Spaxels
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From Spaxels to the future of drone swarms
The pioneers of artistic artificial swarms look to the future: the Ars Electronica Futurelab’s new swarms+art website.
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Throwback: Spaxels
Spaxels are autonomous drones that can be moved freely in space to form dynamic, three-dimensional figures in the night sky.
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The Language of Virtual Realities
In a virtual world, we can simulate truths that would be unimaginable in real life, explore incredible activities, and collaborate with others in a way that goes beyond physical interaction.
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Future Ink: Where is my soul?
Future Ink is the result of a mutual inspiration between art and science, with the aim of exploring the creative potential of “ink”. In a process of multiple steps consisting of the implementation of the innovative concepts for Space Ink, AI Ink, Bio Ink, Mind Ink and Body Ink, Space Ink research opens new accesses…
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SwarmOS: Using swarm technology as a visual medium
Groundbots, swarm intelligence and technological swarms as a visual medium: At the “SwarmOS Research Demo” at the 2019 Ars Electronica Festival (Sept. 5 – 9), the Ars Electronica Futurelab is presenting insights into the in-house developed software SwarmOS – as well as hands-on application examples.
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A Tinkerer, Two Designers and hundreds of Drones: How Swarm3D Came To Be
“And then, fortunately, the birds didn’t fall out of the sky,” said Michael Treml in a terse summary of the outcome of work over many months by an Ars Electronica Futurelab team at Rock in Rio 2017, the first public SPAXELS® drone show using Swarm3D software developed in-house in Linz. We were interested in finding…
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Swarm Compass: A Sea Change in Visualizing Events by Swarm Intelligence
What are the possibilities of swarm intelligence? How can drones be used to make transportation and communications easier? The Ars Electronica Futurelab is working together with Japanese telecommunications company NTT to find answers. In this interview, Hideaki Ogawa of Ars Electronica Futurelab and Shingo Kinshita of NTT tell us about their efforts.
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Spaxels Research Initiative – Swarms of the Future
How to deal with networks of intelligent, autonomous robots raises many questions that the Spaxels Research Initiative aims to formulate and pose.
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SPAXELS rock in Rio – A test run near Linz
This years edition of the mega rock festival ROCK IN RIO will be the first to wow its audience with an illuminated swarm of drones. But before the Ars Electronica Spaxels® can enchant a one-million-plus of people between September 15th and 24th, a three-day marathon rehearsal was staged in Upper Austria over the last Week…
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Sky Compass: Going Beyond Navigation by the Stars
As Tokyo will be facing the challenge of hosting a huge influx of tourists in 2020, NTT, Japan’s biggest Telecommunication company, and Ars Electronica Futurelab are working on a sky compass to guide the people.
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DRONE 100 – Spaxels Over Linz: Test Flight in the Mühlviertel
“DRONE 100 –Spaxels over Linz” is the title of a spectacular quadcopter swarm performance that Ars Electronica and Intel are staging on September 10th, 2016. Before the 100 drones make their European public debut above the Danube they’ll be subjected to a rigorous physical exam. The first two test flights already took place this week—the…
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Around the World via Quadcopter
A spectacular Spaxels show will be the lead-in to the 2016 Klangwolke, Linz’s annual outdoor extravaganza. The DRONE 100 crew has already made a name for itself worldwide; now, the record-setting quadcopter formation of the Ars Electronica Futurelab and Intel™ Corporation is making its European debut. Here, Chris Bruckmayr and Andreas Jalsovec talk about some…
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DRONE 100 in Linz: A Behind-the-Scenes Look
This will be the first public appearance in Europe of the world’s largest autonomous drone swarm. Just before the Visualisierte Klangwolke in September 2016, the Ars Electronica Futurelab’s 100 Spaxels will display their aerial artistry in Linz. Here, Chris Bruckmayr and Andreas Jalsovec of the Spaxels crew talk about all the preparations and work that…
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Drone 100: A World Record with 100 Points
A spectacle produced by the Ars Electronica Futurelab for Intel has made it into the record books! In a performance showcased by a promotional film for the world-famous chip maker, 100 spaxels took to the sky simultaneously. Team spirit is what it took to get this ambitious demonstration of technical brilliance off the ground.
