Projects

Chia-Ju Lin

Hochschule Darmstadt

2023

M.A.: Expanded Media, Immersive Experience

Abstract art, a presence for well over a century, still faces the challenge of being perceived as distant, misinterpreted, or doubted by the general public. This predicament is particularly pronounced given the prevalent ways people engage with art today: through school educations, museum tours, and media exposure. While these avenues offer access to art, they often deliver passive and somewhat disconnected encounters. With a core belief that art flourishes through expression, exploration, and firsthand involvement, this thesis proposes an immersive and interactive exhibition that highlights the trailblazer of abstract art – Paul Klee. The objective is to enrich the appreciation and comprehension of abstract art, prioritizing education and entertainment. By actively engaging participants, the aim of this thesis is to bridge the divide between audiences and the art form, cultivating heightened interest and deeper engagement. Let us delve into the immersive journey:

Enter the Rabbit Hole
To heighten anticipation and embark on an Odyssey into Paul Klee’s artistic realm, participants are guided through an enchanting pathway adorned with interactive projected walls. Along this passage, timeless classical melodies play, while dynamic interactive animations beckon participants to interact with the artworks, accessible through taps on specific elements on the projected surface.

Explore Paul Klee
Continuing along the path, participants arrive at a captivating art studio, where Paul Klee’s artworks, notes, and creative lifestyle are showcased. Within this space, a remarkable encounter with Paul Klee takes the form of a holographic display, offering an intimate glimpse into his creative process. Furthermore, with guidance from the „Explore Paul Klee“ app, participants embark on an
engaging expedition, assuming diverse roles such as detective, journalist, art collector, or Bauhaus student, to uncover the hidden narratives intertwined with Klee’s legacy.

Extend the Aesthetic Inspiration
Having immersed themselves in the thought-provoking ambiance of Klee’s studio and uncovered various insights, participants proceed to the second pathway. Here, an enthralling interactive projection accompanied by delightful classical music captures their attention. As with the initial pathway, participants sustain engagement by interacting with the experience through taps on captivating visual elements projected on the wall, thus prolonging the positive energy of their aesthetic voyage.

Create Your Own Paul Klee
This path leads participants to the „Creative Reflection Room,“ equipped with user-friendly drawing tools named „Create Your Paul Klee.“ These tools empower participants to express creativity, explore imagination, and craft their own artwork. Upon completing their creative process, participants can share their creations on an instantly projected wall within the room.

Moreover, participants can provide their email addresses within the app to receive a digital copy of their artwork, preserving their masterpiece for personal keepsakes or sharing with friends and family. Additionally, they can order personalized products featuring their artwork, thereby converting their creations into tangible mementos that sustain a lasting connection with the artistic journey undertaken during the exhibition.

Alena Kiarnia

Hochschule Darmstadt

2023

M.A.: International Media Cultural Work, Immersive Catwalk experience, digitalized Fashionshow

“E-Wasser Catwalk” is a digital fashion performance that challenges the traditional notion of haute couture and sustainability in the fashion industry. The performance is a joint thesis project of two international students studying in the International Media Cultural Work Master’s program at Hochschule Darmstadt, Alena Kiarnia and Mohamed Hesham Amer. The project participates in the performance festival “KunstTREFFPunkt” organized by the International Forest Art Center (Verein für Internationale Waldkunst e.V.) and the Center of Art and Nature (Zentrum für Kunst und Natur e.V.) in Darmstadt. The performance will be held on 31 August at 20:00 at Friedensplatz, Darmstadt. “E-Wasser Catwalk” turns Friedensplatz into a runway to showcase a collection of 15 hybrid garments augmented with digital textures. The performance artistically explores the concept of virtual water, which refers to the hidden amount of water wasted in the clothes production process. It raises the question: can fashion be more conscious of water through the use of digital technologies? The project blurs the boundaries between the physical and virtual worlds, combining offline performance with real-time augmented reality (AR) components, and inviting the audience to take a fresh look at the beauty. Six displays and one big projection screen will be installed at Friedensplatz to accompany the models’ walk. For the augmented part of the show, unique digital textures were produced using 3D scanning and AI generation techniques. The textures refer to the concept of virtual water, recalling the evanescence of water’s surface. At the show, the textures are incorporated through chroma key technology, which overlaps them onto the blue clothing worn by the models. The “E-Wasser Catwalk” cherishes the idea of sustainability. By exclusively using preused clothes, the event promotes the idea of reuse and waste reduction. Moreover, the catwalk celebrates body diversity and different skin tones, featuring not professional models. Thanks to the participation of international students on the catwalk, the performance represents the international student community of Darmstadt and embodies the philosophy of the KunstTREFFpunkt performance art festival, which encourages international connection and collaboration.

