The Media Architecture Institute will be presenting the six winning projects from the inaugural Media Architecture Awards, as well as a selection of outstanding projects from the book New Media Facades, as part of the Media Facade Exhibition 2013 in Customs House, Sydney. The exhibition launches on Wednesday the 22nd of May in the atrium of Custom House, and will be exhibited until the 1st of July. The exhibition is organised in collaboration with ISEA and Vivid Sydney.
Spine is an interactive installation based on twenty glowing cubes and an atmospheric sound composition. Each cube is moved in fluid motions by two computer-controlled motors. The movements of the cubes, as well as the sound composition, react to nearby visitors by working together as one coherent expression in dialogue with the surroundings – a fifty meter long spine floating in space continually displaying new movements, light scenes and sounds. Spine is moody, sometimes shy and avoidant at other times more curious and almost aggressive.
Kollision is the main designer of the installation and was involved in all stages of planning and execution with a specific focus on creating the interactive and sensor based 3D-engine, which controls the winches and the 3D-positioning of the cubes, controlled the light sources and triggered event sounds.
The installation Digital Fountain forms a landmark in the new Westfield development in London. It captures the essence of water both visually and acoustically, relaying the effect digitally through a unique combination of glass, aluminium and LCD technology.
Jason Bruges Studio was commissioned by Westfield Stratford City to design and install a public artwork for the new Westfield development in Stratford, East London. The installation sits on the main pedestrian routes from both Stratford Underground and Stratford International Stations to the Olympic Stadium.
The artwork captures the essence of water both visually and acoustically, relaying the effect digitally through a unique combination of glass, aluminium and LCD technology.
Between the 12m high „Water Fall“ sculpture and the seven 8m long „Water Rill“ benches, several thousand LCD screens are individually programmed to fade in and out in a liquid manner. In addition, seventy-four speakers are individually orchestrated to provide a complementary soundscape.
The programming behind the scenes only describes the personality of the artwork never its precise motion. This results in a continuously evolving, never repeating audio-visual cascade.
A radical design in both architecture and lighting. The iconic double-looped shape, a spiralling exhibition space, biking lanes, a pool of water with the famous Little Mermaid, and a beautiful dynamic illumination of both inner spaces and outer façades. During nighttime the façade displayed a vibrant, but stylish show of patterns and animations that made the building come to life.
The Denmark Pavilion for Expo 2010 in Shanghai was designed by the young and successful Danish company Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), and in addition to an iconic double-looped shape, it featured a media façade with 3600 pixels along the spiralling outer surface. The pixels were produced by a pattern of holes, which were fitted with diffusing tubes in different sizes. Each tube had a multi-color LED fixture and was controlled by a custom media playback system. This system was also tied in with a series of light and temperature sensors around the building, thereby controlling both light intensity and color temperature.
We approach our vision of Connecting Cities 2012 – 2016 through three scenarios:
Networked City 2013: The European cities can be connected through Urban Media Facades, which provide space for intercultural encounters and exchange.
http://www.connectingcities.net/
Connecting Cities Network is funded by the Culture Programme 2007-2013 of the European Union. 
The workshop on interactive city lighting held at the international conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI) in Paris aims at exploring the topic form various perspectives. The workshop goal is to bring together a community of researchers, designer and practitioners to better understand the capabilities, contexts of use and possibilities for user participation of this emerging technology. Selected contributions will be invited to present and share their approach with the community. The workshop aims to: identify key opportunities for new forms of interactive lighting systems in urban context, explore interaction paradigms that can be (re-) used for interactive urban lighting, and examine adequate ways of prototyping and evaluating interactive lighting systems.
The organisers of the workshop invite to submit case studies, explorations and research work that stands in close connection with the proposed topic. In sharing different approaches the aim is to spark interesting discussions and hands on prototyping exercises to explore the context by working it through in a practical manner.
For more information visit the interactive city lighting.
The project was realized as a cooperation of the MAI and Aarhus Univeristy / PIT / CAVI with generous support trough AHL Mediafacades who were sponsoring the hardware.
We used the S25-3 Pixel Type and CP950 controller´s which turned out to be a very powerful combination. We installed about 5500 Pixel and used 4 Controllers, one on each level. The CP950 can drive 680 Pixel per port and provides 8 of them. So without the problems of cabling, we could have done it easily with two controllers.
The building itself was done by the famous danish Architect Arne Jacobsen and is a class listed monument since 1994, so this is why the mounting had to be completely reversible. We came up with a very lightweight sub construction which was just clipped onto the existing railing.
Due to that fact we were able to complete the whole project in approx. 5 days and a team of 3 people on the tower which was of course supported by a ever changing number of volunteer students. A big Thank You to them!
The content which is shown on the four levels is part of the “City Bug Report”, a system where the citizens of Aarhus can report problems in their home town via internet or even via smart phone. Each of the moving balls represents a bug in a different stage in respect of time and status. At the end when the problem is solved the bug dies in a white fade out. 
The City Hall Tower now became the most visible representative of this forward – looking and democratic tool which guides us the way to the Smart City! The Media Architecture Biennale is part of the Connecting Cities Network which was set up by Susa Pop and will come back to Aarhus in 2014!
Credits:This year, for the first, time the World’s most outstanding media architecture was awarded during the Media Architecture Biennale. A jury of international representatives of the field chose six winning projects from five categories based on their ability to integrate media and architecture – and the profound impact on their urban surroundings.
