Ars Electronica Solutions’ Joint Venture with Big Effects
L’Oracle du Papillon Opens in Freiburg Technology Park
press release: L’Oracle du Papillon Opens in Freiburg Technology Park / PDF
Ars Electronica Blog: Ars Electronica Solution’s contribution to L’Oracle du Papillon
(Linz, March 21, 2014) “L’Oracle du Papillon – The Exhibition” co-conceived by Ars Electronica Solutions opens at 4:30 PM today at the Technology Park in Freiburg, Switzerland. Arrayed throughout 2,500 square meters of space on the grounds of the old Cardinal Brewery, the exhibition features interactive installations that get across how every individual can make a contribution to sustainability in the use of Earth’s natural resources. “L’Oracle du Papillon – The Exhibition” is the spinoff of an encounter at the 2011 Ars Electronica Festival involving Gilles Bersier, Pascal Edelmann (Big Effects) and Michael Badics (AE Solutions). The initial outcome of the ensuing collaboration is this multimedia exhibition. “L’Oracle du Papillon” is running until November 2, 2014.
Ars Electronica Solutions Co-conceived the Exhibition; Core Elements Are GeoCity and Solutions Centre
GeoCity Freiburg
How will population growth proceed here in the future? What will be the main regional transportation axes? What are the prospects for energy usage and noise pollution? GeoPulse was developed by Ars Electronica Solutions as a tool for playful visualization of statistical, geo-referenced data. The use of maps and brochures imprinted with a special code and a digital pen that can read the code provides exhibition visitors with an intuitive, user-friendly, graphical way to explore and grasp large quantities of data.
The primary focus of GeoCity Freiburg is on transportation and housing, two of the four major themes treated in this exhibition. The data configured in cooperation with students at the University of Freiburg are structured in three clusters: developments to date, the resulting challenges, and potential solutions. Installation visitors can use Anoto technology provided by Ars Electronica to work with the various data by using either handy brochures or directly on a 4×5-meter table-top map of Freiburg. These modes of depiction are augmented by additional screens showing festivities, archival footage supplied by Radio Télévision Suisse, and photographic material illustrating social life in the Freiburg region in bygone days as well as modern times.
The Solutions Centre
In the Solutions Centre, the focus is on transportation, housing, energy and consumer behavior, and how simple it is to implement CO2-reducing measures in everyday life. There are 40 so-called gestures, 10 per theme. The ambitious aim is to reduce CO2 output by one ton per resident per year. Here’s how it works: For the duration of their stay in the Solutions Centre, each visitor has the use of a tablet PC that enables them to access and assemble additional information about the various suggestions. Working either on their tablet or at an interactive Agora table with multiuser function, they can then put together individualized packages of lifestyle changes they pledge to comply with. Many of these gestures are supported by local and nationwide companies whose business plan increasingly emphasizes sustainability and whose products are conceived accordingly. A 4×4-meter visualization of each individual’s pledge rounds out visitors’ Solutions Centre sojourn. And finally, each person’s promise is depicted in the form of butterflies taking wing—this installation’s vivid, emotional visualization emblematic of how important it is for people to work together on behalf of a clean environment.
blueFACTORY Freiburg
blueFACTORY is a center of technological innovation with a social dimension. The objective in concrete terms is a CO2-neutral way of life. The acquisition and subsequent conversion of a former brewery with a total of 53,000 m2 of interior space has given rise to new premises replete with interesting possibilities, a high-tech hotbed and co-working space designed to make Freiburg an attractive location to do business in sectors with great future promise. It’s already the headquarters of Foundation Petit Cause Grand Effects (Big Effects), whose mission is to impart a social and cultural dimension to this space dedicated to innovation. Big Effects was initiated in 2010 as a follow-up to “L’Oracle du Papillon,” a very successful exhibition singled out for recognition by UNESCO. The essence of Big Effects is a new approach to sustainability: one that associates it with pleasure instead of a guilty conscience. In going about this, technology is a tool to form a substantive community that manifests its creativity in the form of environmentally-friendly inventions and a sustainable lifestyle.
Ars Electronica Solutions
Ars Electronica’s newest division was established in 2012. Its mission is to effectively market inventions made throughout the organization and to develop custom-tailored solutions in the interactive segment. Diverse projects developed and implemented in recent years include many exhibitions and work in the fields of brandlands, urban development and event & show design. The driving conceptual force behind the creativity is Ars Electronica’s wide-ranging international competence network. For Ars Electronica as an artistic institution, these market-oriented activities provide a key link in the processual chain that begins in the form of a creative vision, is perfected at the in-house R&D lab and the Festival, and culminates in the ability to deliver interactive installations customized to client specifications.
Photo:
GeoCity Freiburg / Ars Electronica / Printversion / Album
Photo:
GeoCity Freiburg / Ars Electronica / Printversion / Album
Photo:
Solutions Center / Ars Electronica / Printversion / Album