Ikponmwosa Avan-Nomayo

Hochschule Darmstadt

2023

M.A.: International Media Cultural Work, Exhibition

With fast-paced technological advancement and urbanization, the atmosphere is continuously crammed with many sounds that contrast in quality with the sounds from previous years. This alteration to our acoustic environment has heightened the problem of noise pollution, its impact on humans, the disruption of wildlife habitats, and ecological harmony. Furthermore, sounds and acoustic behaviors are an essential component of our heritage, and they tell the stories of our history and our society. As such, it is a vital aspect of cultural heritage and an essential tool in understanding the social behaviors of past communities. This project aims to utilize sound to investigate the link between technology, society, and our soundscape. This sound installation project explores the evolution of telecommunications and how it transforms our communication culture, media ecology and, eventually, our soundscape. The installation will be presented at the Theater & Nedelmann in Rödermark-Urberach on Die Tage der Industriekultur Rhein-Main 2023 from Tuesday, 29th August to Sunday, 3rd September 2023. From an artistic point of view, this project investigates the possibilities of sound in generating a sensory and engaging experience for the audience. By consciously listening and understanding the sounds in our environment, we can create works of art that reflect the changing nature of our acoustic environment and promote ecological awareness. Through the use of sound features synonymous with telecommunications, such as dial tones, busy signals, ringback signals, and other distinct sounds, the sound installation will explore the evolution of telecommunication and its impact on the natural soundscape. The materials will be gathered from different sources, including field recordings, archives, and personal interviews. The location of this sound installation at Theater & Nedelmann in Rödermark-Urberach is significant because its location and the town of Rödermark-Urberach have a historical connection to the telephone company Telefonbau und Normalzeit. The facility contains a telephone booth that will be incorporated with the sound installation, adding to the overall immersive experience. This collection of sounds will be composed to catapult the listeners through time stamps, provoking a feeling of history and place and its impact on our soundscapes. The structure will reflect the evolution of telecommunication from the time of wired telephones and dial processes to the present era of smart and wireless telecommunication and how they influenced soundscapes. The recordings and data will be manipulated using various techniques, including looping, pitching, and time stretching, to create a sense of depth and variation in the soundscape. I plan to present this sound installation in a complete 3D audio setup in the main theater area of the building as a temporary exhibition. At the same time, there will be a phone booth version, enabling people to listen beyond the duration of the Tage der Industriekultur Rhein-Main 2023. The phone booth will have a telephone receiver to play the sounds. This will give visitors a unique project experience as if inside a telephone booth turned into a sound realm. This project requires 3D audio, which is an object based system for producing three-dimensional (3D) sound field for the listener, allowing them to immerse in the sound and experience a 360 acoustic sound experience.

Kanzul Fatima Arif

Hochschule Darmstadt

2023

M.A.: Expanded Media, Immersive Installation

In 2007 the Taliban insurgency took place in Swat, Pakistan, and Swat as we knew it had forever changed. The war officially ended in 2009, however, area-specific outbreaks continued resulting in the shooting of Malala Yousufzai in 2012. Even though the Taliban were declared officially defeated in Swat two years later and the 1.6 million Internally Displaced People (IDPs) were able to return home, women continue to have little access to public spaces and education to date. Objective The project aims to virtually relive a memory in which women roamed freely in Mingora Bazaar, and their haunting absence was not yet pronounced. Using mixed reality, I want to bring back the women to Mingora Bazaar. A key focus of this thesis is to demonstrate the absence of Pakistani women in public spaces in Northern Pakistan. It explores the categorical change in the visual image of a bazaar in Mingora Swat where women have been removed from public spaces in the aftermath of the Taliban Insurgency. Research includes analysing artistic works in Film, Photography, Media Art Installations, and Immersive Journalism, particularly in the context of oppressive regimes in the modern Islamic World and its impact on women. Where are the women? This thesis takes on an intimate introspection to the situation in Swat, Pakistan from the perspective of the artist. In a practical realization of this, a Virtual Reality Prototype has been produced of an installation that uses interviews, video footage, and interactive virtual space to create an immersive experience for audiences to be able to visualise the absence of women in the Mingora bazaar. Women reappear in a spatial limbo that exists at the cusp of the past and the present in Swat. Elements of nostalgia and sounds of a distant past populate this virtual space and bring back the essence of femininity that is missing in the Mingora of today. Through this project, I want to start a conversation about the absence of women in the public space in the northern areas of Pakistan. While doing so I also want to relive a time in Swat where women could freely be part of the public space.

