For years, TEI Conference has been dedicated to presenting the latest results in the field of Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction. But what if interaction between digital and physical space is not object- or material-centred, but process- and relationship-oriented? With whom, what and, above all, how do we actually interact? And what do we gain or lose through a process-oriented focus?
The exhibition “Intangible Losses” questions the dissolution of object-like interfaces and presents the current tendencies of emerging artists, scientists and technologists who are rethinking interfaces at the boundaries of art, design, the sciences and technology. Tangible/Intangible Interfaces, Embedded/Non-Embedded Interfaces or Embodied/Disembodied Interfaces are no longer the central focus, as these are primarily attributions that can be traced back to our bodies. But what happens when bodies dissolve? When we begin to understand thoughts without bodies? The body as a prosthesis for the mind? “Intangible Losses” strives here for a change of perspective in the examination of invisible forms of interaction and communication and understands these as social acts of participation and the exchange of information.
The full curatorial statement can be accessed here
THE VIRTUAL EXHIBITION: Art Space 5020 SALZBURG
ARTWORKS
is a rose – A Performative Installation between the Tangible and the Digital
Charlotte Triebus, Ivana Druzetic, Bastian Dewitz, Calvin Huhn, Paul Kretschel and Christian Geiger
The performative art installation is a rose uses plants as natural interfaces in order to establish a direct relation between natural and technological systems. The installation is used to visualize digital-physical interaction that is not necessarily explicit – triggered by touch or air movement, by direct and non-direct manipulation, depicting the sum of all interactions during the course of the day. The technical realization consists of detection of the movement of plants caused by the movements in their immediate vicinity and the subsequent deformation of a computer-generated sphere. The paper is explaining several different layers of meanings the artist was motivated by when developing the artwork.
Charlotte Triebus works as a performance artist and multidisciplinary art director, based in Cologne and Madrid. The focus of her work is to investigate the potential of the intersections of art, dance and technology. She co-leads the artistic research department of MIREVI Lab of Hochschule Düsseldorf, and is an associated member of several international research teams investigating the intersections of dance and technology. http://charlottetriebus.com/
Rite of Passage
Sébastien Robert
The installation “Rite of Passage” is the result of an ongoing research project by artist Sébastien Robert. In 2019, the artist spent time in the forests of Chile during a residency to study the culture and associated rituals of the local Mapuche population. In this context, the Chilean araucaria, a type of fir tree, has played an important role in local traditions for thousands of years. As a refuge for mystical beings or the embodiment of spirits, they are closely linked to the animistic view of nature and the ancestor cult of the indigenous peoples.
Although the araucaria is one of the oldest tree families in the world and is considered sacred by the Mapuches, it is an endangered species due to deforestation and climate change. Both the ecological development of this area and social upheavals due to constant economic growth, colonisation and the associated missionary work of recent decades have naturally also had an impact on the culture of the indigenous population. The work “Rite of Passage” explores the connections between culture and nature by uncovering parallel tendencies of common disappearance. An important aspect in the culture of the Mapuches is the accompanying music of the “cult run” – drum, which is played by the healers (Machi) during ceremonies, for example to communicate with the ancestors or the spirits in the forest. The artist attempts to visualise the communication between the instrument and the sacred tree of the Mapuches using the method of copper chloride crystallisation. This method makes it possible to visualise a change in the structure of a material to which a copper chloride solution has been added. For this purpose, he took samples of tree resin from the araucaria in the Chilean forests and mixed them with the solution. In the installation, visitors can experience this process live, as on the one hand the drum is audible, while on the other hand the structural change of the tree resin can be perceived under the microscope. The process is supported by the visualisation of the crystallisation of already recorded samples, which are shown by means of video projections and actual samples.
Sébastien Robert (*1993) is a French research-based interdisciplinary artist based in The Hague, The Netherlands. His work has been recently exhibited at FIBER Festival (Amsterdam, NL), MU ArtSpace (Eindhoven, NL) and Global Seed Vault (Svalbard, NO) and he has performed at various renowned international festivals such as Rewire (The Hague, NL), Organik (Hualien, TW) and Scopitone (Nantes, FR). Sébastien graduated from the ArtScience Interfaculty of The Hague with honours in 2020. https://sebastienrobert.nl/
AuxeticBreath: Changing Perception of Respiration
Hyejun Youn
AuxeticBreath is an interactive new-media installation that visualizes the rhythmic respiratory rate, as well as tidal volume – the amount of air displaced or exchanged in a single breath – of collective human breaths using soft robotics covered with auxetic structures (i.e. structures with a negative Poisson’s ratio, exhibiting the property of becoming thicker when stretched and narrower when compressed). The goals of this artwork are 1) to encourage audience interaction with collective breaths and user contemplation of the changing perception of respiration during the COVID-19 pandemic; and 2) to explore a new artistic approach using a combination of auxetic structures and soft robotics. The metaphors and artistic expressions of continuous inflation and deflation of elastomers, and the emission of light from the expansion of auxetic structures invite an individual’s presence to become part of the larger collective installation, and to take a moment to consider underlying changing perceptions of breath during the pandemic. By employing an emerging technology, we want to encourage other artists to explore and modify techniques and methods generally only used among engineers, and to embrace them as new artistic approaches for realizing their own ideas.
