Sol, an interactive “spatial” installation, examines the roots of solar energy. (Your sun: the greatest nuclear fusion power source within light years.) Visitors to the installation get to participate in “staging” the whole cycle, playing with particles that simulate nuclear fusion, then watching the response of DMX-controlled LED and fluorescent lighting, all set to an ambient soundscape. The project is the work of small design shop TheProduct*, commissioned by Humboldt University Berlin. We saw TheProduct*’s terrific musical multi-touch table way back in 2007 on Create Digital Music.
The show was curated by Neues Universum e.V, partering with neo.studio neumann schneider architekten.
It’s also doubly worth mentioning this project because of the way in which they were able to use creative tools to prototype and build this idea quickly:
OpenFrameworks (link | cdmo tag) provides camera tracking (easy to do, thanks to OpenCV support right out of your download).
Gestalt is TheProduct’s own rapid-prototyping OpenGL environment for Processing, and handled generative particle simulation.
creative computing handles DMX Light Control inside Processing
SuperCollider (site | cdmusic tag) performs sound output.
Quite inventive work – and it’s worth investigating these tools if you’re making things along similar lines. Thanks, Jens! (couldn’t get your email to work, so… you’ll find us this way, instead!)
TheProduct*: Sol [Project Page]
