and Self-Organising Maps.

TIWWA utilizes a range of data inputs that are collected and distributed to its processing units, in order to comprehend the complexity of the surrounding space, which is not limited to a physical, but also the digital realm. Behavioural data such as individual and collective movement and touch are extracted through the use of sensors that are installed on the physical space. The process provokes audience to engage on an instant temporality according to the reactions of the media sculpture, challenging the communication patterns exchanged between humans and the computational machine. Social media data are used through the extraction of specific keywords that collect content and sentiment from present and distant audiences. Natural language processing and Artificial Intelligence is used to analyse the content that is identified as relevant to the system’s performance, allowing it to build its own subjectivity and sentiment intensity. Finally, the last parameter that is used for the system input is environmental data such as CO2, temperature, humidity, and energy consumption captured by Tate Modern’s Energy Management System. This information becomes important as it represents vital aspects of the architectural space, and how the environment affects inhabitants’ lives collectively.

TIWWA challenges us to realise the complexity of our surrounding and immersive spaces and the possibilities that materialize through computational intelligence, transforming our apprehension and appreciation of the hybridization that occurs. By fusing a range of parameters to the system’s input and processing the content with the use of the aforementioned computational processes, a range of meta-cognitive elements begin to emerge, allowing us to perceive an extended map of agents and relationships that form between them. This experience becomes critical in the way our environments are conceived, materialized, and used, pushing us forward into theorizing and speculating on the additional dimensions and possibilities that computational media may offer into our contemporary development practices.

TIWWA (i-DAT, 2016)

Kinetics

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Public Installations

Description

Public installations refer to art works that are exhibited to open public spaces and their form, function and meaning are created for the general public usually in outdoor spaces. Public art embodies public or universal concepts rather than commercial, partisan or personal interests, and it has clear aesthetic qualities in form or theme. In many cases, the works are interactive and collaborative, allowing the public to enjoy playful and engaging content. The case studies below explore selected examples of such projects.

Playful Interactions

Chris O’ Shea‘s “Hand from Above” is by far one of the most exciting urban screens project to date. The work encourages us to experience and question our normal routines and behaviors, especially in the public space. “Inspired by Land of the Giants and Goliath, we are reminded of mythical stories by mischievously unleashing a giant hand from the BBC Big Screen. Passers by will be playfully transformed. What if humans were not on top of the food chain? Unsuspecting pedestrians will be tickled, stretched, flicked or removed entirely in real-time by a giant deity”.

The “Hand from Above” was built using openFrameworks and openCV.

🔗 Chris O’Shea — Hand From Above encourages us to question our normal routine when we often find ourselves rushing from one destination to another. Inspired by Land of the Giants and Goliath, we are reminded of mythical stories by mischievously unleashing a giant hand from the BBC Big Screen. Passers by will be playfully transformed.

Hand from Above (Chris O’ Shea, 2009)

“Loop” is a public installation that consists of 13 giant zoetropes – an optical toy that was a forerunner of animated film. When a zoetrope is activate, images are shown in rapid succession, creating the illusion of motion. This illuminated musical installation, featuring a distinctive retro-futuristic look, uses cylinders two metres in diameter. Members of the public are invited to sit down inside and activate the mechanism, causing beautiful images inspired by 13 fairy tales to come to life. It’s magical! Loop is sure to spark children’s imagination and revive their parents’ childhood memories.

Loop is a cross between a music box, a zoetrope and a railway handcar – the pump-powered vehicles familiar from Bugs Bunny cartoons. The retro-futuristic machine plays animated fairy-tale loops set in motion when visitors work the lever together. When the cylinder starts spinning, it lights up, making the series of still images appear to move. A flickering strobe effect accompanies the black and white images, like in the very first movies. The animation is visible from inside or outside the cylinder and can be viewed from up close or far away. The speed at which the images move, the frequency of the flickering and the tempo of the music are determined by how fast the participants move the lever.

Loop (Ekumen, 2016)

The Lightwaves (PanGenerator, 2019)

Immersive Landscapes

WATERLICHT is a project developed by Studio Roosegaarde, and discusses the dream landscape of the power and poetry of water. As a virtual flood, WATERLICHT shows how high the water level could reach. WATERLICHT is a collective experience to remind us of the importance of water innovation and the impact of climate change.

🔗 Waterlicht | Studio Roosegaarde — WATERLICHT is a combination of LEDs and lenses which create an ever changing virtual flood, influenced by wind and rain. The WATERLICHT podcast shares stories about the impact and potential of water. Daan Roosegaarde: “WATERLICHT is an inspiration for the future: should we build floating cities, how much power can we generate from the movement of water?

