Airacuda, a remote-controlled, pneumatically-driven fish, represents the consistent application of a bionic concept. Airacuda’s functions, internal structure and external form are all modeled on a fish.

Project initiator: Dr. Wilfried Stoll, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Festo AG. Special thanks to Festo AG & Co. KG

Instead of pixel graphics, Aquaplay uses rising air bubbles as a display technology. A fluid-filled transparent container is equipped with air vents in its base. To input the form you’d like to see, you use the touchpad connected to the built-in computer that controls the vents. The precisely formed patterns of air bubbles effervesce through the special fluid to form the requested pattern or block of text in 2-D or 3-D.

Aquaplay is this year’s recipient of [the next idea] Art and Technology Grant awarded by Prix Ars Electronica and sponsored by voestalpine. Relized in Cooperation with Ars Electronica Furturelab: Horst Hörtner, Rudolf Hanl, Jürgen Nussbaummüller. Special thanks to Andreas Käferböck and Gerhard Riegler.
Supported by Festo and Hellerman Tyton.

An interactive simulation environment visualizes technological approaches that city planners and architects of the future will be working with. This installation is an expanded spin-off of “Gulliver’s World,” the Ars Electronica Center’s mixed reality environment, and uses a simple urban planning model as an example illustrating concrete application possibilities. Visitors can manipulate the various scenarios with haptic tools.

Ars Electronica Futurelab: Roland Haring, Daniel Fellsner, Peter Freudling, Horst Hörtner, Andreas Jalsovec, Michael Lankes, Christopher Lindinger, Pascal Maresch, Jürgen Nussbaummüller, Christine Pilsl

The Digital Marionette impressively shows the audience the look and feel of a puppet in the multimedia era: The wooden marionette is replaced by a Lara Croft—like cyber character; the traditional strings attached to the puppet control handles emerge into a network of computer cables. The translation from old to new, from analogue to digital, takes place via eight computer mice, which track movements of the individual strings attached to the puppet, and through digital speech recognition. Using this expressive interface, the puppet master can anonymously conduct the digital marionette, which reveals itself to the audience with an over-dimensioned, computer-generated face and a loud voice.

This work features tiny virtual creatures that look like imps. Viewers can’t recognize the virtual Kobitos with the naked eye; instead, they have to observe their activities through a so-called Kobito window. The little critters can’t be touched; nevertheless, they are able to interact with real objects. For instance, Kobitos can move a real tea can sitting atop a table.
In the Augmented Reality installation, visitors can interact with virtual figures by moving real objects.

supported by: Tokyo Institute of Technology
project credits: Takafumi Aoki, Hironori Mitake, Rikiya Ayukawa, Takatsugu Kuriyama, Toshihiro Kawase, Takashi Matsushita,Takashi Toyama, Hiroshi Ichikawa, Kazuyuki Asano, Itaru Matsumura, Yuichiro Iio, Makoto Sato, Shoichi Hasegawa, Society for the Study of Robotics

Morphovision is a new visual system, where a high-speed rotating solid object appears to soften or even disintegrate, when illuminated with special light. Here, a miniature house rotating at high-speed can be transformed by selecting one of several light patterns with a touch panel. One of these patterns creates a deformed object just like in animation. These effects are achieved by synchronizing the scanning light with the high-speed rotation and changing the shape of light in real time. Morphovision generates a new reality by transforming actual objects, instead of synthesizing computer graphic images. It prompts us to reconsider the nature of images and what it means to “see” the world.

“Move” is a game of skill. Unlike conventional computer games, though, it isn’t played with a joystick or a mouse; instead, users have to bring their own bodies into play. The playing surface is an appropriately designed graphic projected onto the floor. The players compete against each other in successive modules by completing a variety of tasks. Speed and agility are called for!

project assistant: Togo Kida
supported by: UCLA

An interactive map of NYC. Users navigate through the Big Apple’s network of streets via joystick. Just like a motorist, they can change lanes, make turns, and cruise through the pedestrian-jammed, skyscraper-lined canyons of Manhattan.

Youngsters are invited to take a peek behind the scenes of the world’s most important media arts festival. In the “u19 – freestyle computing” area, tour participants will have the opportunity to watch young media artists as they go about their work.

Age Group: 12 and up
Fee: €6 (including museum admission)
Start: Ars Electronica Center Lobby

A multifunctional space for exhibits and workshops dealing with robotics. The educational workshop offerings range from introductory programming with LEGO robots to experimentation with ELEKIT robotic components. This year in Robolab, the accent is on sensor technology. Workshop participants learn how different types of sensors can be used to create all sorts of devices-from the mundane to the madcap. Superbly designed ELEKIT products and a playful encounter with sensor technology make it fun to get hands-on experience with high-tech.

An oak is the centerpiece of this virtual sculpture. Instead of giving off oxygen like a real tree, though, this one produces carbon. The upshot is a piece of sculpture enshrouded in virtual smoke-certainly an unsettling sight; nevertheless, a thoroughly plausible scenario. The work describes a single day, revolving around the central motif of following the path of the sun.

3-D production: Werner Potzelberger / Yama Vienna

The Manual Input Station explores the possibilities of expression by means of hand and finger gestures. During the interaction, an object recognition system registers the movements of the silhouette of the user’s hand and other objects on the glass plates of the overhead projectors. These are overlain with analog shadows, and the result is an enchanting play of shadows in the realm of Augmented Reality.

This installation explores the careful combination of animation, sound, music and live performance to produce a striking, interactive AV experience. Users can play electronic drum pads to control a varied cast of animated characters through an evolving musical adventure.

Real-world data sets undergo algorithmic transformations into a fictive urban landscape. Street systems, vehicular traffic patterns and architectural forms “grow” into this landscape via object recognition.

Project team: Alex Dragulescu (RO), Mike Caloud (US), Joey Hammer (US), Erik Hill (US), Carl Burton (US)

Thermoesthesia is an interactive artwork with an original thermal sense display. It has been developed to allow users feel the temperature of the visually displayed objects, which is cool or warm by directly touching.