Seek

2004

Lia (AT)
Miguel Carvalhais (PT)

Interact with the façade of the Ars Electronica Center and use your own home PC to influence the shapes and patterns that illuminate the Linz cityscape by night!

Artists Lia and Miguel Carvalhais were commissioned to create “Seek” for the Ars Electronica Center’s media façade. This interplay of shapes and patterns lets any online user directly intervene in the movements and forms projected onto the façade.

An online shockwave domain is accessible at three websites: http://www.aec.at/seek, http://www.wofbot.org and http://www.re-move.org. The sequence of projections on the façade is not displayed in the online domain; instead, the user sees 15 autonomous elements that move about the screen independently of one another. Each object reacts simultaneously both to manipulation via mouse-click by the user as well as to all other objects in the same domain.

At certain points in time, the system selects one of the online users to influence the sequence of movements on the façade. When one or more objects change color, the online domain is directly linked to the façade. As soon as the link-up is terminated, the elements return to their black color.

Opportunities for interaction are also made available in the Museum of the Future. Dedicated terminals provide access to the online domain of “Seek” to visitors, who can thus modify the movements of the projections on-site. The installation by Lia and Carvalhais becomes visible after sundown on the Ars Electronica Center’s tripartite media façade.

The Ars Electronica Center’s media façade was supported by Mitsubishi and SAP.