Waterlicht (Studio Roosegarde, 2016-2020)

Transitional

David Černý is a renowned artist who creates provocative sculptures for public spaces. In the following work, he has created a kinetic piece that displays Franz Kafka’s head in a state of constant metamorphosis. The kinetic sculpture is 11 metres tall and made of 42 rotating panels. Each layer is mechanized and rotates individually.

Head of Franz Kafka (David Černý, 2014)

MegaFaces Pavilion is a structure incorporating the world’s first large scale actuated LED screen & kinetic facade. Facial impressions are created once every minute and are relayed to the kinetic facade from multi-camera 3D scans made in proprietary instant 3D photo booths installed within the building and in locations across 30 Russian towns and cities. This fully automated process utilised a tablet-based registration app in the queue line to give each visitor a personalised QR code card, and therefore a personalised language experience within the photo booths. Each visitor received a SMS message with the time they would appear on the facade. Everyone received a live webcam link before their face was shown and recorded video was archived so that visitors, or people who participated but were unable to attend the games, could share their moment across social media.

🔗 iart – megafaces — The weirdest thing at Sochi? Your face on a giant screen of morphing pistons. CNN, 21 February 2014 In the Olympic Park at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi: Visitors queue up to be photographed in 3D photo booths. A short time later, their faces are emblazoned on a facade as tall as a house.

Megafaces (iart, 2014)

Collectivity

D-Tower is a media sculpture made by NOX Architects, which explores the way that public art can be connected with each individual citizen. In this example, a web application was developed that provides visitors a selection interface for their current mood (sad, angry, happy, and so on). All the entries are automatically calculated every day, and the sculpture will light with a specific color that displays the average mood of the city. Here, therefore, the installation becomes an important living organ of the city.

🔗 D-tower — D-tower is a coherent hybrid of different media in which architecture is part of a larger interactive system of relationships. It is a project in which the intensive (feelings and qualia) and the extensive (space and numbers) start exchanging roles, in which human action, color, money, value and feelings all become networked entities.

D-Tower (NOX Architects, 2007)

Sustainable Structures

Humidity swing technology, developed by Dr Klaus Lackner (Lenfest Center at Columbia University), allows the energy-efficient capture of CO2 from air, closing the carbon cycle and creating a valuable product. Inspired by him, the Boston’s TREEPODS INIATIVE, lead by Influx_Studio and ShiftBoston, looks to help towards the achievement of Boston’s goals in carbon reduction programs.

Embodying and artificially enhancing the capacity of natural trees to clean the air. Treepods are not designed to replace natural trees, but to act like small air cleaning infrastructures, increasing in many times CO2 absorption. Biomimicry of the most unique trees in the world: taking inspiration from the Dragon Blood Tree, the TREEPOD imitates its umbrella shaped crown to optimize a canopy that provides a maximum of shading surface and that allows the wind flow.

🔗 Boston Treepods | Influx Studio | Archello — Humidity swing technology, developed by Dr Klaus Lackner (Lenfest Center at Columbia University), allows the energy-efficient capture of CO2 from air, closing the carbon cycle and creating a valuable product. Inspired by him, the Boston’s TREEPODS INIATIVE, lead by Influx_Studio and ShiftBoston, looks to help towards the achievement of Boston’s goals in carbon reduction programs. Embodying and artificially enhancing the capacity of natural trees to clean the air.

Treepods (Influx Studio, 2011)

The Urban Algae Folly, designed by ecoLogicStudio and located at the District’s entrance, is an interactive pavilion integrating living micro-algal cultures, a built example of architecture’s bio-digital future. Microalgae, in this instance Spirulina, are exceptional photosynthetic machines; they contain nutrients that are fundamental to the human body, such as minerals and vegetable proteins; microalgae also oxygenate the air and can absorb CO2 from the urban atmosphere ten times more effectively than large trees. The innovative architecture of the Alge Folly originates from the evolution of the well known ETFE architectural skin system; in this instance it has the ability to provide the ideal habitat both to stimulate Spirulina’s growth and to guarantee visitors’ comfort.

On sunny summer days the microalgae will grow rapidly thus increasing the shading potential of the architectural skin and improving human comfort; visitors, with their presence, will in turn activate the digital regulation system which will stimulate algal oxygenation, solar insolation and growth. In any given moment the effective translucency, the color, the reflectivity, the sound and productivity of the Urban Algae Folly are the result of the symbiotic relationship of climate, microalgae, humans and digital control systems. The Future Food District, designed by Carlo Ratti Associati for Italian supermarket chain COOP, is one of the thematic areas of EXPO 2015 “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”. FFD is composed of a 2,500 square meter pavilion (supermarket) and of a 4,500 square meter public square. The project explores new forms of interactions between people and products to re-imagine the supermarket of the future as a place for free exchange where everyone can be both producer and consumer.

