At this awards event, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology was used to identify visitors on the two ‘networking pods’ during the evening’s proceedings. The tags use radio signals to send their identity to antenna receivers. Projections then highlight guests’ key professional characteristics.

The interactive projections displayed the projects of nearby shortlisted visitors.  As they moved closer to the centre of the ‘pod’, their name rose higher on the list.  Once a visitor was determined to be closest to the centre of the pod their project details and credentials appeared on the panoramic projection screens.

The Awards were the first event that combined this technology to create a uniquely ‘connected’ environment.  The underlying system is a continuing work-in-progress that Cinimod seek to further develop for future art installations and events.  The tracking badges themselves already incorporate accelerometer sensors which can be used to gain further interesting insight into the user’s behaviour.

Cinimod Studio collaborated with Audialsense to create a unique interactive sound to complement the visual projections.  With a series of loudspeakers located around the site, special antenna receivers identified the eventual winners as they moved through the space. These ‘special’ guests then ‘distorted’ the background beats to give everyone else at the awards event audio clues as to the winners’ identities – even before they themselves knew who had won.

Project credits:

RFID interactive video projection system: Cinimod Studio

Lighting Design: Cinimod Studio

Interactive Audio System: Audialsense

Bespoke RFID electronics design and production:  White Wing Logic

Related:

This RFID projection system represents the second time that Cinimod Studio has created a unique interactive system for the Restaurant And Bar Design Awards – the first was the striking Exploded Globe over Hoxton Square in 2008.

While traditional chandeliers are static objects, the Light Symphony is designed to engage with the public and become an active and animated element within the space. It is comprised of 240 light tubes suspended in space to create a falling volume of red, gold and white light. The overall height is 15 metres, and the scale of the piece feels both natural and appropriate to the cavernous atrium where it is located.

The real magic comes from when members of the public become the ‘conductors’ of the Light Symphony. Standing at a special plinth that is reminiscent of an artist’s easel, the user can orchestrate complex colour movements throughout the Light Symphony by using his hands and arms across a highly innovative LED touch panel. The response is immediate, and the effect clear, fluid and rewarding.

Light Symphony was produced in the UK and installed with the assistance of a local production company. All elements were designed and fabricated bespoke for the project, and a 4-strong Cinimod team were on site for 10 days.

Cinimod Studio’s approach to the project serves as another example of the design teams ambition to deliver projects of beauty and innovative design where the focus on in which the highly complex and technical electronics and control systems are presented in a highly intuitive and natural manner.

We are still preparing our own video edits, but in the meantime some clips can be found on our:  Interview Film,  Making Of Film.

Project Details:

Client:  Sobranie London, Moscow.

Overall Design, including lighting, mechanical and interaction design: Cinimod Studio

Electrical Design: White Wing Logic (London)

On-Site Production team and coordination:  Zeppelin Productions (Moscow)

Flutter consists of a linear array of 88 vertical double-sided video fins projecting from a mirrored surface. Butterflies flash through these screens on virtual flight paths, visible for fleeting moments as the light irridesces off their wings.

The sequenced form of the installation references animation ideas first developed in the zoetrope, and its later successor, the praxinoscope. However, in a developmental move away from the linear time-sliced nature of these devices, the introduction of interactive control in ‘Flutter’ makes the ephemerality of the encounter influence its semiotics.

The butterfly has different meanings in different cultures, from being a symbol of life or death, luck or tragedy, nervousness or happiness. ‘Flutter’ explores these notions through cutting-edge interactivity – the movement of the viewer around the piece determines the scale of the butterfly’s flutter. By reaching out your hand a flying butterfly will respond, either by landing near you or by being scared away. In playing with the butterflies more intricate behaviours will be uncovered.

Acquiring Flutter:

Flutter was first unveiled at the Kinetica Art Fair 2010 in London.  A new edition of Flutter is currently being prepared and will be launched as a limited edition later in 2010.  For further information please contact the studio.

Visitors to the area became active participants in the interactive artwork. A thermal camera overhead tracked the position of the visitors, with their movement controlling a beautiful ballet of colour movements across the globe. An illuminated plinth at ground level provided a direct visual feedback of the colour tracking.

The resultant artwork proved to be a popular and highly engaging intervention within the Millionaire’s Fair exhibition hall, and became a visual icon for the event.

Cinimod Studio have successfully completed their commission by New York artist Peter Coffin for the technical design, build and delivery of a UFO to be used in Coffin’s unique high-altitude public art performance.

This is the second time the UFO has made a public appearance. It first appeared over the city of Gdansk, Poland, in July 2008. Since then it has been significantly upgraded, and for Rio it featured an additional 150kg of bespoke lighting equipment to create an even greater visual impact.

The night time flight over Rio De Janeiro had been extensively publicised in advance, and an estimated 500,000 spectators assembled on the five beaches of Rio to witness the UFO. As the UFO approached, the gathered masses rushed towards the water, screaming and shouting with excitement, amidst a wave of sparkling flash photography.

The overall UFO structure is 7 metres in diameter and manufactured of aluminium for lightness. A massive array of bright and individually controllable Color Kinetics LED nodes have been placed across the structure and are controlled via a Pharos LPX solid state computer. A network of bespoke ‘beacon’ lights, developed for this project by Cinimod Studio and White Wing Logic, encompass the perimeter of the UFO and are responsible for the orbiting sparkle of light around the main UFO structure.

