03 electrolobby - Showroom for digital culture and lifestyle
03 electrolobby - Showroom for digital culture and lifestyle

2001

TNC Network (FR)

In a stimulating environment, a unique blend of dayclubbing, informal media conference and networked project showcase, the electrolobby recreates the intense subdigital climate in which these smart hubs, hacks & killer apps that push the envelope, are spawned and spun off. This year's electrolobby will be a gathering place for professional gamers, game designers, renegade programmers, wireless experts and open law advocates. Their fields of activity are diverse, yet they have a common set of influences, values and ideas - a new frame of reference: the 'Internet-driven digital culture & lifestyle'.

This year's electrolobby pays special attention to games, currently number one in the creative rankings. Not just because of their increasing cultural, social and economic relevance, but more because all aspects of a creative, innovative way of dealing with the Internet converge in the production process of online games. And of course, because games are fun!

The electrolobby showroom, commissioned by Ars Electronica, is designed by Paris-based new-media label TNC Network to explicitly meet the needs and expectations of the digital generation. Its mission is to detect Internet-related creativity and innovation at their earliest emergence, and then to provide a conducive, engaging and entertaining format for presentation in a festival setting.


Game Jam (F/FI/UK/D/A/DK/USA)
Die electrolobby als internationales Gamelabor: In einem viertägigen Challenge programmieren 20 junge profilierte Next-Gen-Creatives gemeinsam eine Online-Gamehall. Die einmalige Gelegenheit, den Entstehungsprozess von Online-Games vom Gameplay über Character Design bis hin zur Programmierung live mitzuerleben.

The electrolobby mutates into an international game lab! In a radical four-day challenge, a crack global team of 20 high-profile next-gen-creatives pool their talents to program a massive online game hall. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness the genesis of online games, from concept and gameplay to character design and programming, in the very pit of creation.
Feat: Team cHmAn, Sulake Labs, Kerb, Moccu, Lippe, Kaliber10000, mach5design, Praystation. A co-production of Vectorlounge and TNC Network.


Everything (USA)
Everything is a collaborative real-time encyclopedia for the Digital Generation: fast, irreverent, dynamic - a legitimate alternative to old-school collections of knowledge. It took shape two years ago in the Slashdot milieu, efficiently utilizes the Internet as a knowledge backbone, and currently contains over a million entries - from “string theory” to “Cheats” to “X-Men”. You can find it all here.
Feat: Nathan Oostendorp & the Everything-Noders.

Habbo Hotel (FIN/UK)
A social entertainment arena in the form of a virtual five-star hotel conceived by members of a generation for whom games and mobile technology have long since become a necessary accessory to their cultural finery. Habbo room service includes a communications tool that enables the hotel's teenage guests to keep in touch via WAP and SMS, and to communicate with each other at a keystroke’s notice. Feat: Sampo Karjalainen, Aapo Kyrölä & the Habbo-Guests


From Bedroom Programmers To Media Gods/USA
In a series of micro-lectures, a game designer and veteran of the demo scene shows how the computer demo subculture became the talent factory for the game industry, and reveals the connections to current blockbuster games like Black & White.
Feat: Simon Carless aka Hollywood

E-Sport: Gaming Goes Pro (D/KR)
Digital Culture in full effect: the first World Cyber Games, something like an Olympics of computer gaming, will take place in December 2001 in Korea. Dubbed pro gamers, these evangelists for the professionalization of gaming, are already full-blown media stars.
Feat: Kambiz Hashemian, Ana Vranes, Dominik Kofert. In cooperation with Progaming.de

Keitai Zone (J)
After the cyberspace landrush of the '90s, real space, particularly urban space, has again become a source of interest to new media creatives due, in large part, to the mobile Internet. The electrolobby m-toy show provides a glimpse into the pervasive wireless culture that has emerged around the i-mode standard in Japan.
Feat: Andrea Hoffmann

micromusic.net (CH)
A digital lifestyle platform for screen kids, joystick lovers and audio geeks, revolving around computer game sounds and the motto 'low-tech music for hi-tech people.' The label playfully establishes bridges between the current Internet music communities and the pioneering scenes and formats.
Feat: Paco Manzanares (aka wanga), Mike Burkhardt (aka superB), Gino Esposto (aka carl).

Kerb (UK)
The bad boys from this Brighton-based new media agency design tough, online games for viral campaigns on the Internet. With their cleverly conceived system for cross-media use of Flash animation, these classy specialists in funky youth marketing have taken their place among the pioneers in the current convergence of new media and TV culture.
Feat: Jim McNiven, Pete Barr-Watson, Sermad Buni, Dylan Van Loggerenberg.

Open Law Project (USA)
In light of controversial legislation dealing with copyrights and the use of information, Openlaw is developing innovative strategies to protect the interests of the public versus those of the entertainment industry. Lawyers and laypersons work out shared lines of argumentation in accordance with the open source model - highlighting, among others, the DeCSS trial dealing with the decoding of the DVD copy protection.
Feat: Wendy Seltzer

Team cHmAn (F)
This creative posse of designers from the north of France, with their ground-breaking online game environment Banja, have made a name for themselves around the world as pioneers in dealing with up-to-date vector-based animation technology. In the electrolobby, Team cHmAn is responsible for the programming of the Game Jam interface.
Feat: Sébastien Kochman, Olivier Janin, Damien Giard, Sébastien Jacob, Stéphane Logier, Alexandre Guesnerot, Gaël Cecchin, Denis Bonnetier, Rodolphe Bonvoisin, Gauthier Havet, Gunther Welker.

Moccu (D)
This young Berlin-based Web entertainment agency, in collaboration with
psychologists from the Ruhr-University Bochum, has designed an online
recruiting game for Siemens that makes it possible to discover fresh talent and test their potential to fit in with the company's staff. Alternating between large-scale commercial assignments and free-lance projects in the entertainment field, Moccu explores the potential of games in developing new interfaces for communications.
Feat: Jens Schmidt, Björn Zaske.

Kaliber 10000 (DK/USA/UK)
This sharp e-zine, aka 'The Designer's Lunchbox', has become one of today's most notorious hangouts for the international design community. With their no-bullshit attitude, its hyperactive link-dealers motivate creatives worldwide to pursue mutual exchange-and mercilessly drive up quality standards.
Feat: Michael Schmidt, Toke Nygaard, Per Jørgensen

404Zone (A)
This year, for the first time, electrolobby will offer an international platform to a participant in the U19 cyberarts competition.
Feat: Simon Scheiber

Raumgestaltung/room design: Scott Ritter (USA/A)