29.09.2005 | Interactive Installations for “The Science of Aliens” Exhibition

ART+COM joined the development of the Science of Aliens exhibition early in the process. As the company's expertise lies in the use of media in public space, its focus was to create an engaging participatory environment for the visitors, where they would learn about alien life.

The interactive installations ART+COM has designed bring two worlds imagined by a group of scientists to life. Large curved surfaces provide a view to the planets of ‘Aurelia’ and ‘Blue Moon’ where different alien species live in dynamic artificial simulation. The visitors can interact with the creatures on the touch-sensitive surface and learn more about them. The creatures on the simulated planets have a basic intelligence, rendering the world truly dynamic and generative in real time as they react to each other in different ways. The visitors can influence the creatures’ behaviours, for example by encouraging them to hunt for food or survive different natural disasters prevalent on the planets.

As a highlight of the exhibition, the interactive environments are located in the middle of the exhibition stretching over 2 by 7.5 Meters each. Large-scale projection systems and a sensitive skin made by ART+COM facilitate collaborative exploration of these environments and triggers conversations and interactions between people as much as with the virtual worlds.

The aim of the installations was not to attempt to create as realistic virtual world, but instead, to use media design to educate in a playful way the principles of life in the scientifically imagined worlds. Therefore, the visuality is a daring mix of 3D graphics, 2D information graphics, photorealistic imagery and engaging dynamic reactions between the visitors and the worlds.

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