Forgotten Heritage – Visual Database of European Avant-Garde Artworks

Forgotten Heritage, the interactive online application we were working on for the past months is now live.

Visitors can immerse themselves in the world of avant-garde artists from Poland, Estonia, Croatia, France and Belgium, who were active in the second half of the 20th century. The visual archive opens up a fascinating network of works, artists and places of action.

Using state of the art web technologies like React.js, d3.js and pixie.js, the application lets people interact with archival data in new ways and make hidden connections graspable.

Forgotten Heritage is based on The Visual Archive, which facilitates the display of digital collections and datasets.

In Collaboration with Marika Kuźmicz of Fundacja Arton and Kilian Krug.

Press release:
https://visualarchive.de/en/the-visual-archive-makes-hidden-collections-and-datasets-attractive/

Travelscope – a visual exploration of the travel freedom attached to passports

travelscope_1

The weight and the travel freedom attached to a passport vary drastically across nationalities. International visa-regulations are very complex and often non-transparent. They reflect the economical and geopolitical situations as well as the relationships of countries.

This interactive experiment aims to cast some light on these structures and make it easy to find out which countries an individual of a certain nationality can travel to without a visa or with visa on arrival.

I wanted to create an intuitive and instant way to find out how many countries a certain national can travel to without a visa or with visa on arrival – and which nationals can enter a certain country without a visa.

The web application also features a responsive design and directly works on any iOS device (iPhone/iPad) running iOS 8 or newer and on recent Android versions.

The interactive map is programmed using D3.js and Three.js; the visa data are pulled from Wikipedia in regular intervals.

Online application:
https://www.markuslerner.com/travelscope/

Fabric research

I’m planning to cover the metal wire construction with a soft white fabric, that has good extension properties. I found three materials which are currently in the competition. From left to right, gaining in opacity: women’s stockings, a body suit and swimming fabric. Lets see which one is going to make it.

Significant birds

I took this picture a few days ago from the window of my appartment in Berlin. These bird seems to be able to do quite fancy things. Have a close look or click the picture to open the highres version.
This is one image i had in mind when i fixed the theme of my degree: “The iconic potential of computative design”. The whole is more than the sum of its parts. Thought i’m not sure, if the birds are aware of that.

The Source

A piece that may not be missing in this research and I still admire a lot is The Source by greyworld. 162 vertical cables in the London Stock Exchange. 9 balls per cable, which results in a 3d matrix of 729 pixels (each sphere uses two cables to climb, thanks to Andrew for the hint). You got balls, guys!

Angels

“The Angel project questions the nature of fixed architecture and looks at the possibilities of an architecture lighter than air capable of sheltering us and even bringing communities together.”
LTA (Lighter Than Air) Vehicles can act in flocks to construct dynamic spaces for people to meet.

This a very interesting idea, very much related to what i’m planning to do. My future goal will be to think more about the actual shape, behaviours and ways of interaction.

Pixelito mini helicopter

“So just a little while ago I mentioned that Epson had created the world’s smallest flying robot. And while that may technically be the case, depending on how you define robot and if you define smallest by weight or by length or whatnot, this Pixelito helicopter hand-crafted by Alexander Van de Rostyne is pretty amazing. The frame is a single, twisted tube of 1mm carbon (fiber?), minus the tail boom which is 1.33mm in diameter, powered my a 6mm motor from the inside of a pager. It’s remote controlled by infrared, and weighs in at a total 6.9 grams (stupid Most Bestest Whatevers titles beside,the Epson robot is 12.3 grams, although it has more features, too).”

via gizmodo.com

Yayoi Kusama

Making several reactive shape-shifting objects in space – this is the recent open idea for my degree project.

I got inspired by an installation called “Dots Obsession”, 2004 by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, seen at the Berlin–Tokyo/Tokyo–Berlin exhibition at the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin. Big inflated blobs are suspended or free floating in space. The dots, the vibrant colours and the arrangement of wall mirrors have a very strong effect on the perception when inside the installation room.

Micro Flying Robot

Seiko Epson Corporation has developed the FR Micro Flying Robot, the world’s smallest (according to Epson’s research) flying prototype microrobot.
The first version was released in November 2003, the second lighter and more advanced successor version with an image sensor unit and bluetooth control was released in August 2004.

The company hopes it’ll be suitable for security, disaster rescue and space exploration. Well, maybe even for doing some degree project. A swarm of little robots flying in space? Why not.

»FR Micro Flying Robot
»FR Micro Flying Robot advanced version

Inflatable Art, Architecture and Design

In the course of doing some research about intflatable or shape-shifting objects, I got myself a very interesting book: Inflatable Art, Architecture and Design.
Inflatables surround a very special fascination, but they can have a very kitschy connotation as well. I’m interested in simple things, that are fascinating and understandable even for little children while at the same time not beeing too superficial or worn-out.