gloomy prospects

The installation “01101000eis01110011” was part of the course “gloomy prospects” at the HTW Berlin by Franz Mattuschka.

The idea of ​​melting ice masses destroyed by us human beings is there, but still remains abstract. What happens when individual parts of these masses face each other?

The installation 01101000eis01110011 brings the viewer into this situation. Abstract from the outside, inside it shows a dissolving, dripping block of ice. A heat lamp constantly deforms it and changes the visual output outside the box together with other sensors and through human influence.

Seen from the outside, only the abstract visualization is perceptible on the screen. In the second step, visitors are led into the interior of the 2 × 1.25 × 2.5 m box and see the glowing red block of ice on the base. The shape influenced by the heat lamp shows the outlines of the visualization, which are captured by a Kinect camera and transmitted to a Touchdesigner sketch. There the edge is tracked and the pixel image is converted into forms, while at the same time the threshold of the recorded video is continuously changed by a sine curve. This creates a kind of crystal structure or mosaic effect, which expands and shrinks inside the block and is reminiscent of an accelerated melting process. In addition, a colored veil emerges from the white edges, which is created by the sensor input and feedback loops.

The red block of ice is visually and haptically interesting and the visitors can approach it, look at it from all sides and also touch it. A proximity sensor detects the distance between the visitor and the ice and changes the color value of the visualization to a warmer color spectrum, up to yellow, as the distance decreases. The temperature sensor influences the strength of the wiping effect, which becomes more extreme with increasing values. In addition, the experience is dramatized by the sounds of the dripping ice water, which are amplified by a steel sheet in the collecting container.

The project was developed and designed by:

• _Dennis Henning
• _Leon Volbers