MetaDeSIGN - LAb[au]
Les Presses du réel - Contemporary art

design: LAb[au]
224 pages, 29 x29cm
price: 38Euro

language: French, English

the book has been co-produced by seconde nature
in the contexte of the exhibition:
from kinetic to digital art
02.06-11.07.2010
Fondation Vasarely, Aix en Provence France

about:

This first monograph of the Belgian interdisciplinary art studio LAb[au], laboratory for architecture and urbanism, presents an important selection of their artworks created since their founding in 1997.

Their group name merges a phonetic and a written meaning: that of the French / Dutch pronunciation 'labo' standing for an experimental approach and that of 'bau', the German word for construction. This double meaning crossing of oral and written media stands for a conceptual, methodological and artistic framework examining the influence of advanced technologies on art; it stands for an artistic thinking of art as media. From this perspective their name also references the German Bauhaus which followed similar objectives, as design can be seen as the outcome of a methodological, interdisciplinary and

experimental reflection on the influence of the ongoing industrialisation to the language of art. With a background in architecture their members and projects are concerned with the construct of 'space'; a practice they qualify as MetaDeSIGN, and which is characterised by the setting of processes and systems, whereby its inherent rules become the major artistic act. Consequently the book presents their projects in 6 chapters qualifying these inherent logics as: generative, analytic, performative, reactive, interactive and connective systems while the theoretical texts give an inside view of system art, between open and closed systems, as being an expression of our time and the aesthetics of an information-based society.

including texts by:
Pierre Emmanuel Reviron _ preface
Annette Doms _ process design
Marius Watz _ closed systems
Eléonore de Lavandeyra Schöffer _ open systems

LAb[au] _ MetaDeSIGN
and a description of their design methods and concepts

LAb[au]'s projects are presented following 6 chapters:
generative systems
analytic systems
reactive systems
performative systems
interactive systems
connective systems

list of published projects:

generative systems:
framework notations , m0za1que , pixflow #1 , pixflow #2 , SwarmDots , TVOD

analytic systems:
chrono_prints , chrono_tower , gamevillage , hisTHORy , lightscapes , liquid-space-book , Transit[e]

performative systems:
man_in_e_space_extended , particle synthesis , space navigable music

reactive systems:
binary waves , EOD02 , weather_tower

interactive systems:
12m4s , en_jeu_x , framework f5x5x5 , point, line, surface computed in seconds , Touch

connective systems:
cityScapes , i-skin

the book has been realised with the help of:
Commission des Arts Numeriques de la Communaute Francaise de Belgique