• Uni Cottbus (1999)
• metro station Wehrhahnlinie Düsseldorf (2002)

competitions

• Campus der Fachhochschule Regensburg (2004)
• Landesvertretung Rheinland-Pfalz, Berlin (2003)
• Vorraum der Uni-Mensa der Uni-Koblenz (2000)
• Gestaltung des Ortszentrums Wörgl/Österreich (1999/2000)

documentation downloaden (PDF, 1 MB)

In der Arbeit “598″ nehmen wir mit einer Software eine urtümliche Landschaft wahr, ohne unser Wissen oder unsere interpretatorischen Fähigkeiten zu benutzen. Wir wollen quasi vor unserem inneren Auge eine Art Landschaft des wahrgenommenen Bildes aufbauen.
Schafe sind in ihren Bewegungen nicht alleine an der Gruppe orientiert, sondern auch an dem Futtervorkommen des Untergrunds. So erzählen die Bewegungen der Einzeltiere wie auch der Herde als Gesamtes und von der Beschaffenheit der Landschaft. Das Bild an sich ist bereits ein interpretierendes Sehen eines Untergrundes, der schon über die Jahrhunderte in gleicher Weise beweidet wurde.

“598″ from resoutionable on Vimeo.

Die Lüneburger Heide zeigt in ihrer Gestalt bereits die Auswirkungen der Schafe. Ihr Fressen von Gras und Schößlingen bewahrt die Heide vor der “Verwaldung”, schafft Lichtungen und Grünflächen, eben eine “Heide”.
Das entstehen von freigefressenen Terrains hat so über die Jahrhunderte eine Landschaft entstehen lassen, die ihre Gestalt aus dieser Symbiose herleitet. Aber nicht nur dieses Zusammenspiel ist erkennbar, die willenlosen Schafe sind ein dankbares Anschauungsbeispiel, um kollektive Handlungstrategien jenseits von Egosimen zu studieren.

Nun reicht es uns Menschen ja nicht, einfach hinzuschauen und verstehen zu lernen. So haben wir im Rechner ein Werkzeug entworfen, die weidenden Schafe und die ruhende Landschaft durch eine lernfähige Struktur zu analysieren und kategorisieren. Diese Software lernt von der Landschaft und von 598 Schafen – aufgenommen von einer Videokamera auf einem Kran, so als wären wir Menschen allwissend aus einer Wolke schauend.

Es entsteht eine neue, künstliche Landschaft, die es ermöglicht, Eigenschaften des Gesehenen wahrzunehmen, die aufgrund der Bewegungen der Schafe durch die Heide erkennbar werden, aber im Einzelbild nicht offensichtlich sind.

zur Software:
Die bishergie Software berechnet Differenzbilder vom aktuellen Bild eines Videos zu einem Referenzbild, um so Bewegungen fest zu stellen. Sie enthält weiterhin eine Art neuronales Netz, dessen Neuronen sich einzeln an die Differenzwerte jedes einzelnen Bildpunktes anpassen. Jeder Bildpunkt entspricht einem Neuron. Diese Software soll weiter entwickelt werden, so dass jedes Neuron nicht nur einzeln für sich den ihm zugewiesenen Bildpunkt lernt. Es sollen zusätzlich die Nachbarschaftsbeziehungen sowohl der Bildpunkte als auch der Neuronen mit einfließen. Dadurch entsteht ein selbst organisierendes System, Neuronen, die schon bestimmte Differenzwerte gelernt haben, fühlen sich zu ähnlichen Werten stärker angezogen. Sie lernen diese stärker mit. Somit werden sich Bereiche innerhalb des neuronalen Netzes ausbilden, die einerseits ähnlichen Differenzwerten entsprechen andererseits aber auch immer noch an den Ort der jeweiligen Bildpunkte gebunden sind.
August 2009
Programmierung: Matthias Weber, Sebastian Stang
Sound: Maximilian Netter, Sebastian Stang

the idea

double helix swing is an installation which investigates the swarms of midges that can be found on the banks of lakes and other bodies of water. Swarms of midges are intriguing entities: without any apparent logic theyform at irregular intervals along the bank: towers of midges flying in circles – although it seems that their flight path is in fact angular. It is as though they fly in one direction, then they suddenly stop and fly off in another. Each swarm develops its own speed and rhythm. And each swarm formsitself into an axis which is circled by the midges in both directions: a flying double-helix.
The swarms are made up of male midges aiming to attract females for mating.Attraction and courtshipoccurs by wing beat which differs between the male and female insects. Based on these characteristics a video and sound installation is to be developed.

