origin

DoppelLab software was developed at the MIT Media Lab in Boston (US). It can work dynamically with real-time data delivered by sensors such as those installed in a private home. DoppelLab uses these data to create virtual worlds that enable users not only to get an overview of what’s happing in the house but also to directly intervene in those events.

The conceptual point of departure of this is the fact that, wherever we go, we always leave behind traces—data that can be gathered, evaluated and stored to memory. The only question has to do with the form in which such data has to be put in order for us to really be able to understand it and the reason why we’re using this information.

To achieve this objective, the project crew’s building on the MIT campus was equipped with lots of sensors that registered every movement in the facility and visualized as moving points of light the constant comings & goings in the halls, offices and lobby.

Such a 3D model of the MIT building will be on display at Deep Space. More or less concentrated groupings of points of light provide precise information about which rooms people are currently using or moving through.
An interactive installation at the Ars Electronica Center makes it possible to step out of the role of non-participant observer, to be visible at MIT and, while still in Linz, to interact with MIT personnel.

MIT Media Lab – Responsive Environments Group (Gershon Dublon, Laurel S. Pardue, Brian D. Mayton, Noah Swartz, Patrick Hurst, Nicholas D. Joliat, Joseph A. Paradiso / US)

The Institute of High Energy Physics (AT) offers a glimpse behind the scenes of scientific research. The Cosmic Radiation workshop gives an up-close look at the state of the universe shortly after The Big Bang. At The Secretof Particles from Outer Space, kids can enter a kind of spark chamber and experience how mysterious particles from the cosmos bombard Earth. The 3-D film Inside LHC accompanies Austrian physicist Michael Hoch on his way down into the LHC’s 27km-long tunnel.

The Ars Electronica 2011 kicks off on August 31st, starting with CREATE YOUR WORLD, the youthfestival of Ars Electronica and getting started with the Tesla Orchestra!

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Die FM4 Science Busters werden 200 Folgen alt und feiern gemeinsam mit FM4 auf der ARS Electronica. Mit einem „FM4 Unter Palmen Spezial mit den Science Busters live von der ARS Electronica“! Publikum in Linz sowie Radiohörerinnen und -hörer können Fragen zu CERN stellen, die Science Busters antworten – und zwar live im Radio und on stage.

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In search of origins, the world’s underpinnings and the meaning of it all, Theater Hausruck (AT) has configured a surrealistic landscape painting as the set of a (pseudo) scientific, (theatrical-) archeological experiment in the forests of Upper Austria’s Hausruck region. Spun off from an operatic procession of pilgrims, Neuland proceeds along a mountain ridge to a research & education camp that’s been set up around a large, mysterious object. In amise-en-scène that fluctuates between reality and fiction, pilgrims, miners, musicians, locals and international scientists make their way.

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Fireballs, lightning, music and dance—the Tesla Orchestra (US), founded in 2009 by Ian Charnas (US) at Case Western Reserve University, is a circus in grandiose style.

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What we can see, perceive and measure is, indeed, quite a bit. Nevertheless, what we have been able to register (thus far) amounts to a mere 4.6% of the universe. The rest is darkness: dark energy and dark matter.

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