Kwintessense 4/2010
Design in Flanders

Interview:
Elien Haentjens and Els Vemang

About Lab[au]'s MetadeSIGN

The Dexia Tower near Brussels North Station is one of the most famous skyscrapers of our capital thanks to its height but also because of its sophisticated lighting scheme. Brussels-based collective LAb[au] greatly contributed to the building's status as an artistic beacon. Although the collective mainly operates abroad, the Dexia project is still one of their best-known creations.

"During our talks with Dexia, we proposed to imbue the light architecture with a deeper meaning, which would transcend the level of mere advertising. Ultimately, the bank liked our proposal although there will be no continuation of the three completed projects as a result of the financial crisis", says Els Vermang of LAb[au].

One such project was chrono.tower (2007); LAb[au] had the 145-metre high Dexia Tower move to the rhythm of time with the primary colours of light. Each time sequence corresponded to a characteristic colour: seconds were visualized with blue, minutes with green and hours with red. More than 300,000 LEDs, which were integrated in two thirds of the building's 6,000 windows, were used to achieve this colour and this mixture. Each window thus acted like a pixel in the media façade.

Between sunset and sunrise the chrono.tower program slowly illed the skyscraper with these three primary colours. As a result of the complete mixing of the different hues the building, at the stroke of midnight, towered over the roof-tops of the city like a large white beacon. This symbolic dawn of a new day also served as a signal for the program to reverse its movement until sunrise.

Resulting in an imaginary, all-black landmark building at 12 noon. The chrono_tower project was part of a bigger scheme, called Who's Afraid of Red, Green and Blue?, a reference to the painting series Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue? by Barnett Newman. The American abstract expressionist reduced painting to its essence in his work: large, brightly coloured planes, separated from one another by thin vertical lines. Paint fulfilled the same function for Newman, as light for LAb[au].

"Like Newman was searching for a symbolic expression in abstract art, so we wanted to use the project to examine the building's symbolic value as a collective urban symbol in this project. Like him we used primary colours and shapes to express our message", says Vermang. Next to this LAb[au] also refers to more traditional painting both in form and substance with the chrono.prints (2009) - where each print represents one hour of the day. MetaDeSIGN.

The whole project is quite a good example of what LAb[au] stands for. The starting point of this studio, which was founded in 1997 and consisting of Els Vermang, Manuel Abendroth and Jérôme Decock, is to shape and design space. They do this by expressing data variables using light and other media.

"Designing a room is to organize certain features such as a kitchen, a living room or a bedroom. The trick is to then link this space according to a particular aesthetic, a specific design. With LAb[au], we go one step further: we no longer shape functions, but rather information. The disclosure of that information on the information itself has been coined the term MetaDeSIGN", explains Vermang.

The collective refers to the Bauhaus style with this term and with its name, LAb[au]. Thus the collective draws the parallel between the transition from the preindustrial to the industrial age at the time of Bauhaus and the shift towards today's information society. In order to it in with this new era artists and painters also started to refer to themselves as designers. Following technological and sociological changes Bauhaus thus gave rise to a new definition of the artistic. This combined the visual arts with crafts and industry. It marked the beginning of our design concept. LAb[au] borrowed the term 'meta' from computer science. The trio thus combines information and space within MetaDeSIGN.

In addition to this LAb[au] also continues the interdisciplinary line of Bauhaus. A project can thus have a spatial, visual, auditory and kinetic out chrono.tower come. The fact that LAb[au] navigates between different disciplines is also reflected in its name: next to the reference to Bauhaus, their name also carries a reference to the word lab and to Bau, which is German for 'construction'. LAb[au] is thus a transdisciplinary experimental think tank or - as they them-selves see it - a laboratory for architecture and urbanism.

***************************************************************************************************

Process as a key element.

The studio uses six different systems in order to shape its MetaDeSIGN concept. Together with the choice of medium the choice of methodology thus determines the nature of the project. This is beautifully reflected in their recently published monograph, which was also entitled MetaDeSIGN. The most important projects of the past thirteen years are subdivided in the book according to the system and medium used. A graphic design on the cover also reflects the contents of the book.