In order to observethe swarms they will be attracted by sounds of the female wing beat. Various sound sources (loud speakers) will be distributed at intervals in shallow water. At a suitable distance from the sound source a video camera will be located on the bank to record any swarms which may form. The camera is set up on a platform which can be accessed from the bank.Passers-by can approach thecamera and look for the swarms in the viewfinder. If a camera detects a formation it then remains still, a video image is recorded and is sent to a central computer.

installation view at the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum Cologne, october 2006:

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the set up

a series of loudspeakers were placed on a platform situated over shallow water to emit the sounds of the beating of a female mosquitos wings. A video camera, located at a certain distance from the source of the loudspeakers, records images of the swarms that are produced. These images are sent to a computer that analyses the movements and visualises them on the screen in the form of traces.

The camera ist build to be used by passers-by, they can locate possible swarms by adjusting the camera (turning, zooming etc.).

The loudspeakers around the camera emit the sounds of various insects’ wing beats. Using the switch, passers-by can try attracting insects using the wing beat sounds of the females of different species.

indoor installation

A specially designed console provides different options for interacting with the virtual world.

installation view at the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum Cologne, october 2006:

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installation (indoor), Linz 2006:

installation (video), Linz 2006:

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images

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the software

The virtual world consists of three layers:

1. the video of the midges, which runs in the background.
2. the tracks of the midges, which are signified as nutrition (these are green tracks).
3. the virtual creatures searching for and eating the tracks of the midges

The creatures, survival depends primarily on the video, coming from the outdoor camera.
The form of the tracks generates a structure which serves as “food” to a number of virtual creatures. These virtual creatures are capable of evolving, so adapting better and better to the tracks generated by the movements of the real mosquitoes. The behaviour of the virtual creatures depends, therefore, on the real environment, but is also conditioned internally by a virtual “genetic code” of programming and behaviour. This code can in turn be manipulated by the user of the installation.

The intake of nutrition is regulated by a buffer, which stores all the food (that is the tracks) of the midges. The creatures have a variable food search radius. This radius depends on the velocity of the creatures. If they move fast, the search radius doesn’t have to be so big as when they are more or less immobile.
The creatures never eat all the food at once. As they eat only a certain percentage of the food found, they are able to remember where nutrition is located. The amount of food depends on the number of things moving on the video, coming from the camera. Using the sound, a feedback loop is produced: if there is too much food on the screen, the sound from the loudspeakers is muted or just changed, so that the midges are no longer attracted.

The creatures develop different forms. Every animal has a virtual gene, which defines its movement and its form. The form comprises the number of legs, the density of cells and the density of branches per node.
In the beginning there are three different types of creatures, but later on visitors can define new ones. If a creatures is replicated, a random operation defines whether the animal will be changed or not. Then, another random operation partially changes the animal’s code. While the creature is young, it will only have a few cells. But as it grows, it follows the form which is predefined in the gene. It grows until a certain, adjustable energy level is reached. Then it gives birth to several new creatures.

If the creature becomes big, it is possible that the cells will pull in different directions. Then the creature breaks in two. Both parts survive, one of them with the original code, the other with the new small form gene.

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technique:

The installation can be shown as an indoor installation with or without the camera. The camera can be shown outdoor during summer closed to rivers or lakes. But it can also be shown indoor. Then, a virtual world is shown on the screen in which the visitors can search for swarms of midges.

