CreativeApplications.Net

CAN 2019 – Highlights and Favourites

As per tradition each year, December is when we look back at the amazing work published on CAN. From ingenious machines and installations to mesmerising experiences that leverage new mediums for artistic inquiry – we added scores of projects to CAN's archive in 2019. Here are some highlights. For previous years, see 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013,

Intersections – The Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry Celebrates its 30th Anniversary

It's a cliche that turning 30 is accompanied by soul searching and pensive questions about the future. That might be true for a young adult, but what about a media lab: what happens when a multidisciplinary lab enters its third decade and begins barrelling towards middle age? The Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University just broached this temporal milestone with Intersections,…

Self-Choreographing Network – Cyber-physical design and interactive bending-active systems

Created by Mathias Maierhofer and Valentina Soana at the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD / University of Stuttgart), 'Self-Choreographing Network' is a project that aims to challenge the prevalent separation between (digital) design and (physical) operation processes of adaptive and interactive architectural systems. The linearity of digital and physical processes implies both predetermined material and kinetic behaviours, limiting performances to those that are…

TAMI – An intuitive approach to the learning of trigonometry

TAMI (Tangible Mathematics Interface) is an interface that facilitates the learning of the basics of trigonometry. Comprised of a tabletop display and a series of physical controllers, users can manipulate mathematical parameters and see the results on-screen in real-time. This direct, physical manipulation of digital elements enables the internalization of abstract concepts through an embodied and multisensory approach, making better use of pre-existing motor…

Lieux Ordinaires (Ordinary Places) – Surveillance as a storytelling medium

Created by Anouk Zibaut at ECAL, 'Lieux Ordinaires' (Ordinary Places) is a project that explores new narratives of public space framed by surveillance – an alternative perspective and a medium with a power to 'document'. These new "windows", Anouk writes: "are open to the world, accessible from my computer, a new projection on a place, a city, a country from a singular angle." Ordinary…

Untangling technology and research at the ECAL Research Day on November 8th

On November 8th, Swiss art and design university ECAL hosts the ECAL Research Day, an eclectic symposium where artists, designers, and scholars will discuss the entanglement of technology and research. CAN will be on-site and report live. Few European educational institutions have resonated with our thinking as much as ECAL (École cantonale d’art de Lausanne) has. Based in Renens, a suburb of Lausanne, Switzerland, the…

Neo-Natur – A space for thought, about and for Nature / ART+COM

Designed and constructed by ART+COM Studios in collaboration with Futurium and Schiel Projekt, 'Neo-Natur' ('Neo-Nature') is a permanent installation for Berlin's Futurium exhibition that explores our potential futures from different areas of life––from self-sufficient cities, to the future of work and ideas for more sustainable consumption. The sculpture symbolises a new understanding of the natural world. Taking into account humanity’s interventions in nature and 'technologization'…

Hertzian Landscapes – The interactive space of a radio spectrum

Created by Richard Vijgen, 'Hertzian Landscapes' is a live visualization of the radio spectrum. It includes a digital receiver to scan large swaths of radio spectrum in near real-time and using Three.js visualises thousands of signals into a panoramic electromagnetic landscape. Unlike visible light, waves in the radio spectrum cannot be perceived by us directly yet this space is teeming with human activity. The…

Artificial Arcadia – Measured and adjustable landscapes

Created by Fragmentin in collaboration with KOSMOS architects, 'Artificial Arcadia' is an interactive installation that creates a performative scenographic landscape for visitors to explore and calls them to consider how contemporary landscape entangles natural, artificial and digital realms. The design of the space is inspired by the aesthetic of Swiss man-made infrastructure such as tunnels through mountains, dams through rivers, irrigation systems,…

Algorithmic Drive – Spectacular car(au)tonomy

Created by François Quévillon, 'Algorithmic Drive' is an interactive installation and performance inspired by inspired by autonomous cars and dash cam compilations. The work plays with the tension generated by confronting the technologies used by mobile robotics with the unpredictable nature of the world. "Several technical, economical, legal, moral and ethical issues are raised by vehicles that maneuver without human intervention by feeding and…