🔗 :: Algae Folly – EcoLogicStudio :: — Urban Algae Folly for the Future Food District – Milan EXPO2015In the public square of the EXPO Milano 2015 Future Food District are on show some of the most interesting and innovative solutions of building integrated urban agriculture.

Urban Algae Folly (ecoLogic, 2015)

Data-Driven

The installation DATAGATE by Ouchhh consists of 3 parts; Form, Light, and Space. Light is the world’s first artwork based upon the idea of utilization of Machine Learning in the context of space discovery and astronomical research through NASA’s Kepler AI Data Sets. By using the Kepler data from NASA, the public will be able to observe the exoplanets [planets that orbit around other stars] which human life can exist in. Ouchhh aims for this artwork to be considered as a gate between our planet and other habitable planets around the universe.

DATA GATE (Ouchhh, 2019)

Symulakra (PanGenerator, 2019)

The Shimmering Pulse (PanGenerator, 2020)

Screen-Based

Light Art & Design

Lighting is an important part of the functional and aesthetic part of buildings. By using light (illumination, color, or shadows) as an artistic medium, a wide range of compositions can be created. Lighting is a fundamental medium for architectural and interior design, as it is able to communicate content with its inhabitants, and, in addition, it strongly defines how the space can be utilized. The profound effects of lighting within architectural spaces are non-arguable, as everyone can instantly sense the conveyed mood. As light plays a significant role in the psychological state of inhabitants – such as provoking mood and cognition levels (Knez, 1995), (Baron et al. 1992), influence performance through the intervening variable of positive affect (Baron et al., 1992), trigger serotonin levels in the body, changing a person’s mood and social behaviour (aan het Rot et al., 2008), and assist interpersonal communication, stimulate more general communication, or encourage intimacy (Gifford 1988: 177) – it is a considerable parameter to the development of media extensions of an interior space and to the emotional
states that it can affect.

🔗 The Importance of Architectural Lighting – TCP Lighting — In his lecture titled “Lighting as an Integral Part of Architecture,” (1952) Kelly goes into his three “elemental kinds of light” that still act as the heart of lighting design today. 1. Focal glow – Today, this kind of light is referred to as task lighting.

Light as Space

For over half a century, the American artist James Turrell has worked directly with light and space to create artworks that engage viewers with the limits and wonder of human perception. Turrell has innovated photographic techniques that allow light to have a physical presence. Using holography to make the light itself the subject rather than the medium, Turrell creates colored light installations that appear to possess mass and take up space as planes, cubes, pyramids, and tunnels. Turrell’s series “Skyspace,” (begun in the 1970s), which he has constructed around the world, are enclosed spaces open to the sky through an aperture in the roof that enable viewers to observe changes in light from minute to minute and season to season, what has been described as a religious experience.

🔗 Type — A hologram is a recording of light waves on a thin layer of transparent gelatin emulsion. In the emulsion is an image that has full parallax. In other words, it appears to have depth from every vantage point. Unlike traditional holograms that depict objects, the Turrell holograms aim to make a hologram of light itself.

Artist Olafur Eliasson is another renowned artist that uses often light and architecture to create provocative works. One of his most known artworks is the Weather Project for the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern, London, which is a site-specific installation that employed a semi-circular screen, a ceiling of mirrors, and artificial mist to create the illusion of a sun. Aluminium frames lined with mirror foil were suspended from the ceiling to create a giant mirror that visually doubled the volume of the hall – along with the semi-circular screen mounted on the far wall, its long edge abutting the mirror ceiling. Backlit by approximately 200 mono-frequency lights, the semi-circle and its reflection created the image of a massive, indoor sunset seen through the artificial mist emitted into the room. By walking to the far end of the hall, visitors could see how the sun was constructed, and the reverse of the mirror structure was visible from the top floor of the museum.

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The Weather Project (Olafur Eliasson, 2003)

Sculptures

Within the Malaysian town of Butterworth, Kuala Lumpur-based architect and artist Jun Ong has embedded a five-storey lighting installation within the core of an unfinished concrete building. Built from steel cables and over 500 meters of LED light, The Star sculpture is suspended with its spherical center piercing through the building’s foundation in an spider-web like network of light. The artist explains “The Star is a glitch in current political and cultural climate of the country, it is a manifestation of the sterile conditions of Butterworth, a once thriving industrial port and significant terminal between the mainland and island”.

The installation was part of the 2015 Urban Xchange public art festival.

