Digital architects

A structure exploring the relation between advanced technologies and art LAb[au] achieved to center their reflections and productions to architecture and urbanism. A trans-disciplinary approach expressing the innovative character of architects in the domain of digital art, as shown last year with their binary waves installation along the canal at Saint-Denis.

LAb[au] is a structure working about the relation between advanced technologies and art having a specific focus on architecture and urbanism. How did you come to create a trans-disciplinary structure adapted for architects active in advanced technologies?

Architecture as a discipline is a sum of different artistic and scientific practices, shown throughout history within projects such as f.e. the Poème Electronique of Le Corbusier. It's a groundbreaking example of collaborative design, where its design team; Xenakis, Agostini and Varese, remotely worked within the mutual contingencies of 480 seconds duration of the visit of the Expo '58 Philips pavilion. More than being a 'boîte de miracle', le 'Poème Electronique', determined Le Corbusier's radical departure in form, towards a synthesis of the arts prefiguring the conception of space, sound, vision and motion in an interdisciplinary coherence. It is in this continuity that LAb[au] creates a form of 'transarchitecture', of an augmented space designed by the events it inhabits.

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2/ Can you present the peoples involved in LAb[au] , their backgrounds and complementarities?

LAb[au] is constituted of Manuel Abendroth, Jérôme Decock, Alexandre Plennevaux and Els Vermang.

Manuel Abendroth came to Belgium after years of assistance for several international artists and museums and started his architecture studies at La Cambre, where he met Jerome Decock who also worked at that time for the same artist as assistant. LAb[au] emerged out of their mutual interest for architecture, and art, and some years later Alexandre Plennevaux, with whom Jérôme Decock was playing in a band, joined. Els Vermang was offered a post during her studies architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp, when Alexandre Plennevaux dropped out for some years to pursue a carrier as independent web designer and who joined the team again end 2006.

With backgrounds within architecture, music and arts LAb[au]'s four members share an interest in technology based artefacts. Concept and design inside LAb[au] is a mutual process, where project-wise everybody has its own responsibilities.

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One of LAb[au]'s main methodological approach is founded in the principle of 'Metadesign', a practice which investigates the relationship between new media, the technologies of information and communication and their influences in spatial constructs such as defined by architectural, urban design in general. Can you describe these relationships and different their different forms of realisation?

Architecture and urbanism are structural disciplines focusing on the organisation of functions, where MetaDeSIGN focuses on the organisation of information. To give an example, the interactive kinetic light sculpture 'framework f5x5x5' is an architectural design element which can be considered as a 'paravent', having the function to divide space ( outside <> inside, cfr. open <> closed ) or to filter light ( transparency <> reflection, cfr. light <> dark ). Moreover, it is driven by the contextual data of surrounding movement, constituting the meta-level of the project, where Metadesign is an ICTechnology determined design-philosophy focusing on the setting of a system based on parameters ( > information ) and processes ( > communication ) leading to the notions of parameter-design and process-based arts

As such, surrounding's spatio-temporal parameters of 'position' and 'movement' (input) are transcribed to f5x5x5's lumino-kinetic processes of 'enlightenment' and 'declination' (output).

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4/ Can you tell a little bit about MediaRuimte the gallery and platform of LAb[au] in Brussels?

MediaRuimte '01t XYZ' www.mediaruimte.be not only hosts LAb[au]'s offices and workshop, but also is a platform for digital art and architecture initiated by LAb[au]. With a program ranging from exhibitions, screenings, audiovisual performances and conferences, to artist-residences, workshops and LAb[au]'s own R&D, MediaRuimte is as much a platform for presentation as creation, where LAb[au]'s artistic and technological know-how is acting as support through a transmedial, interdisciplinary and collaborative approach.

MediaRuimte (Dutch for 'MediaSpace'), should be understood as space as a medium to stage the digital medium and its multiple forms of expression, such as MR (MediaRuimte abbreviation to MR., say 'Mister') .xpo, .mov, .ini, .wav, .txt, .www, .tmp and .exe - hence the labelling of its broad range of activities.

