Scapes is a room-sized 3D grid of lights that can be controlled in real-time. Interaction with the installation is based on several speakers and microphones. As sounds are played through the speakers and simultaneously recorded by the microphones, the audience can alter the visuals by making their own sounds.

The installation was created by Squidgroup. “Squidsoup is a digital arts group specialising in immersive interactive installations within physical 3D space. Their work combines sound, light, physical space and virtual worlds to produce immersive and emotive headspaces. They explore the modes and effects of interactivity, looking to make digital experiences where meaningful and creative interaction can occur.”

Scapes – Tenderpixel Gallery from squidsoup on Vimeo.

Electric Sheep is a collaborative abstract artwork founded by Scott Draves. It’s run by thousands of people all over the world, and can be installed on any ordinary PC or Mac. When these computers go to “sleep”, the Electric Sheep comes on and the computers communicate with each other by the internet to share the work of creating morphing abstract animations known as “sheep”. The result is a collective “android dream”, an homage to Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

The sheep evolve, as it is possible for the users to “vote” for the designs they like by pressing up or down on the keyboard, when a particular sheep appears one the screen. Popular sheep will live longer and reproduce according to a genetic algorithm with mutation and cross-over. Hence the flock evolves to please its global audience.
It is also possible for you to design your own sheep and if your sheep is popular, they will breed with the rest of the flock and produce even more sheep. By mutating and crossing the genomes, variations of your sheep will appear and evolve.

SAXO Reactive Ceiling is an installation made by Kollision in collaboration with Martin Professional and Taintec. The installation is an expressive and reactive light installation for SAXO Bank’s headquarters in Hellerup, Denmark. The installation was made in dialogue with architect Christian Lund, who was in charge of designing new meeting facilities for the Bank. The meeting rooms and the organically shaped passageway was the basis of the assignment, which aimed at creating a colorful and spectacular ‘light source’ integrated in the architecture.

Upon entering the passageway you are immersed in a total light experience. Waves of light slowly wash over the ceiling and render the complete space into an expressive composition. 2,400 LED light sources, distributed in 18 rows with 133 light sources on each, constitute the installation. Emphasizing the architectural form, the light sources run the length of the passageway in curvy lines. On closer inspection, the individual radiances are the light sources propagated by acrylic tubes that protrude through precisely cut openings in the ceiling. The light is distributed throughout the opaque end caps of the acrylic tubes, which emerges as bright and color intense points hovering just below the ceiling surface.

In this organic layout various light designs are brought to life. Expressions like ‘Aurora Borealis’, in different colors and speeds. Moving lines of light in different tones and speeds turn into ‘Snakes’, slithering along the ceiling. In addition visitors encounter reactive aspects as meeting room doors are opened and closed, sending ‘pulses’ of light that grow and spread on the surface of the ceiling.

SAXO Reactive Ceiling from Kollision on Vimeo.

Kollision is the primary light designer of the installation and was in charge of the physical layout of the LEDs. In addition Kollision developed the player software running the setup. The software generates real-time graphics in multiple combined and blended layers and also maps the content to the physical layout.

Kollision also developed an app for the iPhone, which can activate and control the various light designs. The app takes advantage of the iPhone’s full functionality and interactive features. The iPhone’s touch screen turns the ceiling into a canvas. Simply running your fingers across the screen paints a flow of colors across the ceiling. Another mode lets you control the position of a large light spot by tilting the iPhone in the direction you want the spot to move.

SAXO Reactive Ceiling / iPhone Interaction from Kollision on Vimeo.

More info can be found on Kollision’s website.

In March 2010 the Aros Aarhus Kunstmuseum opened the exhibition ”I Love You”. In relation to the upcoming opening, Kollision presented curator Pernille Taagaard Dinesen for an installation concept for doing interactive doodles. As the exhibition takes on a broad perspective on love, the Love Doodles concept was a suitable platform for communicating fun, serious, and kinky statements in one frame. Kollision has developed the installation as a sponsorship to Aros.

An analogue drawing and photo machine
Many Danish museums are currently struggling to rethink themselves as well as develope their own ways of communicating and presenting content. Most often these new ways are based on a technologically web 2.0 approach, assuming that visitors are eager to comment the exhibitions – but are they? As a reaction to this approach Kollision developed a simple concept in which the visitor can become part of an interactive graphic installation by writing or drawing with a white board marker on a piece of glass, place himself in relation to the doodles, press a button and here after appear in a large mosaic of other visitors and their love statements. It is quick, open, playful and animates to the construction of numerous comments and compositions.

