Recently, with the improvement of camera capabilities and related tracking systems, game input systems such as Nintendo Wii controllers or Microsoft Kinect games are incorporating more body positions and movements. Kiss Controller is an experimental project that allows users to control a bowling game by moving their tongues while kissing. Unlike existing game input devices, Kiss Controller seeks to generate the emotional experience of a kinetic act while users play the game rather than control games with their body.

http://vimeo.com/20119651

The Ocean of Light project, by Squidsoup, explores the creative and immersive possibilities of light-based visualisation in physical space. It uses bespoke hardware to create dynamic, interactive and three-dimensional sculptures from light. Surface is the first artwork to be exhibited using the Ocean of Light hardware. It uses minimal visuals and sound to evoke the essence of character and movement. Autonomous entities engage in a playful dance, negotiating the material properties of a fluid surface.

http://www.oceanoflight.net/

The “DIY, plant!” research project (by Sander Veenhof) aims to design a multitouchscreen interface for plants so they can control their supply of water and light themselves by pressing touchscreen-button controls with their leaves.

“For a while how, there has been a rise in the amount of bio-art projects connecting pieces of living nature to mechanical or computerized environments. It is a popular approach in times when digitally there aren’t any limits or boundaries anymore. Everything is possible, and nothing really excites. The involvement of insects, animals or plants into art projects provides new difficulties to solve, thereby re-challenging artists. And their audiences. With spectators becoming largely indifferent to faster or bigger or newer technologies, the touchscreen-plant arouses the attention of an audience because of its contrast to our digitized contemporary world and its ultimate slowness. An upcoming button press could be a cliffhanger of days.

But the “DIY, plant!” project is more than an application of bio-art for the sake of the spectacle. Beyond the visually intriguing form is a bio-art piece focused on achieving truly functional dynamics between plant and technology. Acknowledging the extreme complexity of true scientific biological adaptations of the involved plant, and foremostly, respecting the wisdom that nature does possess, the approach taken is not aimed at changing nature and forcing the needs of a touchscreen onto a plant, but the plant is taken as the point of reference, and the interface is being reshaped and refined according to the plants’ needs.”

read more here: http://sndrv.nl/DIYplant/

Windows 68 is a modification of Windows XP that starts a revolutionary in the system. The project was developed during a seminar held by Johannes P Osterhoff at Merz Akademie at the end of May 2009.

“Because revolutions usually start in the shadows, the title of the seminar on Interface-Design was Drop Shadow Revolution. It took place at Merz Akademie at the end of May and basically I wanted to know what the students thought of seeing Windows’ imagery and icons through bourgeois or revolutionary eyes.
At the end we came up with Windows 68, an almost finished theme for Windows XP that put the system into a time machine. Instead of “Start” in the lower left corner there was written “Revolution!”, there were red stars everywhere, and the network icon seemed to gain insight into Kommune Eins during its best days and the whole system seemed to be soaking in red paint.
And for the German readers: instead of Benutzerkonten (user accounts) there were Revoluzzerkonten. We also created a new version of Paint that we called Graffiti. It was not possible any more to paint, write, and draw rectangles—only spraying worked.”

http://johannes-p-osterhoff.com/lectures/windows-68

The MoshPit Amp, by Fur, is an automata that converts headbanging movements into metal music. Through style and intensity of your head banging, you are the conductor of a virtual metal band consisting of four instruments: vocals, bass, drums and guitar. you can control the volume as well as the pattern of each instrument to create engaging musical arrangements. If you mosh really hard you can trigger a guitar solo for the ultimate rock experience. Your performance in front of the amp will additionally be supportet by a lightshow with smoke, flash and pyrotechnics.

http://www.fursr.com

“Skinput is a technology that appropriates the human body for acoustic transmission, allowing the skin to be used as a finger input surface. In particular, we resolve the location of finger taps on the arm and hand by analyzing mechanical vibrations that propagate through the body. We collect these signals using a novel array of sensors worn as an armband. This approach provides an always-available, naturally-portable, and on-body interactive surface. To illustrate the potential of our approach, we developed several proof-of-concept applications on top of our sensing and classification system.”

http://www.chrisharrison.net/projects/skinput/

The virtual communities created by online games have provided us with a new medium for social interaction and communication. Avatar Machine, by Marc Owens, is a system which replicates the aesthetics and visuals of third person gaming, allowing the user to view themselves as a virtual character in real space via a head mounted interface.
The system potentially allows for a diminished sense of social responsibility, and could lead the user to demonstrate behaviors normally reserved for the gaming environment.

http://www.marcowens.co.uk

Der Überflieger – Wearable Interface, by Andreas Zingerle, are wearables for spy pigeons. The project deals with the design and implementation of a wearable technology for carrier pigeons. The experimental setup allows the user to follow the flight path of a pigeon (with GPS and digital photography from its place of release back to the loft. With the project and the use of standard technology, Der Überflieger is a tool for people to use surveillance as a counter-performance to reflect, mirror and disorient organisations that normally have the power to observe public and private life. The documentation shows the design process and the test flights that were carried out in April 2009 in the area of Graz, Austria.
Der Überflieger is currently installed in Linz for Ars Electronica 2009 (Interface Culture Exhibition. 4-8 september 2009).