LAb[au]'s gallery is internationally renown for its both avant-garde as cutting-edge features of artists ranging from Manfred Mohr to Nicolas Schoffer, Casey Reas to Limiteazero and Frank Bretschneider to Patric Catani. MediaRuimte holds both the Flemish as the Walloon Government's cultural trademark and is recognised as an established venue within the national cultural landscape.

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5/ I've been very interested by the installation binary waves presented in the exhibition 'Manières de fluer' in the context of the Biennale Art Grandeur Nature 2008 and curated by Synesthésie. An installation which due to its cybernetic principles transcribes the surrounding urban flows by investigating in a unique manner the relationship between the citizen and the public space. Can you tell us more about the inherent principles of the installation and in which way it stands for LAb[au]'s general design philosophy.

binary waves is an urban and cybernetic installation based on the measuring of flows and their transposition into luminous, sonic and kinetic rules. This relation between the installation and the urban activity happens in real time and sets each person as an element of the installation, as a centre of the public realm. The installation binary waves is constituted by a network of rotating and luminous panels of 3 meter-high and 60 centimetres wide, forming a kinetic wall. The panels rotate around their vertical axis, and have a black reflective surface on one side, the other being plain mat white. Their rotation is controlled by microprocessors, allowing to determine precisely the rotation speed and angle, while their networking allows to synchronise the movement of the panels. The microprocessors are connected to infrared sensors, capturing the movement of local traffic, and to antenna's, capturing the presence of electromagnetic waves. According to this set up, each impulse is transmitted from one panel to the other, describing visual waves running from one side of the installation to the other, and then bouncing back while progressively loosing oscillation. The kinetic principle driving the installation is derived from wave propagation in water, which, because of the proximity with the canal, is one of the project's major contextual parameters.

This analogy between wave propagation and the programming of the panel's rotation behaviour is founded in the characterisation of the urban context as a fluid state constituted of micro events. As such the installation is based on the concept of rhythm inscribing single urban events into a collective pattern addressing the principle of flows. The kinetic and illumination vocabulary is based on the parameter of time (duration = repercussion of a signal over the panels), speed (force of impulse) and the sense of rotation. These parametric settings of light in correspondence to the urban flows designate the intensity of light from flux to lux. Furthermore, each captured signal is related to a sound reinforcing the perception of the circulation frequency and leading to a soundscape. All these principles relate the 'micro-events' happening in the area to a unified play of light, colours and sounds directly derived from the rhythm of the city flows.

When space and technology are the keywords to LAb[au]'s work, binary waves transposes urban parameters ( presence electromagnetism ) of space ( urban ) into a transmedial process of graphical lumino-kinetics proposing to its audience a contemplative interaction.

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6/ Another installation framework f5x5x5 looks particularly significant to me in regards to LAb[au] 's projects. Is it on the level of the framework notations, an unlimited series of computer generated prints, based on the same principles as the installation which gives evidence of the continuous reflection about spatial and luminous constructs and the transitions between a three-dimensional models flattened into the two-dimensional plane.

Both the f5x5x5 sculpture and the framework notations are complementary and equally relevant, where dealing with the transcription of spatial configurations. Both media; lumino-kinetics and printed matter, visualise the concept of the spatial and illumination configuration of a volume, a frame in a frame. Moreover, one of f5x5x5's sculpture pursuits was the transposition of a two-dimensional construct and format ( the plane / notation - the space of the plane ) to a three-dimensional one ( the space / installation - the plane of the space ), a correlation we perceive from Joseph Albers' squares over Sol LeWitt's cubes and ultimately to Manfred Mohr's n-dimensional hypercube.

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7/ LAb[au] also worked a lot about the enlightening of the Dexia tower in Brussels. Can you tell us about the different projects: spectr[a]um, who's_afraid_of_RGB and Touch, Does the spectalucar dimension of these projects encourage the understanding of LAb[au]'s design philosophy for a broader audience?

LAb[au]'s Brussels Dexia Tower-projects focus on three axis : interactive, generative and performative enlightening. 'Touch' embodied the first, ' who's_afraid_of_RGB' the second, and 'spectr[a]um' the third axis. We inaugurated the artistic enlightening of this 145 meter high administrative building end 2006 with 'Touch'. The project allowed people by the mean of a multi touch screen, disposed on a pavilion in front of the tower, to generate and animate points, lines and surfaces which were visualised in real time on the 4200 windows of the building's media façade.

