At the Di­gi­tal Me­dia stu­dy pro­gram in University of/the Arts Bremen, com­pu­ter sci­ence meets de­sign, whi­le en­gi­nee­ring and na­tu­ral sci­en­ces in­ter­con­nect with the arts. De­sign, de­ve­lop­ment and ap­p­li­ca­ti­on of com­plex mul­ti­me­dia sys­tems ha­ve long sin­ce cea­sed to be fea­si­ble by sim­ply pla­c­ing de­sign ele­ments on top of func­tio­nal ones or vice ver­sa – clo­ser co­ope­ra­ti­on, a fu­si­on of di­sci­pli­nes is ne­cessa­ry. Di­gi­tal Me­dia in Bre­men ta­kes on that chal­len­ge.

Addressing a lar­ge spec­trum of to­pics ranging from tech­ni­cal ba­sics of new me­dia tech­no­lo­gies, the studies also explore topics of vir­tu­al and aug­men­ted rea­li­ty – ba­sics in de­sign, pho­to­gra­phy and ty­po­gra­phy – in­ter­me­di­al de­sign, cor­po­ra­te de­sign and sound de­sign – theo­re­ti­cal-re­fle­xi­ve me­dia sci­en­ces such as me­dia theo­ry, me­dia his­to­ry and se­mio­tics. Teaching methodologies aim to of­fer pro­fi­ci­en­cy in com­pu­ter sci­ence, de­sign and ap­p­li­ca­ti­on, em­pha­si­ze sci­en­ti­fic ori­en­ta­ti­on and in­ter­di­sci­pli­na­ri­ty, and teach pro­fes­sio­nal skills on a broad sca­le.

Here we present four recent “semester” projects, a small selection of many projects available here that are regularly added. These include Gifgun – project that uses the mechanics of pop culture in order to generate attention in the digital world; vrKid – virtual reality headset designed especially for babies and toddlers up to 3 years old; RGB Fossils – project that plays with the idea of fossilizing digital image files and finally Candy Cloud – an interactive object that sprinkles users with bonbons whenever it detects movement below it.

All projects were guided by Prof. Dennis P. Paul, semester SS 2016 under the title Design Pop.

Gifgun

Student: Kevin Mendzies

Gifgun is a project that uses the mechanics of pop culture in order to generate attention in the digital world. It automatically captures animated Gifs once the trigger of the pistol gets pulled and then uploads them to the internet.

The Gifgun uses a well known channel of Massmedia – the Internet, to upload a previously recorded Gif. With the help of a mounted Guntrigger the picture taking of an animated Gifs gets initiated. In order to “generate” the biggest possible audience for your contribution, the currently most popular hashtags worldwide get retrieved from a server and automatically attached to that Gif. Immediately and without any confirmation the Gif with its hashtags will be uploaded to the internet and presented to a large audience. There is no way to undo or change your upload once the trigger is pulled. Therefore the trigger has to be treated almost as carefully as the trigger of a real gun.

Project Page | Project Blog

vrKid

Student: Mette Boldt

vrKid is a virtual reality headset designed especially for babies and toddlers up to 3 years old. The headset has the shape of a hippo and its helmet design secures safe use for children and will protect them when they move around in their physical surroundings while using the device. The project takes a critical view at VR, with aim to drive discussion about the future of immersive media.

The helmet has a slide-in part for the smartphone in the front. The phone goes in from the bottom and is securely locked in place by turning the teeth of the hippo, which are connected to hooks on the inside. A hole through the hippo’s nostril allows the camera to catch the surroundings for augmented reality apps. To avoid wires for the safety of the child, the helmet has built-in bluetooth headphones. The headphones have soft cushioning and can be charged with micro USB.

Project Page

RGB Fossils

Student: Cassia Vila

As in many other systems, RGB is a way to measure, decode, translate and limit nature. What if, then, nature appropriates itself from these systems, introducing these digital aspects to its natural processes? This project plays with the idea of fossilizing digital image files and the effects of time in the separation of its colors. Although the RGB system is absurd when used in a non-light-based surface, it is possible to guess which are the original colors of each object, given the amount of red, green and blue that is visible in each fossil.

The RGB color system guides our perception of the world through the screens. Red, green and blue, in combined values, create millions of color combinations in the shape of light. This system, developed in the nineteenth century, serves as a powerful symbol of digitalization and interface technologies. For our eyes, every single visual element is translated into these numbered-coded tones that have little to do with the colors that surround us off-screen.

Project Page

Candy Cloud

Student: Bojana Petkovic

Simply described, the Candy cloud is an interactive object that uses PIR sensor and servo motor. When the sensor detects movement below the cloud, the cloud sprinkles bonbons instead of rain.

Project Page

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More projects at Di­gi­tal Me­dia Bremen