For the installation without the camera you need:

• 1 Linux-PC 3,2 GHz, 1 GB Ram, 3D-accelerated graphic card, soundcard (has to be shiped)
• 1 stand (has to be shiped)
• 1 Video Projectore
• 2 Soundboxes (activ)

For the camera the following material is needed:

• Camera (special design, has to be shiped)
• 1 Linux-PC 3,2 GHz, approx. 1 GB Ram, mp2-encoder videocard, receiver
• Switcher for loudspeakers
• 5 loudspeakers

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authors:

Concept: Ursula Damm
Programming: Christian Kessler
Sound: Yunchul Kim

installation

The ‘Zeitraum’ Installation is the most recent “inoutside”-installation in the series of video tracking installations for public spaces.

One perceives a virtual sculpture space-envelope come into being and vanish. This everchanging sculpture is controlled by the occurrences on Grabbeplatz. Like a naturally grown architecture this form is embedded into the contours of the immediate environment of the current location of the viewer. The positions of the people on Grabbeplatz as well as the position of the viewer of the picture are marked with red crosses. Connecting lines point from marked people approximately onto the place of the space-envelope where the people influence the generated form.
The installation is made up of nightly projections onto the fountain wall in the passageway of K20. On the roof of the art collection two infrared emitters and an infrared camera are installed. The emitters make up for the missing daylight, so that the camera may pick up the motions on the site. The regular light is an important prerequisite to be able to deduct the motions of the people. This is done by a video tracking program. It is determined where on the site movement takes place by comparing the current video image with a previously taken image of the empty site. The results are then sorted by “blobs”. “Blob” signifies a “Binary Large Object” and denotes a field of non-structured coordinates which moves equably. These animated data-fields are passed on to a graphic- and sound program that calculates the virtual sculpture from the abstracted traces. In this the motion traces are interpreted. As in earlier installations such as “memory space” (2002), “trace pattern II” (1998) or “inoutside I” (1998) and “inoutside II” (1999), the supplied video image is visible on the basis of a video texture so that the people who see this image may recognize themselves in the virtual image. So it becomes clear how the virtual forms, the clouds and arrows are calculated.

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concept

The installation deals with architectural and city-planning concepts. A new, different design technique should be attempted, that is aimed at observing the behaviour of people towards architecture. The goal is to depict the city or architecture as a dynamic organism. To show city and people as something collective, something in constant transformation, is what the installation wishes to convey.
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interface/surveillance

The system, the way we used it in the six “inoutside”-installations does not allow for humans to be apprehended in their individuality. It is not about recognizing what makes up each person per surveillance system (for this we humans are still better at than machines), but about perceiving the quality specific to the site and to test it on humans and human behaviour. It’s about the cognition of behavioural patterns, but not about a description of the individual. Moreover the site should be individualized to ascertain its character.
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data processing

With the recording of traces it is so, that the means of computation that is being done in the installation aims to characterise the site, whereby the collecting of the different individual traces becomes essential. The early installations such as “trace pattern II” (1998) are obviously geared towards the interaction amongst the people. The behaviour of the people is recorded, amplified and interpreted: Do they walk close to one another? Are they walking away from each other? Are there “Tracks” – several people walking in step? These observations become part of the interpretation. In the current installation in K20 the space is represented in form of one or multiple bodies. These bodies have entrances and exits, openings and closures, they are being bundled from small units or melt into a large whole or divide. They swell or make holes that enlarge until the bodies dissolve. All these spatial elements are determined by the behaviour of the people. We also map the traces of the visitors of the site according to their different walking-pace and according to their frequency of presence on site onto a mathematical shape-the Isosurface that changes according to behaviour.
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the neural network

The neural network, here the Kohonen map learns through self-organization. This is a method of learning based on the neighbourhood relations of neurons amongst each other. A network is constructed which depicts that which is on the site. Beyond this the classical SOM is modified in order to solve the problem, which is created when the monitored space is a limited area. For at the edge different conditions for calculation apply than in the middle, because the condition of a site is also rooted in its neighbourhood. In the simulation of physical processes one defines the monitored area simply as a torus or a sphere, whereby that, which for example disappears on the right image border, re-appears on the left. This doesn’t make sense for a real site however, which is why we modified the procedure: in the regions with too great an impulse density we let the neurons descend into a second plane that disperses the neurons onto the nearest places that lack neurons. Through this we created a compact cyclical energy evaluation that prevents that only a cluster of the SOM would stay in the middle of the space (see graphics). This would be nothing other than too high of an information density that could provide no information whatsoever (almost a black “data hole”). For me as an artist the application of neural networks in very exciting, because they demand of me that I restrain my artistic and visual desires for the sake of processes which happen with the help of this camera eye – in reality not by the camera but by the people that are the focus of the camera, so by the image of the site. Since the computer-internal data processing apparatus imitates the human perception apparatus, it demands of me that I be concerned about the limits of perception and the possibilities and impossibilities of projection of knowledge.