A mobile recorder
Love Doodles is constructed as a cubic box. The front consists of a piece of glass, a 7” display, and a button. Behind the glass a camera is located capturing the visitor and his doodles. When the visitor is satisfied with the composition pressing the button captures an image, stores it in a database and displays it in the dynamic mosaic. This setup can be useful in many other settings to gather simple playful comments from users – all it takes is electric power and internet.

More than 3,000 images where collected and displayed in a Mosaic during the exhibition period. Visit the project site here: http://kollision.dk/?lovedoodles.

Love Doodles from Kollision on Vimeo.

Biennale 2010 is an installation made by Kollision in collaboration with BIG and CAVI and is curated by DAC. The installation is an experience-oriented narrative of Copenhagen’s past, present and possible future exhibited at the 12th international architecture exhibition in Venice. The installation is referred to as “1947-2047: From Finger Plan two Loop City” and is a seven minutes visual tour the force of diagrams, fly-through on 3D projected scenarios. Kollision has primarily been responsible for the 3D workflow and production, BIG for the content and CAVI for programming and technical implementation.

Experience
As a visitor at the exhibition you will experience dynamic pictures, movies, and texts brought alive by projecting them onto the walls of the installation, as well as 3D content, 3D projected on a podium and a centrally placed scale-model of a section of a bridge. The physical surfaces of the walls and the scale-model are illuminated by three Full HD projectors. The precise match and calibration between the projection and the physical setup, results in an optical 3D illusion of the scale model slowly becoming alive by having details added to it and in combination with people and cars moving around the bridge together with water running in canals, trees, and buildings popping up, etc.

The Danish pavillion
The installation is part of a larger exhibition in the Danish pavilion – “Q & A: Urban Ques _ Copenhagen Answers” which discusses Copenhagen as an answer to new urban challenges.

Credit
The storyline and content of the installation is based on “Loop City” a vision developed by BIG, Tom Nielsen, ReD Associates and ARUP. The 3D fly-through sequence is conducted by Glessner Group and the very installation is sponsored by Realdania.

See more at http://kollision.dk/?biennale

Loop City from Kollision on Vimeo.

Calm, stoic, almighty – the statue of Holger the Dane seems almost intimidating as he just sits there sleeping – somehow awaiting for something to happen. When visitors stand in front of the two metres tall concrete statue it’s not hard to imagine how Holger the Dane will one day come to life a day when needed. Through technology developed by CAVI (Centre for Advanced Visualization and Interaction) it is now possible to bring Holger the Dane to life using advanced mapping of 3D graphics.

According to the legend, Holger the Dane is sleeping in the casemates below Kronborg Castle and will only wake up if enemies threaten the Danish nation. But what happened to Holger the Dane before he fell asleep?

The staging of The Journey of Holger the Dane will let visitors get a glimpse of some of the experiences that Holger the Dane is said to have experienced in his fabled life. With projectors and camera tracking the story of Holger the Dane’s life is told through 3D animations, illusions, and sound.

To activate the story, the audience need to interact with the installation. As you move closer to the statue, blazing embers projected onto the statue will light up more and more until the story eventually begins. If a visitor uses the flash on a camera during the show, it will cause the installation to react in a surprising manner by manipulating both the visuals and the sound.

CAVI has profound experience with projects in the cultural sphere where advanced technology is used to present and augment physical objects. In 2009 an interactive staging of a 1000-year-old runic stone was created using some of the same technologies.

The Journey of Holger the Dane was created by CAVI, TEKNE Produktion, and DUL at Aarhus University, Denmark.

Check out the video of the entire sequence:

- and with this DIY Design Electrinics kit I’ve found online you can make all sorts of games and gadgets using the components in the box and the matching guides telling you how to get going on a particular project:) I would say it’s a new and more exciting version of a puzzle that gets your creativity going.

I just come from a leture in Experience-Centered Design, where I was shown Jayne Wallance’s art project: Digital Jewellery. She inprents stories and relationships in art pieces combining different materials and technology.

For example she made a flower of post stamps, that blossoms only once. This is controlled by a rain detector placed in a family’s garden. The focus lies on the relationship between the observer and the art work, and the history this holds. Wallance challanges the material and the way we use technology. She reminds us to become closer in a world that seems fragmented and impersonal.

Digital Urban Living is a project group here at CAVI. They focus on lots of different issues concerning the integration of new technology in the urban sphere. One project developed a few years ago was The Climate Wall. An interactive projection that made it possible to construct sentences on a building facade. A fun and social way to make people aware of the clime, and have everyone taking responsibility.