http://www.derueberflieger.com

Headbang Hero, by Tiago Martins, Ricardo Nascimento and Andreas Zingerle is a music/dance video game for testing and improving your headbanging prowess. A special wig is used as a game controller, feeding motion data to the game software. The game analyses in real time how well your headbanging follows the rhythm of the music. You are awarded points for your personal headbanging choreography… but you should be aware that your health is at risk! To stress this point Headbang Hero also analyses how hazardous your performance is. As opposed to what happens in games where the player is in control of an avatar, in Headbang Hero what matters is the player’s own health. The game keeps track of two distinct aspects of the player’s performance. The first is the player’s (potentially heroic) sense of style and rhythm as he headbangs along to the music. The second is the amount of health damage the player is causing himself in the quest to become a hero. When the game ends the player receives a printed health report based on his performance analysis. Included in this report are tips on how to improve the performance and advice on how to avoid injuries.
Headbang hero is currently installed in Linz for Ars Electronica 2009 (Interface Culture Exhibition. 4-8 september 2009).

http://www.headbanghero.com

Impress is the deliverance of the touch screen from its technical stiffness, coldness and rigidity. It breaks the distance in the relationship of human and technology, because it is not any longer the user which is subjected to technology, but in this case the display itself has to cave in to the human.
Impress was developed by Silke Hilsing, a student at the department Design of the FH-Würzburg (Germany) using Arduino and Processing.

http://www.silkehilsing.de/impress

www.drawball.com

È ormai un’immagine familiare, un panorama consueto e riconoscibile, un orizzonte tanto comune da diventare trasparente. Fa da sfondo al nostro lavoro quotidiano, da cornice per i nostri documenti, da album per le fotografie, da schermo per i film e da stereo per la musica. Stiamo parlando del desktop, lo scrittoio virtuale del computer, quel sistema grafico fatto di icone e cartelle pensato per facilitare l’interazione con la macchina anche agli utenti meno esperti. Basato interamente sulla metafora della scrivania, il desktop riproduce un tradizionale ambiente di lavoro in versione bidimensionale. Con la diffusione capillare dei personal computer la riflessione sull’interfaccia grafica – con le sue potenzialità e i suoi limiti – è diventata una delle più frequentate dagli artisti, da sempre attenti a cogliere le mutazioni dell’immaginario contemporaneo, a reinterpretarne i vizi e le virtù, a mostrarne i paradossi e le implicazioni meno evidenti.

Il desktop è stato così dipinto e disegnato (basti pensare ai primi lavori di Carlo Zanni, ai web-paintings di Valery Grancher, agli olii di Miltos Manetas, ai disegni di Masha Boriskina o ai murali di Ola Pehrson), trasformato in strumento per il vjing (come in Wimp, di Alexei Shulgin e Victor Laskin), aggredito e smontato (vedi Subculture di Antonio Mendoza). Uno tra gli approcci più diffusi da un paio d’anni a questa parte vede gli artisti alle prese con il confronto tra la virtualità e la bidimensionalità del desktop e una sua possibile rimaterializzazione. Il corto circuito generato è naturalmente ironico, spiazzante, a volte persino rivelatore. Così, mentre schiere di designer e programmatori in tutto il mondo si sforzano di progettare nuove interfacce 3D (come BumpTop, che simula una scrivania vera, su cui muovere i documenti come fossero fogli di carta, impilandoli o accartocciandoli prima di buttarli) con risultati per la verità controversi, che spesso non fanno che complicare le modalità di interazione invece di renderle più intuitive, gli artisti traslano invece i meccanismi virtuali nello spazio fisico e li ricostruiscono con materiali tangibili.
È il caso dell’olandese Jan Robert Leegte e le sue Scrollbars, versione scultorea delle barre di scorrimento che caratterizzano le finestre di dialogo nei sistemi GUI (Graphical User Interface). Il risultato è un’opera raffinata e ironica, che mescola l’estetica e le consuetudini dell’era digitale con gli stilemi della più classica arte minimal, strizzando l’occhio a Dan Flavin e Donald Judd. Simile il lavoro di Joe McKay, autore di The Big Job, trasposizione in metallo dei rettangoli a riempimento progressivo (progress bar) che appaiono sullo schermo durante il caricamento di una pagina web o il download di un file.
Tutta dedicata all’interfaccia dei computer Macintosh, e in particolare a quella di Photoshop, il lavoro “artigianale” di Joel Swanson, che in una semplice scatola di cartone simula una profondità inesistente, rimettendo in prospettiva le finestre e i menu. Ma l’opera simbolo di tutto il filone di interfacce materiali è senz’altro MAN OS 1 / extraordinateur, dei tedeschi Roland Seidel e Achim Stierman. Il video (vincitore di una menzione al Festival Ars Electronica nella categoria Computer Animation/Visual Effects), realizzato nel 2005 e proiettato sullo schermo di un enorme computer-scultura, non si limita a riprodurre nello spazio di un set e con l’ausilio di cartoni e poster l’ambiente virtuale di un Mac, ma lo fa abitare da attori umani. Protagonista assoluto è naturalmente il microprocessore, interpretato da Mr. Processor, impegnato ad eseguire i comandi impartiti dall’utente di turno (che resta invisibile). Dopo l’avvio della macchina, durante il quale le icone vengono posizionate manualmente sulla scrivania e la progress bar tirata altrettanto artigianalmente, il sistema riceve un’e-mail nientemeno che da Hans Holbein il Giovane, che chiede di rendere più accattivanti i protagonisti del celebre quadro Gli Ambasciatori. Et voilà, i due vengono rasati con un colpo di Photoshop. I problemi cominciano quando nell’elaboratore si infiltra un virus, prontamente rilevato dal medico di turno, che, manco a dirlo, è il Dr. Norton. La vicenda prosegue su Internet, dove Mr. Processor fa la conoscenza dei signori H, T, M e L, che lo accompagnano durante la sua navigazione attraverso negozi online, siti porno e di cinema. E l’avventura continua. Sino all’inevitabile crash finale…