Please use the arrows to navigate:
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the isosurface

As already mentioned the Grabbeplatz is being reproduced in a virtual image through video texture. It marks the area recorded by the tracking-program, over which the calculations generate an abstract space. The nodes of the SOM form trajectories in this space, nurtured by impulses that refer to speed, direction and length of stay of the passers-by. So the level tracking plane is expanded by another dimension. To visualize the relationships of the nodes not only as points in the room but also in relation to one another, we let an imagined potential energy function reign in the surrounding of every which node. This function is represented as a surface in space. This follows the path of every node and adapts its shape to its current role in the SOM. Such surfaces are called Isosurfaces. They are used to represent the homogeneity of energy states (here: potential energy states) within a continuum. All points of this surface represent an equivocal condition. The potential energy functions- one for each node- overlap or avoid another, amplify or cancel each other out. This event visualizes surfaces which comparable to soapy skin melt into or drip off each other or lose themselves in infinitely minute units. In the arithmetic sum of all the individual potentials lies the key to these surfaces. All points in the room are determined whose potential energy function reach a certain numerical value (decided upon by us). The entirety of these countless points (and thereby the virtual sculpture-shape) appears as a smooth or rugged, porous or compact shape whose constantly moving surface proffers a new way of seeing the development of the SOM. In relation to Grabbeplatz the SOM represents the time-space distortion of the site when it is not seen as a continuous space-shape but as a sum of single “Weltenlinien” (world-lines) of the passers-by, so of the paths of the individual people that cross each other here by chance. The SOM also dissolves time, because paths meet that were temporally offset. In this way the SOM is a memory of personal times that give the Grabbeplatz its individual shape. The ISO-surfaces have the function to discern the areas that are much used and walked upon from those that are scarcely used. Bulges mark the frequent presence of people, holes their absence. The dynamism of the ISO-surfaces follows the dynamism of the accumulation of humans, who, when f. ex. they reach a certain density, fall over and dissolve in turn, to avoid too great of a density.
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The Sound

The sound is a sort of “monitoring” that references the current position of people on the site and that references this position calculated into a long-term organism. Both are graphically represented as positions in the fields which is a visual memory form in a virtual image. The sound will also relate to the current position; a change of position of the viewer consequently changes the sound. When one walks something else is audible on the site than when no one there. On the other hand the sound- and this is the actual quality of noise- transmits information about that, which takes place on the site. And through language it should carry out a categorization.
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architectural context

Architecture as we know it can’t meet the needs of its users, because it is made of properties, of immobile, modern, maybe 70- or 100-year-old buildings. A flexible building is not imaginable yet. But the lifetimes of buildings are diminishing, if one looks at the results of conferences such as “shrinking cities” the trend is towards planning houses that are construct- and de-constructible, that are transferable and flexible in their functions. This is not only my demand, but also the city planner’s. My approach is to get away from the forms of buildings that set statutes as in the past sculptors have done; but that are thought of as a body, in the way that I experience myself; as a sign, that is aesthetically pleasing to me. Of course the new buildings to be designed have to integrate functionally in the devised use zoning plan. But these buildings should observe their surrounding during their use, to determine if they are fulfilling their purpose. The question arises how such a concept could be formulated if it is not only developed based on the idea of one person or a committee of experts, but if it would be submitted to the evaluation by the public. It is not new to claim that architecture has changed with the introduction of the computer, because the methods of design changed with tools or CAD-programs, etc. “Blob architecture” denotes a young architecture that designs more than builds. Most of the time biomorphous building-forms develop in 3D programs. Forms are developed through for example the observation of environmental factors, that become manifest. In this respect one could see the installation at Grabbeplatz as a representative of this form of architecture. The goal of my projects however is not to merely find a different form of buildings, which in turn will only become static monuments, but to test interactive structures , to see which perceptible traces create sensible structures for buildings. “Blob architecture” will have to prove itself by the meaningfulness of the data exploration to be carried out on the blobs. These methods of processing imply a view of humanity that will possibly be the basis of the future architecture.
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video

Timescape (51° 13.66 north, 6° 46.523 east) from resoutionable on Vimeo.