An on board 6 kw generator provides the system power, and the overall UFO can be remotely controlled via SMS messaging. The UFO is flown through the sky, suspended under a helicopter 20 metres above — however, the helicopter itself is never visible during the flight, further adding to the mystique of the UFO.

Ten days of preparation on-site in Rio were undertaken by a Cinimod Studio team of three, comprised of director Dominic Harris, Nick Cheung, and Mike Harrison (of White Wing Logic). Operating from a top secret airport hangar they directed a local team of 15 people on the assembly, pre-flight preparation, and coordination required for the successful UFO flight.

Cinimod Studio already has a reputation for creating innovative lighting and structural designs, but with the UFO project design director Dominic Harris has taken lighting design to new heights. Harris says “we have pushed the envelope on the UFO, and it has required a remarkable fusion of technologies and design disciplines in order to make this happen.”

On the collaborative process Harris says “working with Peter Coffin has been a rewarding experience — his artistic vision for the project has remained clear and ambitious from the start, and he has pushed us to achieve it. The result is a fantastic collaboration between art and technology.”

Additional Video Links On-line:

BBC News,  ITN,  Video Globo (First preview feature), Video Globo (Includes aerial footage from chase copters), RJTV (preview feature before flight), RJTV (Later preview), MSN Video, NECN, EBRU

Project Credits, Sponsors and Organisers

Commissioned and produced by Open Art Projects: A non-profit foundation devoted to contemporary art which produces projects, materialises artistic concepts, organises exhibitions, and pursues publishing activities. www.openartprojects.org

Curator: Kasia Redzisz

Electrical Engineering by White Wing Logic.  www.whitewing.co.uk

Local production by Vianapole. www.vianapole.com.br

Support from the Secretary of Culture of the State Of Rio de Janeiro.

Project Sponsor: Oi (Brazilian phone network). www.novaoi.com.br

Official website (in Portuguese) for the project: www.discovoador.art.br

‘Beacon’ is a kinetic light installation with a mind of its own. An array of emergency beacon lights interacts with visitors, tracking their movement through the space, creating an immersive and playful experience.

The installation exploits a transfer of technologies from existing industrial products. The beacon lights have had their internal parts replaced with custom hardware, enabling the rotation of the reflector and lamp brightness to be individually controlled. Thermal imaging cameras have been adapted to track the participants’ movement through the space.

‘Beacon’ is orchestrated in real-time by a bespoke control system, which uses tracking information from the cameras to coordinate an interactive and highly responsive behavior.

Credits:

Concept, Design and Production:  Cinimod Studio and Chris O’Shea

Electrical Engineering:  White Wing Logic.  Thermal Imaging: Thermitrack.

The artwork was inspired by the Restaurant and Bar Design Awards belief that “design excellence is up to you”, and using cutting edge technologies, the innovative lighting installation was brought to life by the collaborative interaction of the guests who used special punch cards to choreograph their own colour animations. These cards were ’scanned’ at a freestanding plinth located in one corner of the square, from where their colours were uploaded to the main globe to form the overall animated lighting display.

The launch event was attended by some of the top influential designers and industry press, as well as many curious members of the public. The installation was well received, and provided a delightful and engaging addition to the square. The artwork acted as a beacon of good design — key to the underlying message of the Restaurant and Bar Design Awards.

The Globe was constructed with a structural aluminium core and ribs, to which panels of Foamalux were fixed. An array of individually addressable Martin Professional LED fixtures provided the full colour illumination to the globe, and created the unique dappled light projections across Hoxton Square. A bespoke software programme, coded by Cinimod Studio in VVVV, controlled the overall installation.

For more information see the Restaurant & Bar Design Awards site.

The series debuts with two panels:  “October Landscape” (1200 x 450mm) which is a journey through London captured digitally as a time-stretched record of the city lights and colours”, and “October Square” (700 x 700mm) which is study of colour and virtual shadows.

The panels are comprised of a highly engineered build-up of 4 different glass types, LEDs, embedded electronic control, and aluminium.

UPDATE:  A new edition of the October Panels is being prepared for autumn 2010 that will feature a new embedded interactive control system.  Details to be posted soon.

The first version of this artwork was as in a table format. It is manufactured from the highest quality materials, and is scalable by design to any required size. An embedded solid-state bespoke control system provide a reliable and maintenance free real-time interactive and responsive control. The table can also operate in a ‘generative art’ mode where it uses algorithms to create a intriguing and perpetually shifting pattern of colours.

Using a combination of specifically chosen glass types, a virtually boundless sense of space is created within the physical confine of the white glass box. A three-dimensional matrix of individually controlled globes of light extends in each direction, controlled interactively by the movement of people and objects around the table.

Please also see my interactive wall panels.

Lighting will always play a major part within the design, and where suitable interactive and responsive control systems will be incorporated to provide an added level of guest participation.

On these large live events, Cinimod Studio will work closely with the main production team, and will typically deliver a concept document including visualizations and coordinated lighting/technical plans and specifications.  Project management is offered, including procurement,  on-site supervision of all lighting/technology rigging and content/programming.