WEB OF LIFE                                                            architecture  by plottegg & böhm / 2001

Location at ZKM_KARLSRUHE_DE / visualisations /  Installation at ZKM / Remote Installations /  WOL.Mp4

The architectural concept of the ZKM installation is based on the human perception of space and on the discourses concerning the shift from Euclidean geometry to the non-located virtuality of cyberspace. As the modality of the installation is WYSIWYG, the significance of its shapes per se is no longer relevant. The three-dimensional projected scenery inside obtains its elusive counterpart in the form of what could be described as a »fuzzy black potato«. Orientation (in a spatial and metaphoric sense) is indefinite, and the perception of inside/outside is rendered misleading. The remaining corporality of the structural surfaces are further erased by projected overlays, which – detached from the object as information carrier – become pure information. With the aged architectural traditions of »expressive presence« now giving way to the practices of ›media architecture‹, the ZKM installation posits the newer notion of »architecture as a computational editor that captures floating information.«




inside>mp4

location at ZKM Karlsruhe.de:

plan01:	section:

plan02:

visualisations: MP4

     the volume is a multitasking "3-D-screen"                                                                                         entering = disappearing in the image

 

Suspended Tensegrity Construction for Remote Installations                     Remote Locations
(plottegg / böhm / huth)

Comments on the architecture of WOL (as seen by Plottegg)

some recent developements in architecture:

Times Square NY, inside Seagram Entertainment London, Tokyo (building, facade, shop, comic), multi layer instant, the binary house, exhibition demo vienna 2000

In these hot_spots of ubanity architecture is changing radically: the surface hides architecture, buildings disappear, you can not see architecture any more, no windows, no doors, no columns

>>>> solely advertisment, electronic billboards, solely information .....   the surface, the display, the interface (user_interface)

An architecture of surface, information_surface;
Architecture does not say anymore: "I am a church", "I am a palace", "I am an officebuilding"
Architecture does not refere to forms, to proportions anymore

today exclusively information, new information constitutes the surface of architecture......NASDAQ etc.....

traditional architecture
    is based on the unity of space&time&place (compare classic greek drama)
now :
        dislocation by electronic media
        omnipresence of the WWW

traditonal perception of space:
    is based on edges, top & bottom, indoors / outdoors, perspective,  proportions, visible structure, "facade"
now :
today we have a different approach: the surface of the web

Here with the WOL_INSTALLATION: (even more advanced than the timesquare situation)
the amorphous form without space edges, the dimensions disappearing  in the black, the unevenness annihilate the orientation

traditional 3D-orientation in space is replaced by skills how to browse the WWW / informationprocessing.

"forms" are faded out.

Space / Virtuality
    the discussion of presece & absence
   

the banal definition of virtuality: visible but not present;
the black hole and the web are presetn but not visible, virtual space is present, because visible, but not haptic (not hard-ware / physically)

Inside outside (indoors & outdoors)
    high Tec, anti-thesis, inversion of algorithms
        McLuhan: electronic media make publicly/outside come into the private room/inside
            inside /outside faded out
in this installation: the inside projections and visitors are scanned by a infrared-cam, and projected outside onto the black potato
the sub-construction wich ist covered inside &outside with a black carpet is projected onto the black carpet-surface outside

inversion of the definition of virtuality: visible but not present # # # # present but not visible

the web is everywhere, not visible, but affecting

how to demonstrate virtuality (the web) in a real life installation
              

patency; instant presence of different states of aggregation:
   
a range of representations from materialisation to virtuality:

1. Remote Control Tensegrity Construction (real life)
2. Web of wires (physically present but not visible)........ (..... problem of accidents)
3. Projections: (visible but not haptic)
       faking inside/outside, subconstruction/surface,
4. interiour 3D-webr

at the edge of imaginativeness and technical feasability

the problem of making photographies of virtual events
   what to do if space is faded out completely, that you can not take a photo of the installation?
   how to take a photo if forms have disappeared? (if forms have disappeared, there is nothing to be shot)

the problem of the light-lock: which was so dark that people did not find their way
how to make the entrance (the black potatoe) visible by projections (projections7 the black potatoe is an informations-carrier)
how to mark the exit, because it would not exist, and people would be trapped in the installation

the inversion of virtuality: the presence causing accidents