Hyejun Youn is a designer, researcher and developer. She had a fellowship at Rhode Island School of Design. Her research is based upon innovating interactive designs that extend the user experience by enabling the engagement of our various perceptions. She focuses on extending user experience with storytelling and instruction, building toolkits for non-engineers, and developing psyche-based artworks with soft robotics, digital fabrication, and human-material interfaces.http://hyejunyoun.com/
Footsie
Young Suk Lee and Daniel Saakes
“Footsie” is a kinetic decorative table installation with four robotic chairs that incorporate elements of nature. Two of the chairs are placed across from each other for participants to sit on, with these presented alongside a set of robotic chairs. The robotic chair arms attached to the participant’s seat gently poke the their back and side. The structure of the arms is inspired by nature, like a human’s spine or insect’s segments, allowing elastic motion that is gentle and smooth like a caterpillar’s undulating wave. As an interactive kinetic art installation it inspires to connect people through the counter-intuitive physical interaction that is mediated by a machine. While it tackles the controversial cultural and social norms around touching the bodies of others or being touched, an experimental bodily experience explores new aesthetic interaction between humans and a mischievous digital entity. The interaction is provocative in a slightly uncomfortable way, and the paradoxical feelings and stimulating sensations open simultaneous interpretations on the meaning of Human-Machine-Interaction. Using a nature-inspired design, (similar to a human spine, the flexible muscle of mollusca and a caterpillar’s undulating wave motion), these pliable structures were fabricated with 3D printed meta-materials to create the sensual gestures. “Footsie” aims to unfold a sensitive and unspoken dialogue for both physical and emotional engagement, and it further explores how an evocative digital object mediates people’s relationships or disrupts people’s habitual interaction in everyday life. When one sits with another person or is surrounded by others, the non-verbal physical communication carries various feelings and meanings.
Young Suk Lee is a a multimedia artist and researcher and is currently working on her PhD dissertation (University of Twente, The Netherlands) based on her body of work of interactive computational art & design. http://youngsuklee.com/
Daniel Saakes is trained as an industrial design engineer at Delft University of Technology and he likes making things and making things that make things. https://mid.kaist.ac.kr/
Topographie Digitale
Audrey Briot, Martin De Bie, Alice Giordani, Leon Denise and Cedric Honnet
Topographie Digitale is an interactive installation that illustrates a hybridization between science and traditional textile craftsmanship and therefore stands between tangible and virtual worlds. It uses pleated textiles embedded with electronics as touch sensitive surfaces for interacting with a video-projected visualization. The pleated fabric, augmented by the artist’s custom chemical process, and the electronic sensing system give birth to a material with a mixed heritage that is both technological and traditional, and prefigures an emerging craft. The combination of craft and technology, creating a Creole technique, is an alternative way of thinking about the place of digitalization in our society in a more resilient way. It is also a metaphor of moving territories of creation that are constantly changing, as much as nature and human life, modifying our environment and landscape to unpredictable rhythms.
DataPaulette is a multidisciplinary collective focused on research and development in textiles and digital technologies. Founded in 2014, DataPaulette has taken the form of an independent laboratory operating as a hackerspace. Their members are: Audrey BRIOT, textile designer and technologist; Martin DE BIE, designer, teacher and researcher; Alice GIORDANI, engineer and e-textile designer; Cedric HONNET, research engineer. https://datapaulette.org/
Roads in You
Yoon Chung Han
Roads in You is an interactive biometric-data art and physical 3D data visualization by using a vein-matching process to roads. Veins are beautifully complicated forms hidden under our skins. They include many intersections that resemble the roads and paths surrounding us. In this artwork, participants scan their veins, capture the aesthetically formed vein lines, and observe existing roads on the Earth’s surface that match with the veins inside of their bodies. The surprising results discovered through this process are shown with both interactive map visualization and 3D printed sculptures. This artwork invites audiences to experience a unique matching process and discover newly meaningful roads for them. Enhanced 3D data visualization and physical data sculptures are new additions to this updated version. This data-driven artwork aims to find an interesting correlation between biometric data and map-based data in terms of research questions.
Yoon Chung Han is an interactive media artist, award-winning interaction designer and educator. Over the past ten years, she has created a wide range of interactive audiovisual art installations, data visualization, sonification and musical interface design. Her works have been presented in many international exhibitions, conferences and academic journals such as ACM SIGGRAPH Art gallery, Japan Media Arts Festival, Media City Seoul, ZKM, NIME, ISEA, ACM Multimedia, ACM CHI, IEEE Vis, and Leonardo Journal. http://yoonchunghan.com/portfolio/
Orrery Arcana
Nicole Carroll
Orrery Arcana is a system for real-time improvisational performance designed to facilitate a process analogous to automatic writing. The system includes custom software for real-time signal processing written in Max/MSP and Python and a self-made hardware controller that is integrated with a planetary gear train, which gives the performer control over timing and sequenced events through manual gear rotations. Each gear is equipped with a sensor plate with embedded light, magnetic, and capacitive-touch sensors. The sensors are primarily manipulated via tactile modular control objects in the form of concentric rings of colored acrylic and inset magnets that correspond to Tarot cards.
Nicole Carroll is a composer, performer, sound designer, and builder working with audio, video, and tangible objects. Her work spans installation, improvisation, and fixed media performance, across noise, soundscape, and acousmatic genres. She is active as a sound designer and composer in theatre, performs electronic music under the alias “n0izmkr,” and builds custom synthesisers, controllers, and performance sensor systems. Her research focuses on generative systems that merge analog and digital technologies to create musical performance systems from non-musical sources. Additional interests include soft circuits and wearable sensors, augmented acoustic instruments, and AV synthesis on mobile devices and embedded systems. http://nicolecarrollmusic.com