The award ceremony took place November 16, 2012 in the City Hall of Aarhus. The winning projects are:
Winner Animated Architecture: Kunsthaus Graz – BIX, Graz Austria ‘The Graz building as a responsive skin of some sort was always in our mind – the ‘realities’ boys made it reality – with sparkle. What more could you ask for?’ Peter Cook; Architect, London, GB
Winner Business and Money Architecture: Galleria Centercity, Seoul, South Korea Galleria Centercity marks the entrance to a new development area in Cheonan, South Korea and will play a major role in the new urban development. The strategy for the building enclosure consists of creating an optical illusion. When seen from a distance the visuals on the large canvas are sharp and recognizable, whereas from within the direct vicinity these appear dissolved and cause the building to glow.
Winner Participatory Architecture: Blinkenlights, Berlin, Germany Celebrating its 20th anniversary the Chaos Computer Club has made a special present to itself and the city of Berlin. From September 12th, 2001 to February 23rd, 2002, the famous “Haus des Lehrers” (teacher’s house) office building at Berlin Alexanderplatz has been enhanced to become the world’s biggest interactive computer display.
Winner Spatial Media Art: Silo 468 Kruunuvuorenranta, Helsinki, Finland The art piece converts a disused oil silo into a wondrous light display and a civic space. Public will gain access to the vast interior of the 35m diameter 16 meter tall steel silo which will be dark red inside. Sunlight will fill the space with dappled shadows creating a spectacular daytime space. At night 1280 white LED´s flicker and sway on the surface of the silo controlled by a bespoke software mimicking swarms of birds in flight – a reference to silo´s seaside location.
Winner Future Trends and Prototypes: Lotus Dome, Lille, France Lotus Dome’ is a living dome made out of hundreds of ultra-light responsive aluminum flowers. When approached, the big silver dome lights up and opens its flowers. Its behavior moves from soft breathing to a more dynamic mood when more people interact. The light slowly follows people, creating an interactive play of light and shadow. The graphic representations of the lotus flower on the walls and the deep bass sound transform the Renaissance environment into a ‘Techno-Church’.
Winner Future Trends and Prototypes: LivingSculpture, Berlin, Germany LivingSculpture was created by WHITEvoid as a kinetic centre piece for the PHILIPS trade fair stand at the Light+Building trade fair 2012 in Frankfurt, Germany. The installation is composed of 24 movable triangular aluminium frames carrying 864 ultra thin glass OLEDs (organic light emitting diodes) altogether. The 36 OLEDs on each of the 24 triangular bases form a larger triangle and the final form is created by superimposed triangles.
The winning and nominated projects can be seen in the free online compendium available at http://catalog.mediaarchitecture.org.
Read more about the awards at http://mab12.mediaarchitecture.org/awards/.
Exhibition and Awards: The call is open – see here for submission details. Conference: The call for papers is closed.
Building on the successful event in Vienna 2010, The Media Architecture Biennale 2012 brings together artists, academia and industry in the continued exploration of the meeting between architecture and digital media.
With public exhibitions, a conference and a series of workshops, the biennale offers many ways to participate and get involved. See the sections below for more details.
The 2012 biennale will extend the existing format with an academic conference track, new exhibition, awards and industry sessions, as well as a full day of workshops.
The exhibition presents state-of-the-art media architecture in a collaboration between artists, practitioners and industry, both in-situ and in documented forms.
At the conference, we explore “participation” as a core value of media architecture (other topics are welcome as well!). The conference invites both academic and industry presentations. We are currently seeking a publishing agreement with ACM for the academic proceedings.
The workshops offer an intimate forum to discuss or even work on a specific topic or technology with your peers.
The Biennale itself is also organized in the spirit of participation as we invite and support dialog and exchanges between artists, researchers and industry.
Come and join us!
Vivid Sydney, the largest festival of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, came to an end recently. With its 60 light sculptures, which span large-scale projections to grassroots LED installations, the festival represents an important contributor to the media architecture movement. For the first time this year, the Media Architecture Institute was one of the supporters for a centerpiece installation that used a range of lighting and interactive sensor technologies to create a unique visitor experience. The installation with the title Chromapollination is an interactive light sculpture that reclaims a neglected urban space in Sydney’s Central Business District transforming it into a playful and inviting city organism. Giant glowing dandelions are sprawling from cracks in the concrete to project colour and motion onto and around passersby and festival participants. The dandelions react to their environment – passersby generate a digital wind that gently caresses the tops of the flowers. As force builds, the ‘seeds’ break off and transverse across a light ceiling.
The installation’s light ceiling was created with about 2,400 S18 LEDs (about 1,800 in the horizontal ceiling section and 600 vertically mounted LEDs) produced by AHL. A number of C65 LEDs also produced by AHL were used to create the visual representation of smaller dandelions that grow beneath the larger sculptures. The glowing heads of the larger dandelion sculptures were realised with state-of-the-art fibre optics produced by Australia-based Optic Fibre Lighting.
The installation was produced by students from the Design Science (Illumination Design) and the Interaction Design and Electronic Arts Master programs with the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, with the support of academics from these programs and partners from the industry. Further details can be found on the project website.
Every year, as part of Vivid, the sails of the iconic Sydney Opera House are illuminated using the latest technologies in large-scale projection mapping. This year, the animation for the projection was designed by German-based URBANSCREEN, who are known for their groundbreaking 3d projections. Their work for this year’s Vivid Light festival impressed not only by the immersive quality of the light projectors but also by the animation’s clever augmentation of the building’s physical architecture. The piece is a great example for the powerful transformation of physical geometries through manipulating the digitally projected skin.
The video below shows some of the stunning projection effects on the Opera House’s sails as well as a showreel of some of the other light sculptures.
Photos by Robert Montgomery, Phillip Gough, Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning; Video by Nathaniel Fay.