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FUTURELAB
Quell.Code
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Quell.Code
The Ars Electronica Futurelab developed an interactive guidance system for SAP Germany’s new headquarters.
The grand opening of SAP Germany’s new headquarters in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg is set for today, March 23, 2007. Guests are directed to the star-shaped building’s Visitors Center by Quell.Code, an interactive guidance system developed by the Ars Electronica Futurelab in Linz, Austria.
(Linz, March 23, 2007) “Follow the water” is the only set of directions clients need to locate the Visitors Center in SAP Germany’s new headquarters complex. Here, state-of-the-art technology and one of humanity’s oldest navigational aids merge to form Quell.Code (source code), a guidance system that displays supreme functionality while delivering a high-impact expression of what SAP Germany is all about. Approximately 30 Ars Electronica Futurelab staffers spent almost two years developing and implementing it. To set up Quell.Code, 50 processors and 116 displays have been installed throughout SAP’s campus.
“Follow the Water!”
From its spring near the parking lot, the water makes its way uphill, thereby surmounting a one-meter incline. It flows toward a 27-meter-tall steel Stele that functions as both a landmark and an interactive architectural element. Physical contact makes its inner workings pulse with light to the rhythm of the visitor’s heartbeat. From here, the watercourse flows toward the main entrance. Upon arrival, it morphs into a virtual current of data fed by the global processes of SAP software.
Every bit of system input and each line of recorded information is visualized as a “process-creature” swimming in a flow of data in which these virtual inhabitants interact with SAP’s guests. The movement of the flow is taken up by the mechanically driven Data Wheel. The motive force for its rotation is provided by the “sum of all SAP staff activities.”
The stream of data flows on, following the elevator car on its upward path. Along for the ride are countless process-creatures in swarms formed on the basis of which system inputs they were derived from. The identity of the overall business process to which each one belongs is revealed as a form of greeting in the headquarters’ 4th Upper Level. This is the destination: the new Visitors Center.
Quell.Code – A Statement Expressed in Media Art
Quell.Code brings nature and culture, mankind and architecture together in a dialog. At the same time, this interactive guidance system opens up a lively, highly individualized way of looking at SAP’s information processes. Business processes that actually take place within the company’s corporate structure are transformed into visualizations that populate the headquarters complex itself in the form of abstract creatures that react to visitors—for instance, timidly, politely encouraging, or even somewhat miffed. “Everyone associates business processes with SAP. And this is precisely what led us to the idea of giving these ‘abstract configurations’ a concrete physical setting right in SAP Germany’s new headquarters,” said Horst Hörtner, director of the Ars Electronica Futurelab.
SAP Germany’s New Headquarters
SAP broke ground on its new headquarters in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg on June 17, 2005. The five-story, star-shaped structure features more than 2,100 offices, about 20 conference rooms as well as dining & relaxation facilities for staff and guests. SAP Germany’s new headquarters complex will be officially opened today, March 23, 2007.
The Ars Electronica Futurelab
With an approach that has been based on a passionate commitment to interdisciplinarity ever since its establishment in 1996, the Ars Electronica Futurelab carries out R&D projects that strive for a high level of innovation and design excellence. The media art lab’s projects focus on thematic domains at the nexus of art, technology and society. Quell.Code, a media installation created expressly for SAP’s corporate headquarters, is a superb example of this tripartite encounter.
With queries, please contact:
Christopher Ruckerbauer
Press Officer Ars Electronica
AEC Ars Electronica Center Linz
Museumsgesellschaft mbH
Hauptstraße 2, A - 4040 Linz, Austria
Tel +43.732.7272-38
Fax +43.732.7272-638
email: christopher.ruckerbauer@aec.at
URL: http://www.aec.at/press
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