FLUIDIC – Sculpture in Motion

Between April 9 and 14, 2013 the art installation “FLUIDIC – Sculpture In Motion” was displayed in the Temporary Museum for New Design in Milan.
The installation was designed and produced by Berlin based design studio WHITEvoid for Hyundai’s Advanced Design Center in collaboration with LaserAnimation.

Combining eight high-power laser projectors BLIZZARD, a dynamic point cloud and the interactions of its viewers the WHITEvoid brought the design philosophy of Hyundai to life and transformed it into a vivid organic art experience.

Nature is to be seen as a source of inspiration, including the dynamics of ebb and flow of life, its instinctive natural rhythms and the ability to adapt and evolve. FLUIDIC transforms this idea into a vibrant art experience: with a liquid surface transmuting into vapor, seemingly random molecules forming an organized cloud and sensing the presence of life around the arrangement. Shaped by human interactions, the molecules begin to swarm – aggregating and accumulating. They are constantly in motion, reacting and adapting with the people who seek to engage with the installation.

A seemingly floating point cloud above a water pond and consisting of 12,000 translucent spheres marks the heart of the installation. Due to a complex computer algorithm the spheres are arranged seemingly randomly within the cloud.
At the same time the algorithm observes the positions and projection angles of eight BLIZZARD high-speed laser projectors each with integrated Lasergraph DSP Mark 2 compact controller that are being arranged around the artwork. They send out beams scanning through the arrangement of the cloud. Generating bright and dim light points, this creates a highly organic and natural distribution of voxels (3D pixels). Emerging lines and shapes finally form graphical compositions without any sweet or blind spots. Keeping the same density and intensity the FLUIDIC graphics enables the viewers to observe and interact with it from every point of view.

Furthermore the installation comes with multiple 3D camera tracking systems that are able to analyze the presence of the visitors, their positions and posture. All joints of the human body are recognized and tracked by the systems constantly. This enables precise three-dimensional interactions with the graphics and elements of the cloud.

FLUIDIC Awards
ILDA Award 2014: 1st place, category ‘Innovative Application’
German Design Award 2014
Annual Multimedia Award 2014
ICONIC Award 2013 (architecture section)
Red Dot Communication Design Award 2013
DER RAUM (scenographic)