Interactive Research Table at Erik Spiekermann Retrospective

forschungstisch1

In recognition of Erik Spiekermann being awarded the German Design Award for his outstanding contribution to Design in Germany, the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin will be exhibiting an extensive body of his work.

We are pleased to display our interactive research table at the show. The multi-touch interface offers an insight into Erik Spiekermann‘s network of partners – visualizing relations between them and a multitude of works.

The table was developed by the designers network Plural (Kilian Krug und Severin Wucher in cooperation with Markus Lerner).

»Erik Spiekermann – The Face of Type«
23. März – 6. Juni 2011
Opening: Tuesday, 22 March 2011 · 7pm

Bauhaus Archiv
Klingelhöferstraße 14
10785 Berlin

Further information and pictures

Project website:
was-war-deutsches-grafik-design.de

Outerspace at Ars Electronic Center

0_outerspace_rebuildMy colloborator Andre Stubbe and me took our robot, Outerspace, through a long process of enhancement. After an extensive reconstruction with 3D modelling software, the new hinges were made from Delrin with a state-of-the-art 5-achsis CNC machine.

From 1 May 2007, the new improved Outerspace will be part of the permanent exhibition at the Museum of the Future, part of the Ars Electronica Center, Linz, Austria.

You can interact with the robot in the RoboLab on the first floor. It is part of the theme field “With all Senses”. The new location of the Ars Electronica Center in Graben 15 in the heart Linz town, Austria. The opening week starts on May 16, 2007.

Rich remoteness

Finally i’m continuing the semester project, Here/There, glad to collabrate with Richard. Some thoughts, straight from here and there in my mind:

– close the gap between remote places with creative design

– communication often is too impersonal, cold, unemotional

– look at what every human being been has learned from childhood and is familiar with:

– haptic perception
– remembering spatial information (surrounding, storage places)

– interaction with others (gestures, body language)

– burning: aura, magic, telepathy, imagination

– gestures and body language as subliminal communication

– clothes as an expression of style and social status

– camouflage – attention

– local adaption – global attention

– überall und nirgends (“irgendwo/an einem unbekannten Ort sein; häufig den Ort wechseln”)

– nah und fern

– record movement of air in one place and send it to another

– shoot airwaves over distances

New portfolio online

If you were ever wondering, what I was doing during the last weeks and months, here’s the result: my new portfolio website is finally online.

Panta rei (everythings flows), like the Greek say. So the news are now going to be available at www.markuslerner.com/news.

Blog actually sounded like somebody choked on some bad stuff, so the new stuff will be continued from here: NEWS. Nothing more and nothing less. No homage to another hype. Something most people will understand. And even if they won’t understand the content, they at least get the picture.

Computational Design

Thinking about the topic of my diploma next year and what I’m doing or trying to, I read a discussion about Computational Design at www.generatorx.no.As more and more of us begin to call themselves Computational Designers, I think it makes sense to consider the actual definition again. In the broadest sense, Computational Design can be put as “the design of products and processes through the use of digital means”. But it is by far more than just doing something with the help of digital media, i.e. using some fancy software. The point is to take the challenge of getting down to the real capabilities of digital media.

Nobody else could draw a better picture of the scenario than Prof. Dr. Mihai Nadin, who mainly shaped the definition. If you have the time, there are two great essays by Nadin on Computational Design and design in general, highly recommended for reading for anybody who works in the design field or encounters it:

1. Computational Design: Design in the Age of a Knowledge Society

2. We are what we do

Nadin had founded the worlds first Computational Design Programme at the University of Wuppertal and did a lot of research on anticipation, the topic of my intermediate diploma.