Gedankenscherz – Interactive (gesture controlled) audiovisual installation

About

The museum of the future must be alive! This was the most important insight that Gottfried Wilhlem Leibniz gained from his research trips through Europe. The utopia that he described in his 1675 essay, Drôle de Pensée (Funny Thought = Gedankenscherz), combines a collector’s seriousness with entertaining spectacles, and research laboratories with gaming lounges. His basic idea of breaking with traditional viewing habits and communicating knowledge playfully comes very close to the approach of the Humboldt-Forum as a contemporary art and cultural center that gets involved with the world and its questions.

Together with »Focus + Echo« and »We Are Chopchop«, I have interpreted the fantasies of Leibniz anew. The digital homage to »Gedankenscherz«, in which the visual and aural worlds of the 17th Century are explored interactively and intuitively, refers to the erstwhile cabinet of wonders of the Berlin Palace and could become part of the entrance installation at the Humboldt-Forum. Text by Humboldt Lab Dahlem

Functionality

The visitors are captured by an infrared camera (kinect) in front of the installation. Through gesture control, visitors are able to navigate through 5 different worlds. My task was to transfer the each world and its elements into sound. With the help of infrared camera, computer, and software, the visitors’ movements are translated in realtime to the corresponding world and its elements.

Here are three audio excerpts of the installation, the navigation world and two of the five themes