paintlib
[about 4 months total since 1997]
paintlib started in 1996 as a contract job for twosuns (see
enclued
) to build
decoders for five image file formats under windows. In march 1997, I published
the library with the permission of twosuns under an open source license.
It has evolved to decode 15 formats, encode 5, it includes several image filters
and builds under linux and windows, mostly through contributions of other
developers. I still maintain the library. paintlib is available at
http://www.paintlib.de/paintlib.
The access logs show over 500.000 downloads since March '97.
Diploma Thesis
[9 months in 1997 and 1998]
I graduated from the technical university of Berlin (Diploma with
honors) in 1998. The title of the thesis was "Visualization of
Simulation Results Using VRML".
Due to the computing power required, simulations are often run on
large, centralized computers, leaving the results in the hands of a
few people. The goal of the thesis was to find ways to distribute the
information and make it visible in an understandable way. The
practical part of the thesis was a program that streamed simulation
results via internet and displayed them as a moving 3d world in a browser
using Java and VRML.
enclued
[15 months in 1998 and 1999]
enclued was a project to develop an authoring system for immersive
multimedia environments at twosuns media development gmbh. I was technical
lead for the five full-time developers involved in the project.
The system included a full-scale display mixer that could stream video on an unlimited number of
video projectors and screens, multi-channel digital audio, and the ability
to control any
device accessible through the DMX protocol (stage lighting and
special effects). Input was via motion tracking using small infrared
transmitters. enclued included a full-featured editor. A 3d editor
showed the entire interactive space and allowed for placement of
lighting effects, sounds and reactive zones in this space, while a 2d
editor allowed placement and interaction design for screen-based
media.
Unfortunately, twosuns has gone out of business, but a detailed description
of the system is still available at
http://www.enclued.net. A video
presentation dating from 1999 can be found at
http://www.enclued.net/video/imager/om_imager_T1.mov.
Facilities Management
[17 months in 2000 and 2001]
This project is an ongoing attempt to
introduce an integrated database system for real estate management at
the Technical University of Berlin. I was involved in it as
a contractor until August 2001. My role was project manager and lead
for two developers. The work involved a huge database spanning 300
buildings, 16,000 rooms, 400,000 square meters, and lots of money and political maneuvering.
TroiaVR
[5 months in 2001 for Art+Com AG]
Since August 2001, I have been employed at Art+Com AG
(
http://www.artcom.de)
as a software developer. In the projects at Art+Com (
TroiaVR
,
WALL
,
Grouse
,
Ride the Byte
and the
Customer Interaction System
),
I was involved as one
of a team of five to seven programmers.
In TroiaVR, we reconstructed the periods of the settlement history of
Troy in cooperation with some Archaeologists from the University of
Tübingen. Users could navigate through the virtual city in 3d and
examine it as it might have looked like in 2500, 1500 and 500
BC. Additional 2d views showed a map of troy and finds from the
different times.
Images of this project are copyright (c) Art+Com AG.
WALL Showroom
[3 months in 2002 for Art+Com AG]
Since August 2001, I have been employed at Art+Com AG
(
http://www.artcom.de)
as a software developer. In the projects at Art+Com (
TroiaVR
,
WALL
,
Grouse
,
Ride the Byte
and the
Customer Interaction System
),
I was involved as one
of a team of five to seven programmers.
For the showroom of the WALL AG in Berlin, we installed a moving video
wall showing films and images of the products of the company. During a
presentation, the wall moves backwards, revealing a 30 meter long
hallway with exhibits that correspond to the themes of the videos.
Matching architecture and computerized lighting control as well as
sound add to the immersiveness of the experience.
Art+Com won a Silver Nail from the Art Directors Club Germany in the
category 'Room-Based Communication' in 2003 for the Wall showroom.
Images of this project are copyright (c) Art+Com AG.
Grouse Showroom
[6 months in 2002 for Art+Com AG]
Since August 2001, I have been employed at Art+Com AG
(
http://www.artcom.de)
as a software developer. In the projects at Art+Com (
TroiaVR
,
WALL
,
Grouse
,
Ride the Byte
and the
Customer Interaction System
),
I was involved as one
of a team of five to seven programmers.
The Grouse showroom in the Glenturret Distillery in Scottland is an
interactive environment in which floor and wall projections as well as
sound and light effects react to the movements of visitors. Users
seemingly walk on water, causing waves. They walk on ice, causing it
to crack, and they are invited to chase after puzzle pieces dancing on
the floor of the room.
For the Grouse showroom, Art+Com won a Bronze Nail from the Art
Directors Club Germany in the category 'Digital Media/Interface
Design' and the German Multimedia Award in the category 'Innovation'
in 2003.
Images of this project are copyright (c) Art+Com AG.
Ride the Byte
[1 month in 2002 for Art+Com AG]
Since August 2001, I have been employed at Art+Com AG
(
http://www.artcom.de)
as a software developer. In the projects at Art+Com (
TroiaVR
,
WALL
,
Grouse
,
Ride the Byte
and the
Customer Interaction System
),
I was involved as one
of a team of five to seven programmers.
Ride the Byte visualizes the global communications network - a network
that is becoming more and more an independent organism - and by doing
so shows the vital structures of today’s information-oriented society.
The interactive exhibition allows the user to choose an internet site.
It then shows the route that data might take to reach this site on a
large projection of the globe on the wall. Depending on network
availability, the route to one site may change from one visualization
to the next, showing how the stability of the net is achieved through
redundancy.
