BlindMaps is an R&D project that aims to come up with navigation aids to make it easier and safer for blind people to get around in cities they’re unfamiliar with. The approach: not a system providing verbal output, but rather one that uses a Braille-script-type touchscreen supported by popular online maps and the capabilities of a smartphone.

Schmeiduch, Spitz and van der Vleuten are this year’s recipients of [the next idea] voestalpine Art and Technology Grant to enable them to further develop this promising approach during a three-month residency at the Ars Electronica Futurelab.

The Ars Electronica Futurelab has a long track record of working with artists and researchers in residence and is specialized on working on trans-disciplinary projects that are located at the nexus of art, technology and society, and has a worldwide network of collaborating partners.

A successful Network

The Ars Electronica Residency Network (AERN) is the successful attempt to formalize this network to offer extraordinary opportunities and challenges for artists and scientists as well as partner institutions by the means of residency programs.

All currently running programs and projects are presented in the AERN panel at the Ars Electronica Festival.

As the festival moves into the heart of the city, the media façade of Ars Electronica Center extrudes itself to a number of pixels distributed across the festival sites, entangled with their counterparts on the iconic building. They are controlled via the “LinzerSchnitte”, an open-source radio-based physical computing technology developed at the Ars Electronica Futurelab.

Godparenthood for a pixel-pair

During the festival, workshops in the program of the Future Innovators Summit enable visitors to participate by assuming “godparenthood” for a pixel-pair and choosing the patterns it will show. Ars Electronica Futurelab also offers a behind-the-scenes look at the technology itself and advice for anyone interested in using it for their own project.

Anyone who’s ever felt the desire to adopt a pixel can now make their dream come true thanks to Entangled Sparks. Foster parents assume authority over one of the points of light on the Ars Electronica Center’s façade. Meanwhile, the façade’s pixels are being distributed about town in the form of Linzer Schnitt pastries with a tiny radio receiver hidden inside. So, instead of wolfing it down and being done with it, you’ll just have to come up with some creative way to put it to use.

Playing with Light

For instance, via remote control from the privacy of your own home, you could toggle your adopted pixel on and off, or make it shine steadily, blink, or slowly segue from bright to dark. You could even join forces with other pixel-adopters and design a pattern for the AEC’s façade. Accompanying workshops https://ars.electronica.art/Link-zu-den-entangled-sparks-Workshops provide an opportunity to get acquainted with the innards of the Linzer Schnitten and to give some thought to how you could put this technology developed at the Ars Electronica Futurelab to use in your own project.