Information
Technology
Installation Requirements / Space
The design of the interface is based on the idea of unfolding the tower to the bi-dimensional surface of the multi-touch screen allowing a coherent mapping of the actual building. The aim of this mapping is to establish a direct relation between the pixel resolution of the screen-space and the actual building giving the user an intuitive means of interaction. Following this objective the gesture recognition has been reduced to simple inputs and direct feed-back in order to focus the users’ intention and vision towards the tower rather than to the interface. For example the first user input is to touch the screen at any point; a point from which the tower gets illuminated; a point which becomes a vertical line and than unfolds like a curtain over the entire building. Its colour results from the mapping of the screen surface to the spectrum of visible light. Here a simple user input results in a dramatic chromatic change of the tower, an opening sequence which underlines the intended relation between user inputs and the tower and which directly translates the notion of ‘touch’.
Descriptions & Essays
The ‘Touch’ project aims to transform the general perception of a media façade, in this case the Dexia Tower, from a marketing and corporate image device towards an urban light art work. The challenge lies in the design of participation and identification through interaction which involves every user with the setting up of an urban landmark. From this point of view the illumination concept is the design of communication.
The project considers Brussels Dexia tower not as a media façade, a screen-like device, displaying pre-rendered video loops or images, but works on the architectural characteristics of the building.
On Brussels’ Rogier Place, at the bottom of the tower, a multi touch screen is mounted where people, both individually and collectively, can interact in real time. The interaction is constituted by both static and dynamic inputs and takes parameters of size (finger, hand), direction (horizontal, vertical, diagonal) and duration (introducing growth) into account. The user’s inputs establish a play of graphical elements inspired by abstract art such as Mondriaan's ‘elementarism’ and Kandinsky’s ‘point and line to plane’. These geometric figures are associated to the building as follows: points = pixels = windows, lines and diagonals = levels and edges, and surfaces = the facades. These shapes are displayed in real-time on top of a monochromatic light which the user defined in a first step whereas the shapes are displayed in black and white according to the positive or negative (up/down, left/right...) direction of his input. The project gives the inhabitants of Brussels the possibility of interacting with the building – establishing a new relation between architecture and the citizen. Here a simple finger tip of a person changes the appearance of an entire building, a 145m high tower.
Literature
Lieser, Wolf and [DAM] gallery Berlin and Cologne, ed. The World of Digital Art. Potsdam, DE: h.f.ullman publishing, 2010.
LAb[au]. »Algorithm and Light.« In Mediatecture, edited by Christoph Kronhagel. New York: Springer Verlag, 2010.
LAb[au]. Light, Colour, Sound (Luz, Color, Sonido). Barcelona, ES: Parramon Ediciones S.A., 2010.
Brook, Tony and Adrian Shaughnessy, ed. Supergraphics. London, UK: United Edition, 2010.
Klanten, Robert and Lukas Feiress and S. Ehmann, ed. Staging Space Scenic Interiors and Spatial Experiences. Berlin: Gestalten Verlag, 2010.
LAB[au]. Metadesign. Quebec: Les Presses du Réel, 2010.
Exhibitions & Events
2010
Festival :