art – Spatial Media Research Group

ATHsENSe

Dimitris Charitos, Iouliani Theona, Haris Rizopoulos, Antonis Psaltis, Dimitris Delinikolas, Antonis Korosidis, Alexandros Drymonitis, Penny Papageorgopoulou, Natalia Arsenopoulou

Exhibited at Serafio Building, funded by Municipality of Athens in the context of the “Interventions in the City” project, under the Polis2 pilot programme

ATHsENSe is amultisensory digital media installation, comprising four interactive artworks, employing ubiquitous computing technologies, various sensors, virtual reality interfaces, multi-channel audio displays and interactive light structures, which aims to explore novel ways for (re)presenting and experiencing city related data. The project explores the concept of a smart city, through creatively translating the urban data produced by the environment of Athens and by its citizens. ATHsENSe is implemented through ubiquitous computing infrastructure, combining the use of sensors, location-based technology and mobile devices, in order to form a network of human and non-human sensors across the city. This structure enables the acquisition of rich urban data, which are eventually creatively translated in different artistic multisensory representations, displayed in physical and virtual space.

ATHsENSe was conceptualised by the Spatial Media Research Group and its implementation was funded by the Municipality of Athens in the context of the “Interventions in the City” project, under the Polis2 pilot programme, which aimed to “…create and showcase the city’s identity”. ATHsENSe was submitted to the strand “Serafio – Public building and digital art”. Serafio is a sports, culture and innovation complex that is open all days of the week and accessible to all citizens. The call aimed for an artistic intervention that would employ digital technologies and exploit urban data in order to reinforce this particular character of the complex as an open creative hub, to demonstrate its role, position and relation with(in) the urban context, while at the same time, creating a unique experience for its visitors. A designated jury evaluated all of the proposals and selected ATHsENSe for development. The artwork was installed in 2019 at Serafio and remains exhibited. ATHsENSe supports interaction not just with the visitors of the Serafio complex but also with citizens that wish to experience aspects of it from afar.

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Detour

Coti K., Dimitris Charitos, Vasilis Bourdakis, Evelyn Gavrylou, Aris Tsagrasoulis, Andreas Andreou, Dimitris Skoufis

An interactive 10-channel audio, 4-channel video installation

Exhibited at Thisseio in the context of the “Athens by Art” Public Space Exhibition, organized by the Municipality of Athens and AICA Hellas

Detour is an interactive multisensory environment, created by the interdisciplinary group VE_design and specifically designed for very busy area of the urban context. It functions as a detour from the crowdedness and introversion of city life towards an artificial wonderland; within this site-specific installation space, the visitor is invited to participate in a communication game with the “detour” system as well as with other visitors.

This artificial “landscape” has a memory. People are invited to interact and intentionally provide their voices and images to the system. These are then captured, processed, distorted and dynamically positioned, in real time, within the 8-channel audio system of the installation and on an appropriately placed projection. Consequently, differently processed versions of these sounds and images are randomly selected and communicated again to future visitors of the environment. In this sense, “Detour” is an artificial “landscape” which remembers the voices and images of people who visited it and randomly recalls them, thus redefining all captured raw audiovisual content. Visitors may also affect the way that sounds are being displayed by appropriately moving their body in relation to certain elements of the environment.

The real content of “Detour” is produced by the people themselves. Human presence and action activates a series of pre-designed processes which finally formulate the spatial experience afforded by the installation space. The material form of “detour” consists of a wooden platform, positioned along a very busy pedestrian walkway. “Slices” of this platform are being dislocated and risen in order to articulate a series of artificial, abstractly formed “trees”, which carry the input/output components for collecting and communicating audiovisual content. The end points of these “trees” spray particles of water, increasing the moisture of the installation’s atmosphere and creating a visually surreal result when combined with the lighting elements at night.

“Detour” is a sound-enhanced, interactive architectural environment, which activates the senses, functions as a behaviour amplifier and supports communication amongst its visitors, with the support of its lighting, microclimate, and video elements.

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