🔗 Artist Installs Giant 4-Story LED Star in Abandoned Building — Artist Jun Hao Ong used steel cables and over 500 meters (1,640 ft) of LED lights to create a gigantic LED star in an abandoned 4-story building in Penang, Malaysia. The Star is a site-specific installation completed for the 2015 Urban Exchange Public Art Festival.

The Star (Jun Hao Ong, 2015)

Compositional

‘Portal’ is an interactive light piece created by artist Akiko Yamashita in the Weller Court Plaza in Little Tokyo District of downtown Los Angeles. It is a highly acclaimed work that is celebrated by the urban residents in the city center. It has become a destination portal – formally a dark tunnel – has been transformed by this Japanese-American’s work.

Portal (Akiko Yamashita, 2015)

A row is a basic way to structure data, from mathematics to twelve notes of the chromatic scale in music. The rows of data floating in the air every second being converted into messages and voices. Bits of information become symbols that can be combined in words, words add up to sentences and sentences translate ideas and thoughts. It’s about the perception of information, language, and dialogue.

In this project, TUNDRA have been challenged to experiment with a holographic (lighting) technology and see if it can somehow be used in an interesting way to create an audiovisual experience. The result is a raw concept of a scalable data-driven installation.

Row is a modular and scalable array of screens that can form various length line of any desired shape. Translating raw visuals driven by generative sound, the content itself is being echoed with a slight delay which creates various moving patterns that highlight and reflect the spatial characteristics of space where it is installed.

Row (TUNDRA, 2019)

DEEP WEB is a monumental immersive audiovisual installation and live performance created by light artist Christopher Bauder and composer and musician Robert Henke. Presented in enormous pitch dark indoor spaces, DEEP WEB plunges the audience into a ballet of iridescent kinetic light and surround sound. This dramatic three-dimensional sculpture was first presented in 2016 as a preview at CTM Festival Berlin in January and followed by the presentation at the Festival of Lights Lyon in December.

Click arrow on the left for further details about this work:

The generative, luminous architectural structure weaves 175 motorized spheres and 12 high power laser systems into a 25 meter wide and 10-meter high super-structure, bringing to life a luminous analogy to the nodes and connections of digital networks. Moving up and down, and choreographed and synchronized to an original multi-channel musical score by Robert Henke, the spheres are illuminated by blasts of colorful laser beams resulting in three-dimensional sculptural light drawings and arrangements in cavernous darkness.

The installation brings together decades of separate research and experimentation by two artists with unique visions and passions for sound and light, and by innovative companies working in these fields. High-end laser system manufacturer LaserAnimation Sollinger provided the technical expertise and development for this very specific spatial laser setup. The high precision motor winch systems with reall-timee feedback and the main control software are provided by Design Studio WHITEvoid in collaboration with Kinetic Lights. This novel combination of computer-controlledd kinetic elements and laser systems allows for setting animated end points to normally infinite laser beams. DEEP WEB uses light as a tangible material to construct three-dimensional vector drawings in thin air.

Deep Web (Christopher Bauder & Robert Henke, 2016)

Resources

🔗 ProjectorCentral — Projector reviews — home theater projectors, projector lamps, portable and classroom projectors, and projector screens. Reviews and consumer info for all LCD, DLP and LCOS digital projectors.

Software

🔗 Best Projection Mapping Softwares — The good news is that there are a lot of programs out there that will allow you to do so, but before you put the time in to learning any of them, take a quick peek at my thoughts below or just play around in our Tools section and see for yourself.

Accounts to Watch Out

https://vimeo.com/groups/touchdesigner

https://vimeo.com/realitiesunited

https://vimeo.com/dstrict

https://vimeo.com/momentfactory

https://vimeo.com/teamlabnet

https://vimeo.com/refo

🔗 Home – Artichoke — Waterlicht by Daan Roosegaarde, Granary Square, Kings Cross. Lumiere London, 18 – 21 January, produced by Artichoke and commissioned by the Mayor of London. PROCESSIONS 2018 London, an Artichoke Project Commissioned by 14-18 NOW, photo by Sheila Burnett London 1666, David Best, London’s Burning, a festival of arts and ideas for Great Fire 350.

🔗 Events, Concerts and Festivals — Blog Your 11 Montreal summer soundtrack Since you can’t go to your favourite summer festivals this year, why not turn your backyard or living room into a mini-Place des Festivals or a pocket-sized concert hall? Here are 11 playlists to fill your home with the sweet sounds of a Montreal summer.

https://vimeo.com/ouchhh

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpujiUkwrt9_b5jKrnY5cKQ

https://vimeo.com/wearetundra

https://vimeo.com/whitevoid