2004 – Array of Belts Visualize Public Presence

Standards and Double Standards is an interactive installation that consists of 10 to 100 fastened belts that are suspended at waist height from stepper motors on the ceiling of the exhibition room. Controlled by a computerized tracking system, the belts rotate automatically to follow the public, turning their buckles slowly to face passers-by. When several people are in the room their presence affects the entire group of belts, creating chaotic patterns of interference. Non-linear behaviours […]

Standards and Double Standards is an interactive installation that consists of 10 to 100 fastened belts that are suspended at waist height from stepper motors on the ceiling of the exhibition room. Controlled by a computerized tracking system, the belts rotate automatically to follow the public, turning their buckles slowly to face passers-by. When several people are in the room their presence affects the entire group of belts, creating chaotic patterns of interference. Non-linear behaviours emerge such as turbulence, eddies and relatively quiet regions. One of the aims of this piece is to visualize complex dynamics, turning a condition of pure surveillance into an unpredictable connective system. The piece creates an "absent crowd" using a fetish of paternal authority: the belt. Source: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer http://lozano-hemmer.com/standards_and_double_standards.php

Added by: Karine Charbonneau. Category: Interactive installation Tags: kinetic sculpture, presence, tracking, walkable

2004 – Synaptic Caguamas: Visualize Cellular Automata

Synaptic Caguamas is a kinetic sculpture consisting of a motorized Mexican "cantina" bar table with 30 "Caguama"-sized beer bottles (1-litre each). The bottles spin on the table with patterns generated by cellular automata algorithms that simulate the neuronal connections in the brain. Every few minutes the bottles are reset automatically and seeded with new initial conditions for the algorithm, so that the movement patterns are never repeated. This kinetic sculpture is a primitive and absurd […]

Synaptic Caguamas is a kinetic sculpture consisting of a motorized Mexican "cantina" bar table with 30 "Caguama"-sized beer bottles (1-litre each). The bottles spin on the table with patterns generated by cellular automata algorithms that simulate the neuronal connections in the brain. Every few minutes the bottles are reset automatically and seeded with new initial conditions for the algorithm, so that the movement patterns are never repeated. This kinetic sculpture is a primitive and absurd attempt to make tangible the mathematics of recollection and thought. Source: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Synaptic Caguamas (2004).

Added by: Karine Charbonneau. Category: Uncertain Tags: beer, cellular automata, kinetic sculpture

2006 – Pulse Room: Light Bulbs Show Heart Beats

Pulse Room is an interactive installation featuring one to three hundred clear incandescent light bulbs, 300 W each and hung from a cable at a height of three metres. The bulbs are uniformly distributed over the exhibition room, filling it completely. An interface placed on a side of the room has a sensor that detects the heart rate of participants. When someone holds the interface, a computer detects his or her pulse and immediately sets off the closest bulb to flash at the exact rhythm of his […]

Pulse Room is an interactive installation featuring one to three hundred clear incandescent light bulbs, 300 W each and hung from a cable at a height of three metres. The bulbs are uniformly distributed over the exhibition room, filling it completely. An interface placed on a side of the room has a sensor that detects the heart rate of participants. When someone holds the interface, a computer detects his or her pulse and immediately sets off the closest bulb to flash at the exact rhythm of his or her heart. The moment the interface is released all the lights turn off briefly and the flashing sequence advances by one position down the queue, to the next bulb in the grid. Each time someone touches the interface a heart pattern is recorded and this is sent to the first bulb in the grid, pushing ahead all the existing recordings. At any given time the installation shows the recordings from the most recent participants. Source: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer http://lozano-hemmer.com/pulse_room.php

Added by: Karine Charbonneau. Category: Interactive installation Tags: biometrics, incandescent lightbulbs, Pulse, walkable

2007 – Wavefunction: Visualize Public Presence in Waves

Wavefunction is a kinetic sculpture comprised of fifty to one hundred Charles and Ray Eames moulded chairs (designed in 1948) and placed in a regular array of rows, facing the entrance to the exhibition space. When someone approaches the work, a computerised surveillance system detects their presence and the closest chairs automatically begin to lift off the ground, creating the crest of a wave that then spreads over the whole room. A system of electromechanical pistons raises each chair forty […]

Wavefunction is a kinetic sculpture comprised of fifty to one hundred Charles and Ray Eames moulded chairs (designed in 1948) and placed in a regular array of rows, facing the entrance to the exhibition space. When someone approaches the work, a computerised surveillance system detects their presence and the closest chairs automatically begin to lift off the ground, creating the crest of a wave that then spreads over the whole room. A system of electromechanical pistons raises each chair forty centimetres from the ground. The pistons are controlled by a computer that runs the mathematics of fluid dynamics, thus making the waves interfere with each other, creating turbulence or becoming calm, just like real water. Rafael Lozano-Hemmer http://lozano-hemmer.com/wavefunction.php

Added by: Karine Charbonneau. Category: Interactive installation Tags: fluid dynamics, kinetic sculpture, mechanical chairs

2011 – Tape Recorders: Time-Measuring Tapes

Rows of motorised measuring tapes record the amount of time that visitors stay in the installation. As a computerised tracking system detects the presence of a person, the closest measuring tape starts to project upwards. When the tape reaches around 3 meters high it crashes and recoils back. Each hour, the system prints the total number of minutes spent by the sum of all visitors. Commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Source: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer […]