Aisha Scott

Hochschule Darmstadt

2023

M.A.: Expanded Media, Immersive Installation

You are visiting the Technik Museum Speyer to learn about the Apollo missions when a little robot notices your potential to become an astronaut. It tells you that it needs your help with an important task: to land a man on the Moon. Now, together with the A.I. known as M.O.R.G.A.N., you will get a chance to go back in time and meet Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, and JoAnn Morgan, and assist them in completing the greatest mission of the 20th century! Can you achieve this goal and land the first man on the Moon?

Objective
This Master’s project is about the creation of a concept for an exhibition on the Apollo 11 mission designed for children aged ten to twelve. It is customized for use at the space exhibition “Apollo and Beyond” in the Technik Museum Speyer.

The main goal of the project is to develop a concept for an interactive and educational experience which is tailored to the target group. The museum visitors should gain an insight into the topic of space exploration and also learn about the Apollo mission in an engaging and playful way. The idea is not for them to learn as much as possible in a short amount of time, but rather to steadily teach them, pique their interest, and spark their enthusiasm in the subject.

Scientific Education for Children
The project concept is based on intensive research, beginning with facts about the Apollo mission and the requirements of a museum. However, since the overall goal was to inspire children, it was especially crucial to research their interests and ways of learning. In order to achieve this, interviews were conducted with an astronomy and physics teacher, an employee of the European Space Education Resource Office (ESERO), and the technical manager of a planetarium, all people who devote themselves to children’s education and the conveyance of scientific content.

After completing the research, a concept for an interactive exhibition was created using the knowledge gained from the previous steps. A special focus was placed on storytelling, which is the heart of the experience, and the interactive story guides the visitors through the experience while ensuring that they feel immersed in what is happening and thus retain interest.

With the integration of modern technology combined with visitor involvement and interactive components, we were able to create a final concept that was subsequently converted into various prototypes. The final step of the project encompassed thoughts on how the concept could be realized.

Arifa Asif

Hochschule Darmstadt

2023

M.A.: Expanded Media, Immersive Installation

The existence of life as we know it is dependent on the richness and variety of species that inhabit our planet. It was the huge diversity of flowers that marked the terrestrial revolution on earth which led to the present form of life. This diversity of flowers is not only important to the ecosystem but also holds immense value for evolution. People appreciate the beauty and diversity of flowers, yet fail to extend the same level of respect and recognition to the diversity of human genders. This lack of appreciation for human diversity is a significant problem and requires urgent rectification. Flora is an immersive experience that is unique in its approach to fighting against transphobia. Its purpose is to foster empathy within society for transgender individuals. At the core of this campaign is the idea of rehumanizing transgender people, with the aim of changing the way society views and treats them. This project has two main phases: the first phase aims to raise awareness through social media, while the second phase involves an immersive exhibition. This exhibition features a range of exciting components, including scenography, AR paintings, and merchandise. Birds of Paradise The motivation behind the campaign is rooted in addressing discrimination against transgender individuals. A lack of understanding about transgender people is a major cause of transphobia. In the Western world media campaigns and marches have helped to increase awareness of the LGBTQ+ community and promote their rights and acceptance in society. While there are existing campaigns to increase awareness and understanding of transgender issues, our approach aims to further build upon these efforts and offer a unique perspective. We aim to portray transgender individuals as normal human beings with a wide range of emotions and immersive experiences. By doing so, our mission is to dispel the notion that they are different from us and to promote empathy and understanding. Our immersive approach to this campaign ensures that the message is impactful and long-lasting. The heart of our campaign is the concept of rehumanization of transgender individuals, as we seek to change the way society perceives and treats them. The concept proposed to draw a parallel between the diversity of flowers and the diversity of human gender, emphasizing the importance of embracing and celebrating individual differences. The idea was inspired by the critical role that flower diversity has played in human evolution, and the concept aimed to highlight the value of recognizing and appreciating the diversity of human genders. To effectively symbolize this connection, we decided to use the bird of paradise flower. This flower was chosen because it is a visually striking plant species that thrives in tropical paradises, despite its resemblance to a bird. By selecting the bird of paradise as a symbol of the connection between flower diversity and human gender diversity, the concept aimed to promote a positive and empowering message that could inspire individuals to be more accepting and supportive of others. The project journey of Flora involved extensive research, planning, and development to create a comprehensive and impactful campaign that raised awareness about the issues faced by the transgender community in India and Pakistan. The project journey is designed to give a clear overview of the project after developing the whole experience concept. The project journey of Flora is divided into 3 parts: 1. Pre-campaign 2. Immersive exhibition 3. Merchandise for a cause

