Media Architecture Institute

Alexandros Tsolakis and David Bajt from United Visual Artists talk about the working process at U.V.A. and how the creative process is steered to achieve the best results. Brain storming plays an important role in their work process, it allows them to collect ideas which are later distilled and polished by the team. They also talk how model building and prototyping work also plays an important role in the creative process, and getting away from the computer can boost actually improve the results and accelerate the testing of ideas. Especially lighting can be better tested through models, as lighting simulation can be a time intensive activity that nevertheless does not delivered the best results.

In this video Dr. Gernot Tscherteu talks about the exhibition of the Media Architecture Biennale. He mentions that the exhibition has become a meeting place for designers, architects, and academics working in the area. He also explains that the projects exhibited at the Media Architecture Biennale are also available online, or through an iPad app. You can visit the online exhibition at catalog.mediaarchitecture.org

In this video professor Sanxing Cao talks about Media Architecture in China. In such a big country like China there are big differences between the different cantons. Sanxing Cao talks about three main trends in the development of media in China. Smart media, which is the integration information and communication technologies into common media systems, the second one is called ambient media, which encompasses media facades and outdoor media that can be found in common environments, the last one is natural media, which is much more focused on the interaction of humans and media devices.

The projected media façade of the Klubhaus St Pauli will offer Hamburg’s entertainment district an extraordinary spectacle of artistic light – and video installations. With the construction of this project hamburg will get a pioneering landmark, a new attraction for the citizens and visitors of the city.

The entire facade of the Klubhaus St Pauli is divided into three areas. The middle area is made of metal plates that will be controlled according to the content displayed in the LED screens. Another part will be designed as a low-res screen, i.e. with a large pixel pitch to obtain a contrast to the third area, which will have equipped with a high-definition display. ONLYGLASS, a German company specialized in transparent display solutions, is responsible for the high-resolution part, integrated directly into the glass panels of the lift. The resolution will be about 1100 Pixel/m², roughly 50.000 Pixel for the elevator facade.

The use of glass allows a high degree of transparency, both from the inside as well as from the outside. While the lift’s passengers will have a beautiful view of the St. Pauli’s center, from the outside the city will enjoy the visuals of a high-resolution screen, capable of showing videos and pictures. This dynamic façade will become an outstanding example for media architecture in Germany.

ONLYGLASS will present a prototype of the Media Facade at the Media Architecture Biennale 2014. We are looking forward to see their technology!


Detail of the glass.
Credits:
Video and rendering: Klubhaus St. Pauli GmhH&Co. KG
Detail picture: ONLYGLASS, Phographer: Christian O. Bruch

Societal flows and processes become analyzed and visualized on urban media facades through using data which is generated by digital sensor networks and infrastructures that underlie our daily lives.

Challenging questions: How can we make social, environmental and inter-cultural processes visible and use the screens as black boards and visualization zones? What is the impact on the society, when invisible structures that underlie our daily life get visualized? What is the potential to create public awareness?

Call for proposals for the visible city 2015

Our today’s modern cities are hybrid structures in which technology is invisibly interwoven in the perception layers of our everyday lives. With the curatorial theme of InVISIBLE and VISIBLE Cities we want to develop an awareness on the changes which are hardly visible to the eyes and are underlying our nowadays cities.

We call for artistic scenarios to visualise invisible, embedded ‘smart’ urban infrastructures and analyse their impact on the technological transformation of our society in a broad and public discourse.

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