Markus Decker, Dietmar Offenhuber, Orkan Telhan

‘Dust Serenade‘ is a reenactment of an acoustic experiment done by German physicist August Kundt. Inspired by the Chladni’s famous sand figures visualizing sound waves in solid materials, Kundt devised an experiment for visualizing longitudinal sound waves through fine lycopodium dust; a setup that would allow him to measure the speed of sound in different gases.

Kundt was a strong believer in experimental methods over purely theoretical inquiry in a time when the disciplines of theoretical and experimental physics started to diverge.

‘Dust Serenade’ intends to remind us the materiality of sound. Tubes filled with scraps of words and letters–cut-up theory–interact with sound waves and turn into figures of dust. Here, visitors can modulate the frequency of the sound emitted by moving a rod and create different harmonic sound effects. As sound waves figure, refigure, and disfigure the text, we invite visitors to rethink about the tension between their theorical knowlegde and the sensory experience.

Dust Serenade is one of a series of interactive sound projects that enable visitors to experience the physical aspects of sound, presence, and atmosphere. Works in the series have been shown at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Zagreb, Istanbul and São Paulo.

The project was funded by the Council for the Arts at MIT and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture (BMUKK)

our project page and a related post on WMMNA

more on the blog of see this sound.

Inspired by the natural interaction of physical state change cycles and the simplicity and subtle beauty of
Hans Haacke’s 1963 Condensation Cube, Dewy presents a display surface of ’pixelized’ condensation, like a spatially controlled fogged window, one that can communicate back to you with words and patterns. Slow and subtle in behavior, Dewy utilizes a materiality and temporality reminiscent of many natural environmental processes, and attempts to challenge, or create an alternative, to the visual pollution of existing systems of public media display.

Collision Collective Show 11, Boston, March 2007

dewy

maex decker, dietmar offenhuber, ushi reiter
DTD kicks up a lot of dust – with atmosphere being its sole medium of interaction. The project is a sound installation for a room with dusty floor, on which a number of phonographs are placed, playing back silent vinyl records. As a result of the visitors movements, particles of dust accumulate in the grooves of empty records and define a musical score. A carpet of monochromatic light visualizes the turbulence in the atmosphere and detects its ephemeral structures, which are directly linked to the noise generated by the dusty records. Over time, the physical impact of the interaction irreversibly consumes the interface and destroys the needles of the phonographs.

project page at servus

Exhibitions: uncharted/ Santral Istanbul, March 2009;  touch me festival, Zagreb, Dec. 2008; ars electronica 2006

]]> http://offenhuber.net/dust-till-dawn/feed/ 1 http://offenhuber.net/living-room/ http://offenhuber.net/living-room/#comments Wed, 10 Sep 2003 02:55:47 +0000 admin http://offenhuber.net/?p=891 A permanent installation for a Upper Austrian high school building, conceptualized and implemented as part of the ars electronica futurelab. In the school-building, four different theatrical stages with different scales and possibilities were constructed, from a small table for stop motion animation to a room-size green-box space. The images taken on these stages were collected in a web-repository, from which the students could assemble short multi-screen stop motion animations shown on the central space of the school.

The  project page at ars electronica with full credit list.

Abhängig vom gewählten Ausgangskubus entsteht eine ganze Familie von verwandten Formen, die alle dem der Ausgangsanordnung immanenten Regelsystem folgen.

try the interactive demo

Exhibited: Skopje Electronic Art Fair 1999, Skopje; File Festival, Sao Paolo, 2000; VRML-ART 2000, Monterey, US; re:modern exhibition, Künstlerhaus Vienna

From the installation at re:modern, Künstlerhaus Wien, 2003

Trajectory was a sound installation commissioned by the austrian new media festival “liquid music” which took place in August 2002 in Judenburg, Styria.
the installation uses the realtime position of polar orbiting and geostationary satellites to control shortwave radio receivers, creating a sound environment that reflects the actual movement in the sky over judenburg. In the projection the satellites currently passing the visible sky are displayed, showing their influence contributing to the sound environment. by marking certain satellites the visitor could take influence on the soundscape.

Projection-based interface for the visualization of the cultural content in a dynamic three-dimensional environment for the “Urbis” museum project in Manchester, England. The modular information platform on which the installation is based invites visitors to create virtual cities through interaction with a flow of media. The results are three-dimensional, dynamic skylines that are projected onto a panorama screen. The individual cities (City of Pleasures, Emotions, Imaginations and Senses) are embedded within scenarios derived from crystalline, organic and urban structures, as well as modeled on outer space.

The project was nominated for BAFTA award, and I received for my contribution the 82nd Art Directors Club, Annual Awards, Silver Award (New Media)

I have only screenshots of the 3d world, but Dan Hill, who created the content for the exhibit (wonderful work!!!), has some photos of the installation on his blog,

The project consists of three elements. Most visible from the city, the light columns with individually addressable RGB light elements, communicates global environmental parameters such as time of the day. A second display element, the text floor, was associated with the domain of the users, who could exchange messages (which would, for example, only be able to pass through a door if it was open). Finally, small displays in the vertical columns would show the status of the system, such as the times individual doors have opened on that day.

The user input happens over four input terminals where users could input speech, text or biometric measures such as their pulse, which would cause the light columns to blink in sync.

The project was awarded with the Joseph Binder Award 2001, the old project page with full credit list can be found here