Press Release 107/2015

KIT Is “Selected Place” in the “Land of Ideas”

“e-Installation“ Cooperation Project for Preservation of Art Provides Innovations for the Digital World/Prize Ceremony in the Course of “Stadtgespräche” with Lord Mayor Mentrup
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Experiencing media art in a space-saving and location-independent manner with the help of data goggles. The “e-Installation” project saves works of arts from extinction. (Photo: KIT/Tanja Meißner)

Under the heading of “Stadt, Land, Netz! Innovationen für eine digitale Welt” (City, Land, Network! Innovations for a Digital World), a KIT project won the “Selected Place” prize. “e-Installation” makes people experience media art in a space-saving and location-independent manner with the help of data goggles and, thus, saves audiovisual works of art from extinction. The “Selected Place 2015” ceremony will took place prior to the Stadtgespräch “Stadt der Träume – Stadt der Visionen. Die Zukunft der digitalen Stadt” (City of Dreams – City of Visions. The Future of the Digital City) on Wednesday, September 23, 2015, at 19.30 hrs in the presence of the Lord Mayor of Karlsruhe, Dr. Frank Mentrup.

 

The masterpieces of media art are in danger: They depend on technologies that die out and then can no longer be exhibited. To experience such works of art in the future, an initiative of ZAK I Center for Cultural and General Studies and of the Chair for Intelligent Sensor-Actuator Systems (ISAS) of KIT, in cooperation with the ZKM I Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, has worked on a solution.

 

3D and telepresence technologies, such as data goggles, are to allow for a digital re-staging and a close-to-reality experience of media arts. In this way, interested persons and experts from all over the world can visit the installations virtually and experience them in a location-independent manner, as if they were there.

 

During the event “EFFEKTE – Wissenschaftsstadt” in the palace park, interested persons already had the opportunity to try the data goggles and to discover two virtual versions of the video sculpture “Versailles Fountain” (1993) by Nam June Paik. Until January 31, 2016, “e-Installation” can also be experienced during “GLOBALE: Infosphäre” at ZKM. For virtualizing the network art installation “10,000 Moving Cities”, a novel hardware configuration of the piece of art was made: For the construction of the so-called “holodeck”, on which people can immerse into the interactive work of the Swiss artist Marc Lee by wearing data goggles, latest Kinect sensors and new oculus-rift glasses were integrated.

 

The initiative “Deutschland – Land der Ideen” (Germany – Land of Ideas) and Deutsche Bank have launched the competition “Ausgezeichnete Orte im Land der Ideen” (Selected Places in the Land of Ideas) to honor projects of beacon character for Germany. For this year’s competition under the heading of “Stadt, Land, Netz! Innovationen für eine digitale Welt” (City, Land, Network! Innovations for a Digital World), ideas contributing to designing a networked world and answers to the challenges of the digital change were looked for. The projects were to be future-oriented and of high-revenue and model nature. These criteria were fulfilled by the “e-Installation” concept that was chosen as one of the 100 price winners. The project is coordinated by ZAK Director Professor Dr. Caroline Y. Robertson-von Trotha and Jesús Muñoz Morcillo as well as by Professor Dr.-Ing. Uwe D. Hanebeck, Florian Faion, and Antonio Zea of ISAS.

 

The prize was handed over during the last Stadtgespräch “Stadt der Träume – Stadt der Visionen” on September 23, 2015, 19.30 hrs, by Michael Krämer, manager of the branch office of Deutsche Bank, Karlsruhe, at the pavilion in the palace park. Afterwards, Lord Mayor of Karlsruhe, Dr. Frank Mentrup, Dr. Andrea Buddensieg, Trustee at ZKM I Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Dr. Simone Kimpeler, Head of the Foresight Competence Center (Fraunhofer ISI), and Greta Luise Hoffmann, Head of the Karlsruhe GameLab, were discussing the future of the digital city.

 

In addition, the “RESOCABLE” digital rapid test of KIT’s Institute of Concrete Structures and Building Materials was chosen one of the “100 Selected Places”. By means of RESOCABLE, scientists can determine the condition of pre-stressed concrete and cable-stayed bridges much quicker, cheaper, and with a reduced expenditure. A sensor fixed to the steel cables of bridges measures their oscillation frequencies, from which the researchers can draw conclusions with respect to the condition of the ropes. The prize will be handed over to RESOCABLE on October 28, 2015.

 

More information:

www.e-installation.org (in German only)

https://www.imb.kit.edu/mb/english/1646.php

 

 

Being “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 10,000 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,800 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.

el, 21.09.2015
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Elisabeth Loeser
ZAK | Zentrum für Angewandte Kulturwissenschaft und Studium Generale
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