Mobile App as Interface for Net-Based Installations
A project by Markus Kirchhofer, Shervin Saremi and Marc Lee
Since a couple of years, for the first time, more people live in urban than in rural areas. Within the 21st century, more than ten billion people will inhabit the earth. People need more space, animal habitats are being threatened, several species are becoming extinct. How do we deal with this constellation?
Since 1950, the urban world population has risen by over three billion people. The world’s population continues to grow from today’s 7.6 billion to an estimated 9.8 billion people in 2050. At the same time a three-digit number of animal species die every day, such as the European land leech, the Pyrenean ibex or the Chinese river dolphin. Many animals disappear in remote areas unnoticed. How do people and artists deal with this constellation?
Media art, lyrics, facts about population development and animal extinction are brought together in a unique interdisciplinary project: the recipient is taken on a virtual flight through a metropolis in a playful way, without showing a moral finger. High-rise buildings built of text and images form a three-dimensional book. The recipient flies self-controlled through a transparent architecture, consisting of numbers of population of the United Nations (facts), haikus form the author’s individual viewpoint (poems) and of animal species declared extinct in the 21st century. The project implicitly raises questions without explicitly answering them:
- (how) do people and their reading habits change in the face of the digital revolution?
- what new modes of mediation are made possible by the digital revolution?
- (how) do people and their perception change in the face of urbanization and the growth of the world population?
- how do people deal with animals? How do we deal with the knowledge of the extinction of species?
- man is – globally seen – well on the way to reduce hunger, disease and war. Should he take more care of his fellow creatures?
- (how) can one write poetry and create art as an artist when at the same time animal species are dying out every day?
Realization
The VR Mobile App is a 360 degree all-round view and are used for interactive installations. A smartphone or tablet serves as an interface and the mobile app display is projected onto one or more walls in the exhibition space. The animations and sounds follow the movements of the user: the virtual environment rotates when the user rotate the device. The sky appears when the device is moved upwards. By tilting the device downwards, the floor appears. The virtual environment is endless and can be navigated in every direction. The sound is composed for the app and reacts responsive to all these movements and navigation speeds.
Content summary
- The 50 poems by Markus Kirchhofer are exclusively unpublished three-line poems without titles (Japanese haiku, Markus Kirchhofer has been working on this lyrical form for decades). Erin Palombi from Virginia, USA translated the poems into English.
- UN facts on world population and urbanization (Department of Economic and Social Affairs, publications of 2017 and 2014) are reduced to three figures per agglomeration (years 1995 – 2015 – 2035) and country (years 1950 – 2000 – 2050).
- The information on recently declared extinct animal species is provided by the IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The contents are continuously enhanced and further developed in order to keep the project up to date and lively.
India Edition
During our research resindency in Kolkata, the Sundarbans and Delhi, we took a closer look at specific aspects of the threatened diversity. The result is the India Editon of the App MORE AND LESS. The India Edition consists of poems, figures on language diversity and statements on tigers, vultures and bees.
Launch and Events
Launch and Events at “Sphères” Zurich and at the “Apeejay” literature festival in Kolkata
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Credits
Concept: Marc Lee and Markus Kirchhofer
Realization: Marc Lee (CH)
Poems: Markus Kirchhofer (CH); Translation into English: Erin Palombi (US), Translation into French: Valentin Decoppet (CH)
Sound: Shervin Saremi (IR)
VR Development: Antonio Zea (EC), Florian Faion (DE) and Marc Lee (CH)
Markus Kirchhofer is a Swiss freelance author since 2013. Before that he was a cultural mediator, teacher and adult educator. He writes poems, short stories, picture stories/comics, columns and plays. His literary work has received several awards, most recently a contribution from the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia. His most recent publication: “aushub” (100 poems, Knapp Verlag, September 2018).
Shervin Saremi is an Iranian musician and audio-engineer, working in fields such as sonic computing, procedural sound design, and production. He has studied Electronic Production and Design at Berklee College of Music and is pursuing his research on immersive audio at Berlin University of the Arts (UdK).
Antonio Zea is an Ecuadorian research engineer. He resides in Germany and works in the fields of data visualization, robotics, and augmented reality. In 2017, he received his Ph.D. in computer science at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Since then, he has continued his research at the Intelligent Sensor-Actuator-Systems chair and is currently working for his habilitation.
Florian Faion is a German research engineer, working in the fields of sensor data fusion and artificial intelligence. In 2015, he received the Ph.D. in computer science at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Since 2018, he is working at Bosch Corporate Research on deep learning based perception with application to automated driving.