In the hyper-accelerating world of today, innovation is everything. But giving shape to complex ideas is challenging. Whether it is artificial intelligence, renewable energies or multisensory experiences, in this inspiration blog we want to inspire you how innovation can become tangible to a wider audience!
To make innovation visible and understandable to everyone, there is a need for new ways to approach it. For this reason, we believe that art as storytelling can work better than words! There is no barrier that a well-developed story doesn’t cross leaving a real impact on its listeners. Varying from a conversation piece in your corporate office to generating wind energy in the public realm.
New World Wind – Wind Tree
Bringing sustainable energy into our everyday environment
Photo Credits: New World Wind
It looks like a tree but it is not. New World Wind combined technology and design to develop an innovative solution for renewable energy. The Wind Tree, as the name says, takes inspiration from nature to power homes, cars, streets and even entire cities. The ambition? To make wind, something that is close to everybody, ready-to-use in urban environments. These trees are optimised for the lowest wind speed to generate almost the double of the energy than other turbines. Into numbers, this means they can work nearly 300 days per year supplying 5400 W of power.
What’s even better is that they can be purchased and personalized by anyone, from households to business and municipalities. Recently, a theme park commissioned them to let people recharge their smartphones and tablets. Forget the not so eye-pleasing turbines. Thanks to its many multicolored ‘aeroleafs’ and cutting-edge design the Wind Tree brings energy and beauty to people and places!
Paul Thursfield & Simon Rycroft – Lightfall
Making behind the scenes light innovation visible and tangible
Photo Credits: Philips Lighting
Light is part of our everyday life. But have you ever thought about playing with light? To showcase the newest sensory possibilities in the lighting industry, Paul Thursfield and Simon Rycroft developed Lightfall for Philips Lighting. The immersive installation is part of a research on new light experiences, showing the latest developments in this field.
The artwork is both magical and engaging. It enables to experience the newest light-related technologies making them fun. You literally have to play with them! To trigger sound and light, people dip their hands into a pool of light. In this way they activate the cascade of Philips Color Kinetics Leds, generally found in shopping centres and city landmarks. The space turns in a multidimensional experience where light is freed.
The physical meets the digital in this dynamic design, changing how architectural lighting is constructed. Ready to feel totally immersed into the light experience? The future here really seems to be close at hand!
Superuse Studios – REwind
Smart and sustainable street furniture design reusing existing resources
Photo Credits: SuperUse Studio
One man’s trash can be another man’s treasure. You just have to see some potential in it! Indeed Superuse Studio does. In their hands, nine carbon fibre rotor blades from old windmills became iconic seatings. That’s REwind: a smart urban solution commissioned by the Municipality of Rotterdam.
The city challenged the team to create a design that was both permanent and temporary. The installation had to offer a resting spot to people at the foot of the Erasmus Bridge, and at the same time it had to leave space for public events. With its red movable blades, REwind is is both indestructible and movable! Next to adding a touch of color in the grey surroundings, it is also totally environmentally friendly. Superuse Studio, as the name says, exclusively re-uses wasted resource.
An innovative approach can re-imagine any resource – and this piece of street furniture proves it. Together aesthetics, functionality and sustainability, make REwind a real sculptural piece of waste!
Refik Anadol – Virtual Depictions
Making Big Data accessible through public art
The installation ‘Virtual Depictions: San Francisco’ is pushing the boundaries of public art. This project gives a digital twist to urban art, creating a new way to experience the city landscape. To add a 21st century touch to public art, 350 Mission Building commissioned Refik Anadol to create an impressive work in the atrium of their space.
In his installation he managed to make the invisible visible. The artist used datasets from everything: transportation, city management, museums and housing. The data are made accessible by the municipality for any citizen, developer and analysts and why not, artist! Anadol’s combination of media arts and data does not only change the interior and the exterior of the 350 Mission Street skyscraper. His approach also makes architecture more responsive. With integrated data, buildings can constantly adapt to the changes in city and its inhabitant. From a wall to the whole landscape, art can transform all urban spaces!
TeamLab – Borderless
Interacting with the latest technological possibilities in the Digital Art Museum, Tokyo
Photo Credits: TeamLab
Creatives, programmers, mathematicians and architects are joining forces to create ‘Borderless’ artworks. Thanks to teamLab, a space of 10,000 square meters has become an digital playground in Tokyo. This art exhibit is a labyrinth of rooms in the ‘Digital Art Museum’, where visitors can immerse themselves into digital art. Everyone is encouraged to interact with the space contributing to its creation!
Digital art doesn’t only add beauty to the environment. What makes everyone so obsessed with it is the experience created around ‘Borderless’. These mind-bending light installations are extremely popular and no one can’t wait to enter in this new multi-sensory reality. Just as the Mona Lisa in Paris, everyone wants to see the artworks on display.
High-Tech immersive art experiences are becoming a real mania word wide! Media art technologies are becoming spectacular public events that transform places in real destinations.
Arttenders + Studio Lernert & Sander – ’40 jaar Glasbak – Lekker Bezig!’
Making recycling sexy
This day and age, recycling is more important than ever. But so many campaigns on the topic risk to sound repetitive. To actively engage the audience, the ‘40 jaar Glasbak – Lekker Bezig!’ campaign increased awareness by combining art with recycling. The campaign, created by Arttenders in collaboration with Lernert & Sander, approached waste with an innovative strategy.
Five eye-catching recycling bins were transformed into delicious cakes by Studio Lernert & Sander. These images could then be personalised by stakeholders and municipalities. This approach increased attention and indeed avoided redundancy. To be sure not to miss anyone, a separate bottom-up strategy brought together rebellious rappers and recycling glass. Not an ordinary combination! The result was effective and fun: a song blending music and awareness with a touch of humour by De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig. But it was not over yet! Studio Lernert & Sander even designed a must-have sweater.
With this campaign recycling became visual, musical….and even wearable. Everyone was engaged! It’s amazing the impact that storytelling through different medium can have.
John Szot – Artificial intelligence
Artificial Intelligence for cities and architecture
Photo Credits: John Szot Studio
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is trendier than ever. Whether it is combined with art, design or architecture, it can support businesses and governments looking for unique innovative solutions. AI is finding more and more applications and now it is even being used to understand and design cities! The growth of urban space brings new challenges, calling for smart innovative projects. To find new opportunities, many architects are exploring the power of AI.
Suburbs might not often feel look like the place to be. Therefore to add a touch of uniqueness in these areas the award-winning architect John Szot has developed ‘Mass Market Alternatives’. Through the use of algorithmic models, this project brings diversity and authenticity within the dullness of mass-produced spaces. Leave behind the old traditional paradigms of rational and standard architecture. Customized algorithms transform each building and wall evoking curiosity and daze! AI has the power to intensify viewers’ perception with results that broaden the spatial and experiential alike.
By bringing new approaches to urban design, AI can really revolutionize our lives!