Rows of motorised measuring tapes record the amount of time that visitors stay in the installation. As a computerised tracking system detects the presence of a person, the closest measuring tape starts to project upwards. When the tape reaches around 3 meters high it crashes and recoils back. Each hour, the system prints the total number of minutes spent by the sum of all visitors. Commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Source: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer http://lozano-hemmer.com/tape_recorders.php

Added by: Karine Charbonneau. Category: Interactive installation Tags: presence, Time measurement, tracking

2012 – Pulse Drip: Visualize Heartbeats with a Water Hose

Pulse Drip Interactive installation originally developed for Urdaibai Art 2012 in which the public can water the lawn at the Torre de Madariaga using a water hose with a heart rate sensor built-in. To participate, visitors take the hose wherever they want to water: by putting their index finger on a tiny sensor on the spray head, his or her pulse is detected and an automated electromechanical valve controls the water flow to match the beat of the participant's heart. The spray head is a […]

Pulse Drip Interactive installation originally developed for Urdaibai Art 2012 in which the public can water the lawn at the Torre de Madariaga using a water hose with a heart rate sensor built-in. To participate, visitors take the hose wherever they want to water: by putting their index finger on a tiny sensor on the spray head, his or her pulse is detected and an automated electromechanical valve controls the water flow to match the beat of the participant's heart. The spray head is a custom-made handle with a built-in heartbeat sensor, a rechargeable battery, a radio transmitter and an Arduino processor. Source: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer http://lozano-hemmer.com/pulse_drip.php

Added by: Karine Charbonneau. Category: Uncertain Tags: biometrics, Pulse, water

2014 – Pan-Anthem: Visualize Statistics Using National Anthems

"Pan-Anthem" is an interactive sound installation where the national anthem of every country in the World plays back on a movable speaker that is magnetically attached to a large wall. The speakers are precisely arranged to visualize national statistics: population, GDP, area, number of women in parliament, GINI, year of independence, HDI and so on. For example, when the work is configured to show military spending per capita, on the far left of the wall the public can hear the anthems of […]

"Pan-Anthem" is an interactive sound installation where the national anthem of every country in the World plays back on a movable speaker that is magnetically attached to a large wall. The speakers are precisely arranged to visualize national statistics: population, GDP, area, number of women in parliament, GINI, year of independence, HDI and so on. For example, when the work is configured to show military spending per capita, on the far left of the wall the public can hear the anthems of countries without military forces like Costa Rica, Iceland and Andorra while at the far right they can hear Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United States, which spend more than $2,000 per person per year. If no one is in the exhibition room all the speakers are silent, but as a visitor approaches a particular set of speakers these start playing automatically, creating a positional panoramic playback of anthems associated to similar statistics Source: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer http://lozano-hemmer.com/pan-anthem.php

Added by: Karine Charbonneau. Category: Uncertain Tags: Anthems, loudspeakers, national statistics, sonification

2014 – Sphere Packing: Visualize Composers' Total Musical Production

"Sphere Packing" is a series of 3D-printed spheres designed to concentrate the entire musical production of a composer in a single dense multi-channel device. The size of each sphere is directly proportional to how prolific the composer was, for example the sphere for Johann Sebastian Bach has 48 cm diameter and holds 1100 loudspeakers playing simultaneously Bach's 1100 different compositions, while the sphere for Hildegaard Von Bingen only has 11 cm diameter and 69 loudspeakers. The project […]

"Sphere Packing" is a series of 3D-printed spheres designed to concentrate the entire musical production of a composer in a single dense multi-channel device. The size of each sphere is directly proportional to how prolific the composer was, for example the sphere for Johann Sebastian Bach has 48 cm diameter and holds 1100 loudspeakers playing simultaneously Bach's 1100 different compositions, while the sphere for Hildegaard Von Bingen only has 11 cm diameter and 69 loudspeakers. The project presents at a glance the comparative production volume of many composers. As people are a couple metres away from a sphere they hear a quiet murmur of sounds, but as they approach and put their ear up close to individual speakers they can hone in on specific compositions. The series is inspired by American composer Charles Ives' practice of simultaneity as a compositional tool. Technically, a set of custom-made circuit boards allow the simultaneous playback of thousands of separate sound channels. The spheres are modeled algorithmically and then 3D printed in different materials depending on the composer: porcelain, steel, polymer, stainless steel, etc. Each piece is suspended from a small playback box which is hung from the ceiling of the exhibition space. The list of composers is as follows, showing the number of sound channels for each sphere: 17 Claudio Monteverdi,39 Gustav Mahler, 69 Hildegaard Von Bingen, 70 Luigi Nono, 79 Conlon Nancarrow, 87 György Ligeti, 105 Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, 113 Richard Wagner, 128 Charles Ives, 129 Igor Stravinsky, 203 Karlheinz Stockhausen, 269 John Cage, 487 Ludwig van Beethoven, 565 Wolfgang A. Mozart, 612 George Frideric Handel, 998 Franz Schubert, 1128 Johann Sebastian Bach Source: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Sphere Packing (2014).

Added by: Karine Charbonneau. Category: Uncertain Tags: 3D print, composers, music, parametric