The Dream Cube
Source Esi Design's Flickr
A gorgeous collection of images of a building recently built in Shanghai for the 2010 World Expo. My favourite aspect has to be how the building's lighting adjusts to the movement and interaction of its inhabitants. I really hope that this sort of interactivity and contextual adaptation works its way more into art and architectural in the coming years.
Interaction from head to toe
With touchscreen technologies, especially multi touch, well into fruition in the digital world it appears people are taking things passed the hands and down to the feet. The Human-Computer Interaction group at the Hasso-Plattner Institute has posted a really interesting interaction piece that enables someone to control an interface displayed on the ground with their feet. Though their interaction appears to draw a little too much from what you would do with your hands, I think they exploration is perfectly sound. An interface such as this could make for some great teaching tools for dancers, or as a playful interaction to be built into sidewalks on public streets. As computer interfaces become increasingly integrated with our lives and the methods in which we interact with them I think exploring the playful side of it is equally as important as the functional side. Check out their posting for full details.
Into the Infractor
infractor - interactive, collaborative multitouch application from siwamat on Vimeo.
How do turn a wet, dreary day into a good one? Read about installations! Well, if you're a big interaction dork that is. And it's a good thing I'm not the only dork, otherwise this little electronic number would have never been invented - The Infractor.
The Infractor was the creation of the Interface Design students at Potsdam University of Applied Sciences. The piece is an interactive table that visualizes content from the NY Times database (apparently they have an API). Using a variety of small physical objects the user is able to search and filter the results of the NY Times all in real time. At first glance I assumed that they were working on a Microsoft Surface table, but it turns out the table was designed and created by the students at the same university.
It's interesting as I have seen pieces quite similar to this in the past which have been touted as the future of interactivity. Now, say conceptual devices like this did indeed become our future interfaces. Each time I've witnessed a variation on it the same question comes to mind each time: how flexible are these shapes? The interface definitiely seems to have a near endless level of flexibility but what about these fixed, physical shapes? Tangible as they may be, is it really a boon to technology to have all these accompanying parts? Would hand interaction be any worse, or better? I guess it depends largely on it's application.
Potion
Here's a company to keep an eye on if you're interested in installation work. Potion was founded by a group of MIT graduates and is based in New York City. They specialize in installation design, and looking through their portfolio, they have a good hang of it. One of my particular favorites is a piece they did for the Museum of Science and Industry. It's a touch screen interface that shows a cut away of a human vein. Various parts flow through the blood stream and the users can grab on to them to learn more. It appears like a visceral and simplistic way to learn.
Installations in Architecture
World Changing contributor Regine Debatty featured a book that quickly made my list of "to reads" (which is getting dauntingly large): Installations by Architects. The title alone combines to of my biggest interests, but to see them combined in a novel that looks at how architects have used installation work to test the boundaries of what architecture can be about seems nothing short of inspiring. The book will focus on 5 categories of architectural installation - tectonics, body, nature, memory and public space. Once I actually hit this item on my list I'll give an update on my thoughts. I sincerely hope the library will carry this one.
Obscura Digital
Once again my RSS feeds have tipped me off to yet another thought provoking company: Obscura Digital.
Founded in 2000, Obscura Digital specializes in large scale interactive installations that range from ones the size of a pool table (as seen below) to interactivelight shows that cover entire auditorium ceilings . Think that's impressive? It appears the scalability of their work comes from a proprietary software package that they created themselves. Talk about starting from the ground up.
Perusing through their 'about' section it appears as though this company is doing quite well for themselves. They remain a privately held company of 33 employees with offices in San Francisco New York and Tokyo with more coming throughout Europe and the Middle East.
The pool table piece is impressive enough on its own. But if I've wet your appetite for them any more I recommend checking out their other projects.
Digital Confetti
This interactive art installation, made by the Rockwell Group, was featured at the Metropolitan Home Magazine's "Design 100" party. It is an annual celebration honoring 100 of the most noteworthy personalities, places and things in the field of innovative design.
In order to interact with the piece users waved hand held sticks at a central globe which would create explosions of confetti on the digitally rendered surface. It appears to have created a really playful conversation piece for all the party goers to enjoy. Be sure to check out the site as it contains documentation on how they built the piece as well.
Performance Art Printers
Here's a cute little performance piece done by students Matt Robinson and Tom Wrigglesworth at Kingston University, England. The editing is flawless. I wonder if they're trying to grab HP attention with this one. 
I can't seem to embed the video so be sure to check out the link.
Interactive Art in an Elevator
Artist Marco Brambilla was contracted by the Hotel Standard in NYC to create an interactive installation art piece into their elevators. The piece depicts the ascension or descent into Heaven or Hell - it's dependant on the direction the elevator is moving. This is a wonderful example of how art can be integrated into our daily lives and how interactive new media can truly bring this to life. Check it out for more details.
Beacon – Lighting your way
Chris O'Shea, who after browsing through his website, appears to be a prolific designer and artist based out of London, England. One of his artistic installations pieces was titled "Beacon". It involved a grid of modified "beacon lights," that you would typically see on a construction site, rigged to series of motion sensing infra red cameras and a control system. Using this setup, the lights were able to follow the movement of any individual in an extremely fluid motion. Though simple in concept, the "playful" participation of the user is what I think really sets this piece apart for me.
I've always been a fan of installation art, particularly for it's capability to engage the user. Active participation is a tried and true method of engaging a user's brian. Be it an academic course, art piece, family activity, sport etc - regarldess of what the subject matter - active participation is a great method of engaging multiple senses of a user. There is more to the human condition than the ability to sit back and "watch". By engaging as many senses as possible, a user is able to experience something on a deeper level of conciousness. They can see a switch, touch the lever, see the reaction and think about the result. Throw in a element of "play" or "fun" into this, and you have a great formula for thoguth and understanding.