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Outlook

In the next project of the “inoutside” series the return to real space will be targeted. Today a return to static form and to the sculptural would be too early because we haven’t advanced far enough with the evaluation of the interaction to know what to build, especially as long as the building materials aren’t flexible yet. Also more complex interfaces are necessary that could evaluate a greater spectrum of perceptible human expressions. In the virtual today one is much more flexible and less damaging as long as one leaves it at not building yet and checking the results in the visual and acoustic through users. One can cross over to the formation of real space when architecture is as changeable as the interactive system requires.

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staff

Matthias Weber, Freiberg
Peter Serocka, Shanghai
Yunchul Kim, Köln
Ursula Damm, Düsseldorf

the nature of things (laola) from resoutionable on Vimeo.

On 27 February 1990 I went to the Netherlands to film the sea. I had selected the period of spring tides in the hope of a moderate sea swell. Unexpectedly a storm of historic proportions developed. We had great difficulty keeping the tripod steady and not being blown away ourselves, camera and all. Nineteen years later climate change is on everyone’s lips. Our society has changed a great deal.
I set the surges of enthusiasm from crowds in football stadiums to the waves. With all the drama of the situation – high tides and a rising sea level – a sense of euphoria persisted, stemming as much from the power of the sea as from the naturally synchronised voices of thousands of spectators in a stadium.
quichote

the nature of things (quichote) from resoutionable on Vimeo.

Wind turbines, nothing but wind turbines in the landscape, rotating at slightly different speeds, but not with the local sound of the wind but with the sound of Formula One racing.
We are no longer used to believing that an element in motion does not move “by itself” or “naturally”, we instantly assume it to be driven mechanically, appropriating this with enthusiasm. In the video a sound space develops in which a car is allocated to each wind turbine, but differentiated by its close or distant location. A vision of a technically codified landscape emerges, in which artefacts of civilization appear to be causing natural phenomena such as the wind.

Installation

w-ort.net ist ein sich dynamisch entwickelndes Gebilde im Internet, das sich aus Texten ernährt, welche Benutzer eingeben. “Ursuppe” des Organismus sind die Texte der Künstler von “hell-gruen” zu ihren Arbeiten.

Beschreibungen von Kunstwerken entstehen, grenzen eine individuelle Aussage ab von einem räumlichen Kontext, gegenüber denen sich in ihrer Nähe befindlichen Kunstwerken. W-ort.net setzt gedankliche Topologien um in eine virtuelle 3D-Topologie.

W-ort filtert aus den eingegebenen Texten signifikante Stichwörter.
Diese Wörter finden einen Ort im 3D-Raum, ziehen Besucher in ihren Bann, wachsen mit jeder Behandlung, die ihnen widerfährt. Sie bilden Konnektionen aus zu ihrer Umgebung: zu anderen geometrischen Objekten, die wie sie selbst Repräsentation von Wortfeldern sind, die sich phonetisch gruppiern aufgrund ihrer hörbaren ähnlichkeit. So werden aus gedanklichen Positionen von Künstlern Orte lautmalerischer Begrifflichkeit.

Diese Orte, repräsentiert als halbrunde, offene Kugeln, wachsen, wenn sie besucht werden, bilden Röhren aus, die mit jeder Benutzung dicker werden. Zu Internetlinks (rote Würfel), die sich um Wörter ansammeln, stülpen sich diese geometrischen Körper aus wie Kelche, die im Begriff sind, ihr Zentrum nach aussen zu verlagern.