Valentina Tanni / 2006

INnet06
INTERACTION DESIGN: INTERFACCE
incontro e tavola rotonda
con:
GOLAN LEVIN
LIMITEAZERO
TROIKA RANCH

sabato 21 ottobre 2006 – dalle 10.30 alle 18.00
Villa Olmo – via Cantoni, 1 – COMO – ingresso libero
www.innetproject.net

The significant influence of these interfaces, along with the direction and intensity of implicit and explicit acceptance and rejection modes, are being detected and questioned through subversive activities and reactions in different forms of expressions by artistic practices. The project follows an empirical method through various researches carried out by different artistic practices focusing on various kinds of interfaces of control mechanisms operating in the social, political, economic, cultural, geo-political, and psychological layers of our daily lives. In the same line of thought, this project is also an attempt to detect tactics and rejection mechanisms along with the “off the record” strategies against the pressures and conditions of these mechanisms.

under.ctrl graz launch: “interfaces of control mechanisms”, which is planned as an event in process with various performance formats, will put forward observations on the various aspects of the mechanisms that control our lives, in connection with their designed interfaces. Throughout these 3 days, Forum Stadtpark will host sound performances, installations and screenings of works and documentaries (in a definite time frame with a controlled but composite schedule) along with a panel that will be publicized after the event. Therefore, it will operate as a platform of discussion on how these interfaces are shaped and alter our lives in different local contexts. loosing.ctrl (Turkish-Israeli project) -as one of the sub channels of the series- will also be presented with a screening programme. under.ctrl graz launch will bring a specific emphasis to the local context through the works of Austrian artists and a local activist group.

participants
The participating artists of under.ctrl are Nooshin Farhid (Iran/UK), Hristina Ivanoska (Macedonia) Effie and Amir (Israel/Belgium), Zhou Hongxiang (China), Ran Slavin (Israel), Anabala (Turkey), Sala Manca (Argentina/Israel), Ligna (Germany), Erhan Muratoglu (Turkey), Michael Zinganel (Austria), Pragmatic Sanction (Austria), Vuk Cosic (Slovenia), Nicole Pruckermayr & IOhannes zmölnig (Austria), Yane Calovski (Macedonia), FOS (Denmark) and Igor Stromajer & Brane Zorman (Slovenia).

Participating artists of the loosing.ctrl screening programme are Yael Bartana (Israel), Erhan Muratoglu (Turkey), Ruti Sela & Maayan Amir (Israel), Can Turkinan & Özlem Sulak (Turkey), and Hatice Guleryuz (Turkey).

The panelists are Andreas Leo Findeisen (Austria), Marina Grzinic (Slovenia), Vuk Cosic (Slovenia) and Emre Erkal. Erhan Muratoglu and Basak Senova of NOMAD (Turkey) will be acting as moderators.

www.nomad-tv.net/under_ctrl

[ITALIAN BELOW]

Brain Mirror è un’installazione interattiva grazie alla quale l’immagine del cervello del visitatore viene sovrapposta alla sua immagine allo specchio. In questo modo, i movimenti naturali della testa vengono usati come interfaccia per esplorare dinamicamente e in 3D la forma del cervello umano. Gli autori sono svedesi e ungheresi: Adam Somlai-Fischer, Bengt Sjölén e Danil Lundbâck.
L’obiettivo di Brain Mirror è quello di creare un’interfaccia semplice e d’impatto, che possa essere compresa ed utilizzata da chiunque senza bisogno di comprendere complicati meccanismi di interazione. Il software di tracking, collegato ad un elmetto indossabile, tiene traccia del movimento della testa e lo riproduce su uno specchio trasparente applicato ad un modello tridimensionale del cervello. L’installazione, oltre ad essere dotata di un forte impatto visivo, contiene anche numerosi spunti per la costruzione dei nuovi modelli didattici del futuro.

http://www.brainmirror.se