Iqra Naeem

Hochschule Darmstadt

2023

M.A.: Expanded Media, Immersive Installation

زنیگدﻧزیدازآ pronounced as Zan, Zendegi, Azadi, is a three-word Persian slogan, meaning “Women, Life, Freedom”. These three words exactly define the goal of this project. Women harassment and abuse are persisting issues that still exist in the age of social media, and increasing with a rapid race. While the problem is widely recognized, the focus must now shift towards finding effective solutions. This thesis digs into the roots of harassment, with a specific emphasis on developing and male-dominant countries, aiming to understand why such injustices persist. The proposed experience seeks to engage the audience actively in a freedom movement of the new Iranian revolution.

Simulating oppressive confinement
The journey begins with interactive storytelling through immersive installations. Subsequently, participants become part of an escape room, experiencing the oppressive confinement faced by these women. The experience aims to evoke frustration and rage, simulating the never-ending losses that women endure, even when they make right choices and stand on the path of justice. By fostering empathy, the audience gains insight into the emotional turmoil experienced by women in these circumstances. The next stages of the project involve a social media campaign, urging individuals from both Eastern and Western societies to help the oppressed women. The central argument is that empowerment through education is the fundamental solution to combating harassment and achieving lasting change. We are also working on launching a website, an open platform where volunteers can sign up to collaborate with us to provide education and learning to the women in need.

Leopold Hotz

Hochschule Darmstadt

2023

B.A.: Motion Pictures, Film

The bachelor project “Space Weather” is a 15-minute long short film drama, which shows the young scientist Claire, 29, who is in a rigorous selection process for a future space mission. The demanding training and education are not leaving her unaffected; she starts to notices the physical and mental exhaustion clearly. A downward spiral of health begins, and it’s only a matter of time until Claire has to make the most important decision in her life. The bachelor-team behind “Space Weather” consists of Leopold Hotz (directing & writing), Clara Dörholt (production & set-design) and Maxim Kuznetsov (camera & editing). Shooting & Locations “Space Weather” was financed with grants from the HAB-graduation funding, as well as funding from the regional film commission HessenFilm and Medien, a crowdfunding and private financial means. The film was shot in a total of 9 days with shooting mostly taking place in the area of Bad Kreuznach, where the “Rotenfels”, a high cliff surrounded by forests, steep paths and other interesting features, gave the setting for the training the aspiring astronauts have to go through in the story. Further shooting took place at the Frankfurt Airport for a rocket-launch scene, Darmstadt’s Darmstadtium, which got dressed as a space organisation’s headquarter, and the Virtual Production Studio “Rising Phoenix” for a scene in space, which is also located in Frankfurt. Production Challenges The team learned a lot during the production. It was the first time for cast & crew to make use of the technology “Virtual Production” (VP), which meant there had to be some preparations made beforehand. With this technology a LED wall was utilised to display pre-generated backgrounds. Together with the in real-life built interior of a space station and the tracking of the camera through sensors in the studio, a realistic effect and blend of generated and real elements was achieved. For the shooting days in the Darmstadtium and surrounding locations, the focus was on the larger scale production design, such as fully decorating the headquater and Claire’s office, her flat and the training hall of the astronauts. To immerse the viewer into the world of the space industry, a dominant production design was prepared and used, such as flags, shirts and jackets, stickers and banners. For the first shooting day, an observation point at the Fraport, around 30 background actors supported the production. The most challenging part was shooting at the Rotenfels. Extreme weather conditions, very cold temperatures, heavy snowfall and difficult logistics demanded everything from the cast & crew. In the end the shared experience created a strong bond between all team members and improved the film’s visuals greatly. In the staging and later in the editing the focus was to especially show the contrast between mental exhaustion at work and a prestigious personal and professional goal, such as becoming an astronaut while dealing with severe fatigue and the coherent symptoms, decisions and consequences. The main goal is to show a very current and dominant social issue as well as giving insights into a somewhat obscure but future-oriented industry. Further head of departments Daniel Erben (sound), Sophie Maag (costume design), Michelle Frey (co-writer), Lucas Yalaza (producer), Eduard Eisinger (production manager), Nathalie Weiss (make-up), Daniela Hilsdorf (lighting), Denis Schörnig (Virtual Production), Vincent Ruhl (score)