The MARS Interactive Experience Lab
Fraunhofer Institute of Media Communications

'Monika Fleischmann Monika Fleischmann / 'Wolfgang Strauss Wolfgang Strauss

The Interactive Experience Lab of the Media Arts Research Studies program (MARS) is a research laboratory for media art, design and informatics, and one of the four divisions of the Fraunhofer Institute of Media Communications. The research staff works in the field of eCulture on new forms of communication and interaction among the human body, art and technology as a means of developing multi-modal interfaces as “tools for the art of tomorrow” and as the cultural technology of mobile life.

On the basis of its core competency in the design of interactive systems, the lab’s staff carries out R&D projects focusing on processual environments, at the center of which are human beings with their sensory capacities and cultural qualities. Artistic strategies and scientific experimentation engender new concepts. Research is currently concentrated on “knowledge-based arts—knowledge-based media” and “nomadic knowledge computing,” which deal with the perception and design of intermedial spaces of knowledge and communication.

One of MARS’ long-term, application-oriented R&D projects is the netzspannung.org media art lab for intercultural knowledge production. It attracts more than 70,000 users per month. Customizable and collaborative tools for accessing knowledge online support the user both visually and contextually in browsing through the enormous, heterogeneous body of information stored in this multimedial digital archive.
The MARS—Interactive Experience Lab is involved on an ongoing basis in work on interdisciplinary projects and joint ventures with international associates. The results are presented to the public at conferences, exhibitions, workshops and the netzspannung.org website. MARS is one of the world’s leading media art technology labs.
Translated from German by Mel Greenwald