CAVI is a research centre specializing in 3D projection. In 2008 we made the rune stone of Mejlby come alive, using 3D projection on the original stone to tell the story behind it. A great way to educate children, giving them a fun and interactive experience. This gives them a hands on experience as we integrated the historical knowledge in the physical space. It also encouraged the children to work together, and suddenly the learning experience seems more like a social and fun activity. Have a look.

SPIDER is part of this year’s (2010) new attraction The Fox Hole in Fårup Sommerland, a large Danish amusement park. The installation is based on the idea that after closing time the animals of the surrounding forest is invading and riding the theme park. The Fox Hole is staged as an underground world in which the visitor is met by fun, challenging, and scary obstacles, making it difficult to find the fox.

The floor installation is situated in a dark narrow alley. An old wooden floor is projected onto the light concrete floor. While overlooking the floor a few spiders will crawl up from the cracks and wander around for a while before disappearing again. When the visitor steps onto the floor, hundreds of small and large spiders will appear from all sides and chase you. If there are multiple visitors on the floor the spiders will team up in groups and leave no visitors unchased until everyone has left the floor surface.

The installation is running on a tracking library, developed by Kollision that analyses a video stream from an IR-camera mounted in the ceiling along with an IR-emitter. Hereby a computer placed with a projector above the ceiling is calculating the positions of people on the floor and spawning spiders according to the activity on the floor. The spiders behave after basic flocking behavior similar to schools of fish and flocks of birds causing their movements on the floor to appear quit scary and realistic.

Read more about the project (in Danish).

Interactive Spider Floor from Kollision on Vimeo.

Just found this design project on rAndom International’s website. It’s a modern canvas that engages the observer(s) taking a photo of them and exposing the result. The interesting thing about the project is that the photo fades away as you observe yourself on the canvas, transforming the traditional painting from being everlasting to a portrait dissolving as you observe it.

I’ve just foud an example of the future playground. This is one amazing video demonstrating an interactive forest where children learn about the nature. The children discover how they influence their surroundings using their bodies as metaphors for rocks or logs. A great way to teach children about their environment.

I just love Google for their wild ideas and never ending motivation. I’ve come across this game, that is a mashup between different online tools such as Google, Youtube, Twitter etc. The game challanges your speed on the internet constantly shifting between cool youtube clips and small apps. So how fast will you get through the Internet? Find out here.

New York is a great example of a city with billboards and flashing lights all over facades, busses and magazines. It’s not always a pretty sight, and it’s not the best way for a given company to advertise anymore. We don’t really notice one particular advertisement as we’re constantly being overloaded with information.

The artvertiser gives companies the opportunity to add an extra layer to the city, combining art with commercials. A layer only to be seen if one looks through digital binoculars and laptops with web cameras, which detects individual advertisements and then creating a hybrid and somehow secret space.

Take a look at this interesting way to make the city more alive and interesting here:
New York is a great example of a city with billboards and flashing lights all over facades, busses and magazines. It’s not always a pretty sight, and it’s not the best way for a given company to advertise anymore. We don’t really notice one particular advertisement as we’re constantly being overloaded with information.
The artvertiser gives companies the opportunity to add an extra layer to the city, combining art with commercials. A layer only to be seen if one looks through digital binoculars and laptops with web cameras, which detects individual advertisements and then creating a hybrid and somehow secret space.
Take a look at this interesting way to make the city more alive and interesting here:
New York is a great example of a city with billboards and flashing lights all over facades, busses and magazines. It’s not always a pretty sight, and it’s not the best way for a given company to advertise anymore. We don’t really notice one particular advertisement as we’re constantly being overloaded with information.
The artvertiser gives companies the opportunity to add an extra layer to the city, combining art with commercials. A layer only to be seen if one looks through digital binoculars and laptops with web cameras, which detects individual advertisements and then creating a hybrid and somehow secret space.
Take a look at this interesting way to make the city more alive and interesting here:

Artvertising Berlin, Transmediale 2010 from Julian Oliver on Vimeo.

Digital experience inspires a lot of people, showing exiting, interessting, innovative or even odd uses of new technology in an experience-oriented context. If you have a good example that we haven't already covered, we would appreciate your suggestion.

Digital Experience is a weblog on interaction and experience design. The site is created and maintained by CAVI, the Centre for Advanced Visualization and Interaction at Aarhus University. Contributions are welcome.
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Posey by Mark D. Gross

Urban Screens by Susanne Jaschko

Computer Games by Christian Ulrik Andersen

Design for Reflection by Shona Kitchen

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