Bernd Lintermann, Torsten Belschner, Mahsa Jenabi, Werner A. König :: CloudBrowsing [2008-09]

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The interactive installation »CloudBrowsing« [2008-09] by Bernd Lintermann, Torsten Belschner, Mahsa Jenabi and Werner A. König is the first work to be shown in ZKM’s recently established PanoramaLab. The project lets users experience Web-based information retrieval in a new way: Whereas our computer monitor only provides a restricted frame, a small window through which we experience the multilayered information landscape of the Net only partially and in a rather linear mode, the installation turns browsing the Web into a spatial experience: Search queries and results are not displayed as text-based lists of links, but as a dynamic collage of sounds and images. The content-based relations as well as the history of the searches and the information retrieval are not only visualized through the positioning of the individual images that each represent a website, but also through a dynamic soundscape that changes accordingly. In the current version of the project, the user browses the free online encyclopedia »Wikipedia«, which is compiled by a global community and thus exemplifies the collective knowledge of the Web. A filter mechanism ensures that only open content is displayed in the installation.
The cylindrical surface of the PanoramaScreen thus becomes a large-scale browser surrounding the user, who can thus experience a panorama of his movements in the virtual information space.

Type of Work
Research project and interactive installation for PanoramaScreen

Credits
Visual concept and Panorama software: Bernd Lintermann
Audio concept and audio software: Torsten Belschner, dataphonic audio solutions, Freiburg
Interaction concept and realization: Mahsa Jenabi, Markus Nitsche, Werner A. König

Interface design: Matthias Gommel

The PanoramaScreen is based on Jeffrey Shaw’s interactive panoramic cinema research.
The PanoramaScreen was jointly developed by the ZKM | Institute for Visual Media, Karlsruhe [D] and the UNSW iCinema Research Centre, Sydney [AUS].

Screen manufacturing: Huib Nelissen Decor en Constructiewerken, Haarlem [NL].

Production: ZKM | Institute for Bildmedien in cooperation with the Human-Computer Interaction Group of the University of Konstanz [D]

Project direction: Bernd Lintermann
Project management and organization: Jan Gerigk, Petra Kaiser
Technical realization: Manfred Hauffen, Jan Gerigk, Nikolaus Völzow, Arne Gräßer, Joachim Tesch

A cooperation project of the ZKM | Institute for Visual Media and the University of Konstanz, Human-Computer Interaction Group [D]

The development of the PanoramaTechnology and the interaction concept was supported by the Information Technology Funding Program of the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg [BW-FIT] as well as by the DFG-graduate program GK-1042 »Explorative Analysis and Visualization of Large Information Spaces«.

projectiondesign supports the ZKM_PanoramaLab with its F32-WUGXA projectors.

Hardware
PanoramaScreen III
custom interface

Software
Panorama Display Software
custom software for interface

Dimensions
PanoramaScreen III:
Diameter: 6.00m, heigt: 2.16m

ZKM-department
· Institute for Visual Media

Presentations [selected]

»YOU_ser 2.0: Celebration of the Consumer« , ZKM_PanoramaLab, from 05/01/2009

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Image:

Bernd Lintermann, Torsten Belschner, Mahsa Jenabi, Werner A. König: »CloudBrowsing« [2008-09]
Photo montage: Simon Dühning
© ZKM | Karlsruhe