• Installation: « Peep-Show, Fishes and Other Objects of Desire »
• Exhibition: Milan International Furniture Fair 2010
• Time/Dates: 10:00 – 19:00 / 15-18 April, 2010
• Location: Officina della Torneria (ZonaTortona), Via Novi 5, Milano
• Production: Geneva University of Art and Design — HEAD Genève
• Departments: Interior Architecture + Master Media Design
• Press release: HEAD-Milan-2010
• Photo documentation: Sandra Pointet, Max Mollon, Leïla Jacquet
• Video documentation: Douglas Edric Stanley
• Video download: HEAD-Milan.m4v
• Vimeo link: Peep-Show, Fishes and Other Objects of Desire
• Media Design development platforms: OpenFrameworks (Scolu), Arduino (Still Life, Abysses), Max/MSP (Abysses), Blender (Scolu)
• Development blog: http://head.hesge.ch/made/projet/

Peep-Show (photo Sandra Pointet)

For the Milan Furniture Fair 2010 Head – Geneva proposed a series of media-design realisations and objects which reinterpreted the theme of the home aquarium, along with a presentation of work from the Jewelry and Fashion departments of the HEAD.

Peep Show, Fishes and Other Objects of Desire (photo Sandra Pointet)

All the aquariums were designed by students from the Interior Architecture and Media Design departments, and the structures were designed and built by the Interior Architecture department under the direction of Carlo Parmigiani, Daniel Zamarbide and Léopold Banchini.

Scolu - Prise en main du jeu par le public

Scolu - Prise en main du jeu par le public

Scolu - Transfering fish from one iPhone to another

Démonstration du projet Scolu

From the Media Design side of the equation, I was joined by Étienne Mineur, Daniel Sciboz and Daniel Pinkas for the artistic direction, with production assistance from Maxime Schoeni, and technical direction from Théo Reichel and Pierre Rossel. We received additional development assistance from David Hodgetts, and heaps of help from the Wood and Metal departments of the HEAD.

Abysses - Public

Unfortunately I didn’t have the best camera available, so here is a fairly grainy video of the installations:

And here are some lovelier illustrations of the installations, taken by Sandra Pointet:

Versus (photo Sandra Pointet)

• « Versus »
• Aquarium designed by Nicolas Perrottet, Florence Darragon
• Interior Architecture/Space Design department

FreakFish (photo Sandra Pointet)

• « FreakFish »
• Aquarium designed by Anna Graf, Vincent De Florio, Julia Dahmen, Juliette Roduit
• Interior Architecture/Space Design department

Habitarium (photo Sandra Pointet)

• « Habitarium »
• Aquarium designed by Laura Ventura, Giancarlo Mino
• Interior Architecture/Space Design department

Abysses (photo Sandra Pointet)

• « Abysses »
• Ambiant responsive aquarium Aquarium designed by
• Fabio Colucci, Maxime Baillard (Interior Architecture department)
• with Alexandre Burdin-François, Elwood-Léo Spafford and Max Mollon (Media Design Master programme)
• Software development: Matthieu Cherubini, Théo Reichel
• Hardware platform: Arduino

Aquascope (photo Sandra Pointet)

• « Aquascope »
• Aquarium designed by Mélanie Zogheb, Kumiko Machida, Femke Vauthier, Réanne Clot
• Interior Architecture/Space Design department

Ice Cube (photo Sandra Pointet)

• « Ice Cube »
• Aquarium designed by Maurane Jullien, Céline Bhend, Noémie Vauthey
• Interior Architecture/Space Design department

Still Life (photo Sandra Pointet)

• « Still Life »
• Mobile aquarium Clovis Duran and Nicolas Rivet
• Media Design Master programme
• Hardware/Software development: Douglas Edric Stanley, Théo Reichel
• Hardware platform: Arduino

Scolu (photo Sandra Pointet)

• « Scolu »
• Aquatic creatures on mobile devices by Leïla Jaquet in collaboration with Stanislas Bernatt
• Media Design Master programme
• Software development: Douglas Edric Stanley, Pierre Rossel, David Hodgetts
• Hardware development: Théo Reichel, Leïla Jaquet
• Software platforms: OpenFrameworks, Blender, Subversion
• http://www.scolu.com

Dorothée Loustalot

• creations by Dorothée Loustalot
• Jewellery Design department

Tie Ups Belt

• accessories developed by the Venetian company Tie-Ups
• http://www.tie-ups.it

Peep Show, Fishes - vue de la structure

For more information on the three projects developed in part, or in full, by Media Design, you can follow the Master Design production blog where you will find some beautiful schematics on how to build a mobile aquarium, source code for converting iPhones into fudicials on hypersurfaces, PCB diagrams, video documentation of experiments with audio interfaces, as well as a good helping of photos/videos of the making-of.

Full Moon - Schematic

You can also follow the sub-sections of each project for more information on the technical, conceptual, and design process of each project: Abysses, Scolu, Still Life.

PCB - Etching

Abysses - cablage

Scolu - Debugging session

Scolu - Debugging session

If you are in Geneva in the next week or so (5-7 May 2010), you will be able to see two of these projects, Still Life and Scolu, as they will be exhibited at Mode:Demo, an exhibition curated by Jean-Louis Boissier and the Media Design department for the upcoming Lift Conference 2010 « Connected People ».

Peep Show flyer (photo Sandra Pointet)

Also — and I’ll blog again about this in a few days — we’re searching for the next round of students looking to innovate in the field of Media Design. If you’re interested you’ll have to act quick; the application deadline is May 14th. For more information: http://head.hesge.ch/made/media-design/2010/03/26/admission-2010/

P.S. This should be the first of several cross-posts between the abstractmachine blog and the Media Design master which has been taking up so much of my time recently. I hope this also somewhat explains the long silence which has caused me many a Twitter Qwittering over the past two months. Ho hum. Unfortunately, some of us are just too damn busy to blog.