Ride the Byte was installed in several places. I was one of two people
that installed it in the Museum of Science in Boston.
Images of this project are copyright (c) Art+Com AG.
Customer Interaction System
[7 months in 2003 for Art+Com AG]
Since August 2001, I have been employed at Art+Com AG
(
http://www.artcom.de)
as a software developer. In the projects at Art+Com (
TroiaVR
,
WALL
,
Grouse
,
Ride the Byte
and the
Customer Interaction System
),
I was involved as one
of a team of five to seven programmers.
The Daimler-Chrysler Customer Interaction System is a system of configurable
terminals and video screens that provide information on the company's products. Other
than being complex because of the large amount of media handled and
the requirement to make website accesses from a public terminal
tamper-proof, the project was mainly an exercise in complying to
large-company rollout procedures.
Images of this project are copyright (c) Art+Com AG.
CD: History of Technical Drawings
[1 month in 1997]
As a university project, I coordinated the production of a multimedia
CD on the history of technical drawings ("Geschichte der technischen
Zeichnung"). This project developed when the regular course project
(an exhibition catalog) turned out to be far less interesting than we had
expected. In the short time between the completion of the catalog and
the opening of the exhibition, we put together a CD. I coordinated the
work, did all the programming as well as graphic and interaction
design.
c-base Airlock
[2 months in 2001]
The c-base (German website at
http://www.c-base.org)
is an artistic and cultural project in Berlin. Central premise
is that underneath the city center, a huge space station lies buried.
The city's TV tower is seen as the antenna of the station.
Going way beyond mere escapism, the project's charm lies in confronting
the normal view of the city with that of the station's crewmembers.
To this end, the crew has used exhibitions, happenings, press conferences
and other events, often severely confusing observers.
Reconstruction of the station began in 1995. So far, a 700 square meter
area spanning two floors of one of Berlin's old
apartment buildings has been reconstructed. Around 100 crewmembers are involved. I am a member
of the c-base planning committee and involved in many of the
station's activities.
In the entry room to the c-base, we reconstructed one of the airlocks of the
space station. The airlock included a hand scanner
that could determine if a visitor was human or alien and would
generate an alarm if he was infected with dangerous viruses. The installation
involved some wood, many small LEDs, a few photo sensors, two rotating alarm
lights, four speakers, two touchscreens,
and lots of old circuit boards and pipes. The work was done by a group of three
or four people with varying roles. I did nearly all of the programming, some of the
interface design and lots of sawing, drilling and duct-taping.
c-base: Excavations in Paradise
[1 month in 2003]
The c-base (German website at
http://www.c-base.org)
is an artistic and cultural project in Berlin. Central premise
is that underneath the city center, a huge space station lies buried.
The city's TV tower is seen as the antenna of the station.
Going way beyond mere escapism, the project's charm lies in confronting
the normal view of the city with that of the station's crewmembers.
To this end, the crew has used exhibitions, happenings, press conferences
and other events, often severely confusing observers.
Reconstruction of the station began in 1995. So far, a 700 square meter
area spanning two floors of one of Berlin's old
apartment buildings has been reconstructed. Around 100 crewmembers are involved. I am a member
of the c-base planning committee and involved in many of the
station's activities.
In old air-raid shelters underneath Berlin Alexanderplatz, members of
the c-base discovered parts of its drive mechanism. We
were able to discern the workings of the energy store, the moebius
band accumulator. Through the moebius mechanism, the accumulator is able to
store infinite amounts of energy.
We displayed the uncovered parts along with a description of the
findings in the exhibition 'Paradies'
(http://www.paradiesprojekt.de),
in which over 200 artists used
the many rooms of the bunker to show their vision of paradise.
libavg
[4 months in 2003, ongoing project]
libavg is my second open-source project: a framework for multimedia installations.
The idea is to enable artists and designers to build setups
with multimedia content without needing to buy commercial
software. Installations are scripted using xml markup and javascript.
Currently, libavg is a stable proof of concept that supports images, videos,
and text on a single computer. It has been used for two small installations in the
c-base and runs well on extremely low-end computers.
Networking, sound support and many other features are planned.
A more thorough description is available at http://www.libavg.de/
c-base: Primetime
[Event in Feb. 2004]
The c-base (German website at
http://www.c-base.org)
is an artistic and cultural project in Berlin. Central premise
is that underneath the city center, a huge space station lies buried.
The city's TV tower is seen as the antenna of the station.
Going way beyond mere escapism, the project's charm lies in confronting
the normal view of the city with that of the station's crewmembers.
To this end, the crew has used exhibitions, happenings, press conferences
and other events, often severely confusing observers.
Reconstruction of the station began in 1995. So far, a 700 square meter
area spanning two floors of one of Berlin's old
apartment buildings has been reconstructed. Around 100 crewmembers are involved. I am a member
of the c-base planning committee and involved in many of the
station's activities.
Primetime is the c-base's partner event for the transmediale.04
(
http://www.transmediale.de).
Primetime will take place on each day of the transmediale starting at 8:15 PM in the c-base.
We will be hosting several workshops and an exhibition with a clear reference
to the
fly utopia theme of transmediale.04. The first dorkbot.bln
(
http://www.dorkbot.org/)
will take place during Primetime.
I am one of two people that are organizing Primetime on behalf of the c-base
and responsible for dorkbot.bln.
