Client
Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt, Germany / Final Project Master Studies
Project Description
The interactive art installation »LufTraum« at Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt, Germany was the final master project of my studies and we realized the concept, design and development in a group of three students.
Video recorded by Finn / edited by Mieka
The interactive installation LufTraum was part of the exhibition FILM & GAME. Ein Wechselspiel at the Deutsches Filmmuseum (German Museum of Movies) in Frankfurt. The exhibition started on July, 1st 2015 and dealt with the convergence of movies and games, focusing on the intermedial connection between the two media formats.
LufTraum was located in a vertical space in the entrance hall. The unusual media format of 3.50m (width) x 14m (height) x 5m (depth) lead to the use of the architectural preconditions as a basic approach in the concept. Visitors could see the projection's content from the ground floor and from three upper floors, which can be reached by the elevator or the stairway.
In the context of the exhibition's topic the installation's theme was created around the idea of wishes and desires of humans and combining both movie and game (game and movie as a 'dream factory'). Interactive devices allowed visitors to enter a wish and send it off to its journey. The dreams were visualized as individual irregular forms, which were generated by certain rules in openFrameworks, an open source C++ toolkit for creative coding. Furthermore randomly chosen parts of the entered wishes were revealed with typography, building objects with the generated form.
Visitors could easily become active users by putting their dreams onto the wall or influence the wishes of other's via different interaction devices. Additionally they could choose to only observe and enjoy the moving transformational processes. Because of its opulence and placement in the entrance hall, the projection grabbed the visitors' attention and invited them to actively participate.
The interactive installation was a collection of dreams which were creating a changeable artwork with algorithmic and random elements as well as user generated content. It combined visual semantics with physical mechanics and represented the mutability and fragility of dreams and the influences that other people's interactions or certain circumstances may cause.
The users entered their dreams via an old typewriter which was connected to the system via an A/D interface. After having sent them to the wall all participants could influence the wishes by using the varying interaction devices on the different floors above. All devices made a very sensual interaction possible with a translation through invisible technology into digital information. The users got direct audiovisual feedback during the transformation effects. They coukd speak into a real tin can telephone and see the effects appearing as big sound waves. They could deviate a compass and see how the wishes got irritated and visitors could come together and form a human chain to support wishes and let them come true. Wishes residing in this respective area could be pulled away, pushed together, get bigger or smaller, faster or slower. It entirely depended on the kind of the user's input. The wishes literally went on a journey and varied depending on external influences.
There were points of intersection, packed with archetypal situations that can be found in real life as well as in movies and in games, such as loss, victory or revenge. If a wish triggered an intersection point, an alienated artefact from a given movie or game scene that contains a corresponding emotional statement, appeared. People created new connotations and got an idea of the archetypal quality of the intersection points even if they didn't know the origin of the artefact.
The visual style is abstract, minimalistic and high in contrast for providing the best possible focus on the core part: the wishes and their transformation due to the interaction. Using stylistic elements of a collage and a highly symbolic language integrated the surreal feelings of dreams and subconscious taking the user into a visual appealing ever-changing world.
The installation allowed a sensual experience of art, encouraged not only the visitor's participation, but also their mutual interaction and initiated the philosophical notion on their dynamic life journey through the mysterious world of human desires.
Interactive installation by Finn, Mieka & Padde