The chrono project for example was founded on the analytical system. "But because we want to emphasize the contemplative aspect, we tend to opt in favour of generative and reactive systems nowadays. For example, a generative system underpins the computer works, pixflow #2 (2006/2007) and SwarmDots (2009). This fully autonomous system does not interact with its environment and is subject to the previously programmed rules. The result of the process is a unique design every time. The less inal the program is, the more unique and surprising the result."

pixflow #1 (2006), which the studio created for the restaurant of the former Grand Casino in Brussels, consists of a frieze with eleven seamlessly-anchored plasma screens. Each screen is connected to a computer, which in turn is connected to ten other computers. The pixels which have been randomly placed at the onset move across the screen in real time based on previously established rules and commands. They thus form a kind of continuous, steady stream of pixels. It is no coincidence that LAb[au] draws parallels with the animal kingdom in coming up with the title Swarm.Dots. Just like bees behave themselves as individuals and as part of a social context in a swarm, the pixels also move across the screen.

As in conceptual art, and more particularly in system art, writing the program is a key element. "Well-known examples are Sol LeWitt's so-called Wall Drawings. The process defines the work in this case. The core of the work thus consists of the instructions for the interaction of lines which were drawn up by Sol LeWitt", says Vermang. The often very labor-intensive work was therefore usually carried out by other artists or students. The reactive system is also based on defined rules. But in contrast with the generative system the reactive system continuously changes its appearance based on environmental factors. The 40 illuminated panels of the installation, binary waves (2008), which rotate on their own axis using infrared sensors and electromagnetic antennas thus relect the rhythm of the city. On the black side of the panels' red light lines reflect the communication lows, on the side white light lines represent the traffic lows. The lows ('lux') are thus converted into movement, sound and light ('lux').

***************************************************************************************************

Homage

In the installation, Framework f5x5x5 (2007-2009), which works based on an interactive system the environment plays an even more important role. The kinetic light sculpture consists of five modules of 4 sq. m. These modules each consist of a further 5 x 5 sections, meaning that the complete installation is made up of 125 elements. The white side relects the light, while the black side absorbs it. The starting point is the information architecture that interprets binary signals. This framework, as it is called in computing, is the structure which the programmer uses to create an application. The rules determine the meta structure of the work. It was this work which led to LAb[au] being crowned one of the winners of the Award for Young Belgian Painting in 2009 and a winner of the Prix Ars Electronica in 2010. With Framework f5x5x5 LAb[au] has created an homage to Nicolas Schöffer, who is also considered to be the father of cybernetic art. The studio is in close contact with his widow, who has also contributed a text to the LAb[au] monograph. With Cysp1 (1956) on the roof of Le Corbusier's Unite d'Habitation in Marseilles the Hungarian artist created the irst interactive sculpture.

The built-in image photoelectric cells and microphones took all the elements of colour, light and sound from the environment. These environment impulses were transmitted by a program into a reaction from the sculpture. This sculpture à spectacle was thus a milestone in the interactive and system based art.

Other artists before Schöffer worked in an interdisciplinary way. For instance, Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian looked via their painting for ways of getting music into their art, playing with the principles of synesthesia. "Even though Le Poème Electronique remains our main reference in terms of artistic interdisciplinarity between space, sound and image," says Els Vermang.

Thus, within that project Iannis Xenakis has transformed his Metastasis-score into spatial data. The entire multimedia spectacle that was present at the World Expo 1958 had to symbolize progress and technical innovation. LAb[au] registers quite consciously for all that art historical tradition. "We build with established technology upon contemporary elements. Within the electronic art our specialty is spatial concept," concludes Vermang. These electronic arts are also central to their Brussels headquarters, established in 2003 as the MediaRuimte in the Rue de Laeken. By organizing exhibitions, concerts and performances LAb [au] tries to give electronic arts a niche within the Belgian art scene.

***************************************************************************************************