A snapshot of the urban scene could be command and which once streamed could be send out from the pavilion as people's Christmas and New Year's greetings from Brussels. The entire project, this communication chain, creates an exchange in between the individual and the public space, the collective sphere, exploiting IC technologies, its processes and logics, to create a new and contemporary form of urban artefacts.

'who's_afraid_of_RGB' was meant as a series of permanently exhibited generative artworks, focusing on the abstract transcription of contextual data, such as time and weather. Based on the basic parameters of light, its colour spectrum, the project explored the symbolic potentials of these inter-relations proper to the idea of creating an urban sign.

The 'spectr[a]um'- project featured audiovisual concerts and light artworks carried out by a panel of international artists; Holger Lippmann, Limiteazero and Olaf Bender, and musicians, Balanescu Quartet and Frank Bretschneider, under the curatorship and direction of LAb[au], who created for the live audiovisualisation of the musicians' score a software called 'silo'; 'sound in - light out'. The project's title 'spectr(a)um' refers to the real-time transcription of sound frequencies to the spectrum of light to create an audiovisual space, 'raum' (german word for space).

Obviously the scale of these projects permits to reach a wide audience. Though, the quality and the accessibility of a project cannot be read by the quantity of spectators. The projects pursuit's; the creation of a collective sign while proposing and preserving an artistic, contemporary proposal onto a multi-national's media facade accompanied by the joint efforts of communication and mediation of all partners involved - successfully rendered the projects accessible for a wide scope of spectators.

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8/ Besides the continuous red line between the mentioned projects i personally find a big variation in LAb[au]'s creations between: generative art projects such as pixflow #2, audio-visual and experimental dance performances such as man_in_e_space, interactive is there one you particularly think to illustrate the methodological and conceptual work of LAb[au]? The chrono cycle consists of a series of artworks mapping the basic units of time to the primary colours of light, where hours = red, minutes = green and seconds = blue. Following the principle of an additive colour model, the overlap of the colours creates yellow (red plus green), cyan (green plus blue), purple (blue plus red) and white (red plus green plus blue). The reduction to an abstract and geometric language of primary colour relates 'chrono.prints' to the hard-edge movement of the 60's (cfr. Barnett Newman) while confronting it to the parametric approach of programmed art. The 'chrono.cycle' exists in form of a light artwork, which was exhibited from sunset to sunrise on Brussels' Dexia Tower, from 15.08.07 until 21.10.07, the chrono.tower, as a widget, as a generative installation using Nintendo DS's and as 24 computer-generated prints (110*110 cm, etch on aluminium, edition 1 1), visualising the 24 hours, being the 86400 seconds, of the day, the chrono.prints. Here each print is mapping one hour, starting with its first second at the left upper corner, until the last; 3600th one, at the right corner under. Its matrix of 60 * 60 squares expresses one hour, while each horizontal line visualises one minute.

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9/ To come back to the spactr[a]um project on Brussels Dexia tower, I read that Frank Bretschneider of Raster-Noton label has specifically composed an audio-visual performance. As I could understand while discussing with you during the Nemo festival you plan to work on further collaborations. Can you tell me more about it ?

We met Frank beginning of 2006 in the context of Liquid Space, our collaborative design sessions teaming up with local artists to create audiovisual performances and installations, in Berlin's Clubtransmediale. It was the starting-point for exchange and friendship which lasts until today, and lead to spectr|a|um and hopefully more to come. There are several projects with raster-noton in the pipeline, among which a collaboration with Olaf Bender, raster-noton's flagship also known as Byetone, and Mika Vainio, Pan Sonic's half, who released several records on the label.

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10/ To finish can you tell me something about your ongoing projects and the next occasions to see them?

At this very moment we are preparing our feature at the BOZAR ( = Beaux Arts ), the Brussels Palace of Fine Arts, in the context of Belgium's most prestigious contemporary art prize 'Young Belgium Painters Award ', where LAb[au] is shortlisted as one of the 7 nominees, and moreover premiering electronic arts within.

Thank you Laurent Catala

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