Project type: Master Project

University: University of Arts, Bremen

Term: April 2005 - April 2006

Supervisors: Prof. Kerstein, Jörn Schaffaf 

Students: Ernest de Castro, Kerstin Eberhardt, Lars Grübner, Annika Meyer, Oliver Socke, Anne Witthake

Web-Link: http://www.webdesign-bremen.com/notionhaze2/

Abstract:

The Notion Haze project intends to make the phenomenon of the city’s invisible narrative structures visible and perceivable though an installation utilizing fog. For one year we researched changes in urban space caused by its enrichment through digital information. Taking the city of Bremen (Germany) as an example, we investigated the challenges for urban social existence generated by the digitalization of everyday life.

The result is a multimedia installation, in which the viewers become actors. Collected thoughts are animated digital and projected in artifically created fog, accompanied by literary and theoretical fragments about the city, which generate over different speakers an experience layer of sound.

Description:

Notion Haze is an art installation that shows the richness of the character of a city by bringing to the surface through visual and audio stimuli, the random and previously formless thoughts and memories of the cities citizens.

The Notion Haze project intends to make the phenomenon of the city’s invisible narrative structures visible and perceivable though an installation utilizing fog. The fog is a metaphor for the character of transient narratives, which are dynamic, fluent and hard to catch. Apart from this, it as well hints at the electronic information clouds that – as a new infrastructure – significantly shape current city life.

The installation contains a descending sheet of fog which serves as a screen on to which animated text and silhouettes are projected. The text are snippets, short statements and stories, taken from a collection of memories written by the ordinary residents of the city, while the silhouettes are animated representations of the activities that happen within the city. In conjunction with the text and silhouettes, loudspeakers in the corners of the room play a seemingly random series of narrations also about the city. The text, silhoutettes, nattartion and the general atmosphere of the installation create a temporal collage which show the character and personality of the city.

The completed installation was first shown on February 2006, at the University of the Arts, Bremen. A more elaborate version of the installation was later shown in April 2006 at a converted art gallery at the Steintorviertel in Bremen.