W-Örter, welche durch Austauschen von Buchstaben Klang und Bedeutung ständig wechseln, laden ein zum freien Assoziieren. Die Distanzen, die durch “Definitionen” von Persönlichkeit und Werk geschaffen werden, lösen sich hier wieder auf zugunsten eines Gedankengebildes, das seine Bedeutung aus der formalen Struktur des Forums gewinnen will. Topologische Formen bilden Innen- und Aussenrääume, welche die Kommunikationsstruktur der site reprÄsentieren und virtuell erlebbar machen.

Gleichzeitig können Sie unter kleinen Würfelobjekten, die die Stichwörter umgeben, Internetlinks zu verwandten Themen im web recherchieren.

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Video

Systemanforderungen

Windows 98 oder Windows NT, Netscape bis Version 4.79, Microsoft Explorer bis Version 6, vrml-plugin von Cosmo oder Cortona
Mac: bis OS 9.2.2 nur Netscape bis Version 4.79, vrml-Plugin von Cosmo

Autoren

ein Projekt von Ursula Damm und Matthias Weber

“Beloved” represents an evolutionary model which places an act of positive co-operation ahead of the competitive genetic model of natural selection.
In the greenhouse converter, water fleas react to this word, which appears in blue, they are attracted to it and select the algae adhering to the display as food. The word – set in its blue position – therefore remains visible.
If the water fleas multiply too much and consume all their food supply then the display degenerates, slowly turning red, in order to promote algal growth, or turning yellow, in order to keep the water fleas away and to give the algae space to grow.

Then water from the fountain is also added, so that, with increased carbon dioxide content, plant growth is stimulated.
Over time, the algae grow and grow. They also colonise the word, formed of LEDs, in the water, reducing its legibility.
If algal growth is excessive then although a lot of carbon dioxide is broken down, the ecological balance threatens to tip over if the water fleas do not dispose of the algae by vigorously consuming them. To compensate, the light supply is then reduced, since water fleas avoid the yellow daylight and recognize, in the blue light, deep water which protects them from their enemies.
The status of the display of the word “beloved” serves then as the thermometer of this little ecosystem or rather of its relationship with the greater biosphere which exists outside it.
If the word can be clearly read, with a lot of points of light displaying as blue, then the system is in a state of balance. Distortions in the ecological system will be manifested in the word becoming increasingly hard to read.
To operate the greenhouse converter there is, alongside the aquarium, a box for a pump, with which passers-by can control the exchange of water and gas using a lever. An LCD display shows the oxygen content of the water outside and inside the aquarium. The lever creates the illusion of being in control and is a concession to the desire to be able to use technology to control nature, which derives from a state of balance.

Luftbild von Mailand, mit geometrischen Zeichnungen als Interpretation von Bewegungsachsen und ihrem Verhältnis zu den Quartieren

Installation aus Musterzeichnungen während und für das Programmieren von trace pattern, zusammen mit Fotos von Steinen und Felsen, E-Mail-Korrespondez mit Informatikern

Musterzeichnung über Felsen in der Finnmark (Nordnorwegen) 1997

als Beschreibung von Netzen, welche als Informationsüberträger fungieren, enstanden seit 1987 verschiedene Kompositionen, welche Möglichkeiten der Parkettierung austesten im Hinblick auf Ästhetik und Fortsetzbarkeit unter Beibehaltung eines Regelwerks.

Muster entstehen als Beschreibung von topographischer Raumbeschreibung: ein offenes Feld wird aufgeteilt in Durchgangsbereiche, Verbindungswege und Siedlungsbereiche. In den Mustern stehen Polygone für Orte des Verweilens und Reihungen von Vierecken oder Linien für Bewegungstrassen.
Sinn der Muster ist es, eine formale Beschreibung für ein möglichst vielgestaltig zu planendes, adaprives Netz von Orten zu finden.

Raumzeichnungen

Bleistiftzeichnungen direkt auf die Wand stellen zwischen den gefundenen Mustern und der konkreten Architektur Bezüge her und überprüfen beide aneinander.

Konstruktionen

seit 1993 entwickelten sich die 2-dimensionalen Muster in den Raum. Dabei dienen die Muster als Grundriss für m&uumlgliche Gebäudekomplexe.