SMS Guerilla Projector

This project by Troika is the result of the comission of Warner Music. The company, in coordination, with the Streets wanted short messages to be projected onto the audiance during one of the gigs of the band. Messages were written by the Streets lead singer Mike Skinner, and included cool phrases like ‘too much booze in his bladder’. According to the experience of Warner Bros Employee in the webpage of Troika, the crowd had much fun and some even asked where to buy one. So much for history. Visualizationa for concert performances have gone to the way of digital screens these days. Whether in syncronization with the music or not, they provide the same result: some imagery displayed on unmoving digital screens, which accompany almost every other concert on earth. Contrary to that, Troika’s product with projection, is not involved with the performance. Someone lurks in every imaginable corner , hides in every corner, relocates constantly and haunts the audiance with short messages. The response from people is; “Where can I buy one then?”. This breaks the tradition of music performance visualization in two ways; Firstly, it challenges the people from the audience to watch and interact with each other. Secondly it has no computational pattern.; so, in this design project, the band and its music is not in the focus, the audiance is as well. One can argue that the aim of the music performance is to augment the experience of the performance itself, not to shift the attention to the people, who are acttually “unimportant”. Well , as far as the performances of contemporary rappers are concerned, who says the crowd there should be unimportant? Maybe the fun should be more collectivized? The issues above being the case, the design product is a very succesful one. The experience of the SMS Guerilla Projector might had only one flaw. If some people among the audiance would be annoyed with photographs being taken while short messages projected onto them, having annoying content. And there would not be many people like that. Also,SMS Guerilla Projector was done for the Streets. Why not include the guy too?

thanks pix.

Design and the Elastic Mind – Bit.fall

The interface “Bit.fall” is constructed by the German designer Julius Popp whom I think did a great job in terms of giving the audience visual feast as well as implementing his artwok a substantial meaning. The interface is formed by a horizontal module with computer controlled valves hung from the ceiling and this module creates rain droplets which are released at precise times and frequencies in order to create words one by one to form a powerful imagery. This imagery supplies the meaning that’s aimed to be given as well.

As Popp states, his creation tries to remind the audience to think about the unnecessary information that has been disturbing their mind which he metaphorically depicts this point of view with the aspect of “flood”.

The illustration above indicates that a highly symmetrical and “devoted” mechanism is constructed in order to provide an accurate outcome from the interface. The construction itself is a big deal, and then the whole design is great. Like a saying; ‘Mission Accomplished’. Moreover, the metaphorical depiction of  high frequency information that is not been able to be obstructed by human beings, becomes a powerful imagery.  To admit, Popp’s visualisation is a good tool as a reminder for the unavoidable reality which makes the audience think about the incomes and outcomes of it.

When I read about the “Bit.fall” ,  although I am not able to see the actual interface, I was impressed by the design, and the idea it carries. Nowadays, I am so overwhelmed by the information flood which is gradually increased and creates an immense environment around me just like a living object. The worse part is that, sometimes you do not understand the exhaustion that this “flood” causes, and you keep on trying to have them all. Yes we are all created insatiable; however, I bet no one denies that millions of details and revealed facts make us learn more and more, make us curious, make as wanderers.

What if we focus on particular informations and try to overcome with those? Is this possible? I dont think so. We are diverted into so many things, and now less is not enough.