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The Spaxels at the Eurovision Song Contest
This is the ultimate extravaganza! With over 195 million viewers, the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest will be one of the world’s biggest televised events. Among the featured attractions—albeit with only half a minute of air time—are the Spaxels of the Ars Electronica Futurelab in Linz.
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Spaxels in Dubai
Accompany the Ars Electronica Futurelab crew on a business trip to Dubai. At a spectacular nighttime event staged to celebrate the United Arab Emirates’ 43rd National Day on December 1, 2014, the Spaxels, a swarm of LED-equipped quadcopters, got a very enthusiastic reception.
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Smart Atoms
Flying Smart Atoms that are able to respond to touches by humans? The Ars Electronica Futurelab presented a significant development of the Spaxels during the 2014 Festival Ars Electronica.
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A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Spaxels
Ars Electronica Futurelab staffers have been doing R&D since 2012 on what they’ve dubbed Spaxels (space pixels). At the Spaxels Concept Demo members of the spaxels crew will go into detail about what makes the Spaxel-swarm work and illustrate what they’ve achieved to date.
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The Sky above Sharjah
The spaxels’ world tour continues. In “Clusters of Light,” an extravaganza just staged in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Ars Electronica Futurelab’s crew took their prodigious show design talents to the next level of excellence, and their choreographed formation of LED-equipped quadcopters thrilled audiences of thousands. Here, Chris Bruckmayr gives us a behind-the-scenes account.
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Lightpainting with Spaxels
The Spaxels, the 3d-Pixels that the Ars Electronica Futurelab has created based on quadcopter-technology, have proven their skills to paint logos and animations into the sky a number of times. Currently, the next step is being tested, and it looks amazing.
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The Future Rock Show – A Beginning
The Festival Ars Electronica is a place to test out new ways. The Future Rock Show is one of those tests, introducing a new form of discussion. This is it’s story.
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Murmuration at the Bergen International Festival
Murmuration, the opening-show of the Bergen International Festival, that has been developed both by phase 7 and the Ars Electronica Futurelab, premiered on May 22nd. Check out pictures and videos of the show below, or the interview with Sven Beyer, creative director of phase 7.
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Bergen International Festival
In London, the spaxels were used for promotional purposes. The Ars Electronica Futurelab received a specific assignment and successfully carried it out. But as the voestalpine Klangwolke brilliantly demonstrated, the quadcopters can take to the air in an artistic role too. We recently had a chance to chat with Sven Beyer, artistic director of phase…
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Spaxels testflight and show in Linz
The Spaxels are flying again on April 18th in Linz, check out the video for footage from the last testflight.
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Spaxels in London
The Spaxels, Ars Electronica Futurelab’s current flagship project have visited London, drawing a huge Star Trek – Logo into the nightsky of England’s capitol.
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Horst Hörtner at Oslolux
Horst Hörtner was at the Oslolux 2013 where he was talking about Spaxels. Fontourist has summarized his lecture in one picture and it’s absolutely great.
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Spaxels – Test at the Donauparkstadion
The last Spaxel-Test of the year took place at the Donauparkstadium, home of Blau-Weiß Linz. The test was about finding out how the quadrocopter and especially their batteries work at low temperatures, but new shapes and animations were tested as well.
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The quadrocopters fly again
The Ars Electronica Futurelab’s quadrocopter formation that debuted at the 2012 voestalpine Klangwolke has created a sensation, one that commenced on site during the extravaganza itself and has continued online ever since. But since, as we all know, laurels aren’t for resting on, Futurelab staffers are already hard at work taking their Spaxel concept to…