SIMPLICITY - the art of complexity - ARS ELECTRONICA 2006 - Festival für Kunst, Technologie und Gesellschaft - Linz, Do 31. August – Di 5. September

Emotions in Man is a interactive contemporary dance dvd. The piece investigates the use of interaction as a means of enlivening the viewing experience for recordings of performing arts and also ways of using interactive functions in a dvd.
In this light-hearted piece, the viewer decides, which of five basic emotions – joy, sorrow, anger, love or fear – to give to the dancer. There are many levels of intensity for each emotion, so the viewer can choose to give the dancer ever more of one emotion, or suddenly plunge him into a totally new emotion. These moments of decision making occur throughout the piece and determine how the choreography evolves. The viewer must make choices or else the dancer gets bored, walks out and the piece end.
The piece is sold at art book shops, is in the selection of public libraries in Finland and has also toured festivals around Europe as an installation. Shall we dance?

Emotions in Man: Kati Åberg, choreography/dance Jyrki Karttunen, voice: Anna-Kaisa Liedes

Marianne Decoster-Taivalkoski, media artist born in France in 1969, based in Helsinki. She graduated from the Media Lab of the University of Art and Design Helsinki in 2003. She works on the creation of poetic and multisensorial experiences within motion sensitive sonic spaces.

Marianne Decoster-Taivalkoski: Aquatic

Aquatic is an enveloping, interactive water soundscape installation. The visitors are invited to participate in a multisensorial experience by exploring the soundscape through bodily movements within the empty space of the installation. They hear it as the accurate feedback of their movements.
Aquatic proposes an immersive and poetic experience of imaginary water worlds playing with kinaesthesia and sound images. It gives the main role to one's imagination in the building of the experience of immersion. It proposes a reflection about the influence of sounds on our sense of space and our imagination. How sounds, bodily movements and interaction arouse in us body memories and sensations.
The soundscape handles three emotional states free to one’s interpretation: soft and quiet waters, refreshing streaming waters and tempest waters.
The system uses David Rokeby’s softVNS software and Max MSP to generate a real time sound feedback to bodily movements registered with video sensors. Since its development in 2001-2003, Aquatic has been installed in various art museums and public places within the city of Helsinki since 2004.

Aquatic: Marianne Decoster-Taivalkoski

Wille Mäkelä, born 1954 in Helsinki, studied first oil painting in the Fine Arts Academy of Finland, starting 1976. However, he graduated as film director, 1987. After several years of film and theatre works, he started doctoral studies - in new media.

Wille Makela: Painted into air & Chemotaxis

“Painted into air” is an immersive fine art exhibition, first presented in Kiasma, Helsinki, in 2005. Spectators can step in the stereo display of a two-screen corner and move among three-dimensional free hand traces, painted by Wille Mäkelä and ten guest artists.
At the astonishing new experience of painting into the air, each of the artists found a personal way to study the depth. Exploring the traces in immersion, spectators may now find a bridge between the new medium and traditional handwork.

Painted into Air: Wille Mäkelä

Animaatiokone Industries is a three person interaction design co-operative with main emphasis on image processing, computer vision and user interface design. Animaatiokone Indusries other projects include Animaatiokone Studio desktop software and award winning Kick Ass Kung Fu fighting game simulator.

Perttu Hämäläinen, Mikko Lindholm & Ari Nykänen: Animaatiokone

Animaatiokone is an easy-to-use, futuristic installation that turns you into a master animator. It is built on custom animation software and technology that make animating quicker and more fun than ever. All you need to start is a piece of plasticine.

Animaatiokone aims to teach people about animation and show how easy it can be to create stop-motion animation. Award winning Animaatiokone combines technological and user interface innovations into a novel collaborative storytelling tool. The transparent studio-dome and the overhead monitor allow public to watch the animator at work and learn from each other. The dome contains a miniature studio with a backdrop and a movable camera and set pieces. Animations are captured one after another, each animator continuing from where the previous one stopped. The results vary from absurdly twisting drama to a fragmented animation sketch-book and subliminal glimpses.

All animations are presented on the Animaatiokone web site. The web site features the contributions of more than thousand users, many of which first-timers.

Animaatiokone: Perttu Hämäläinen, Mikko Lindholm & Ari Nykänen