Architempo /~ alok b. nandi design.architempo.net

Just back from Saline royale where the installation of the Indian Garden took place, in the framework of the annual garden festival.
Interesting design process of a *real* environment, while a year ago, I was busy designing a *virtual* one for a four-screens set-up (CAVE-like) with pseudo-autonomous entities (powered through code ref. Artificial Intelligence, Causality, Qualitative Physics, …). Interesting case study about paralleling the processes. Just need to find the time, and meanwhile images to come.

“Context, Text, Texture” are the key elements I am focusing on. Articulation with the right tempo is the guiding principle I am exploring through different medias, with information architecture, scenario design, art direction as working domains …

From the mid 1990’s to now, I spent quite a time conceiving, architecturing, directing the art & design of virtual environments on the web, in augmented and mixed realities, in CAVE-like immersive spaces, with pseudo-autonomous organisms (Artificial Intelligence driven). Now, I am into designing real spaces, both outdoor and indoor ! Hereafter are the ingredients for an “Indian Garden” commissioned by the Royal Saltworks in Arc et Senans: clothes samples; will come spices, wood, metal, water, statues and of course plants. On-site installation begins this week.

Design ingredients for an “Indian Garden” at Saline Royale d’Arc et Senans in France, conceived/directed by Alok b. Nandi, 2005, in the framework of the annual Garden Festival.

ECSITE, the European Sciences and Tech Museums network, is having its annual conference in Vantaa, near Helsinki, in June 2005.
More information on the ECSITE website.

On Friday 10th, I am convening there a panel on a subject I proposed:

14:15 - 15:45 / Parallel Session: Interactivity: myths & realities

Convenor: Alok B. Nandi (Architempo - Belgium)

Speakers: Gérard Cobut (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels - Belgium); Stephen Pizzey (Director, Science Projects, London - UK); Per Velk (Experimentarium, Copenhagen - Denmark; Roland Topalian (La Cité des sciences et de l’industrie, Paris - France)

This session will focus on “interactivity” as practiced for the last ten years in museums and -now- their websites. It will reflect on the “added value” of interactivity vs other methods of sharing content or phenomena with audiences, such as displays, reconstructions, models, etc. Many questions arise when one relates the concept of interactivity to the day-to-day practice of designing exhibitions in sciences museums and centres: de facto, one would assume that computers and interactive applications are a must. On the other hand, one often sees dead screens and unused kiosks in exhibitions, and some curators are getting tired of these non-performing interactive units. So, what is the picture today? What motivates sciences centres/museums to use these computer mediated communication tools? How do they maintain them? What resources are required? Should they be produced in-house or outsourced?

and also the same day, I am convening another panel on new tech:

16:30 - 17:45 / Parallel Session: New technologies in exhibitions - now available for you …

Speakers: Stacey Spiegel (CEO, I-MMERSION, Toronto - Canada); Torsten Fröhlich (Managing Director, Cybernarium - Germany); Ami Dror (Marketing Director, Israel National Museum of Science & Technology - Smart Theater Network, Tel Aviv - Israel) and Alan D. Lishness (Chief Innovation Officer, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Portland - USA).

Every year, new technologies are developed to improve the way we reach the public within our exhibitions: new screen formats, new software, new sound equipment, etc. Of course, these tools would not be efficient if they were not combined with strong content from the science centres and science museums. This session will offer you the opportunity to discover five or six of these new tools and their applications. The first confirmed presentations are the interactive 3D Virtual Museum from I-MMERSION (Canada) and the Lab Venture Stations from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (USA).

But before that some travels in France for designing real environments.

I am getting back to projects related to cinema, and specifically Indian cinema: maha cinema, or great cinema ! The one beyond and behind Bollywood (very à la mode in Paris nowadays) - the wood hiding the magic trees of many filmmakers.

May 2nd, 1921, was the birth day of Satyajit Ray: in 1991, I conceived/edited a homage book, a photo-biography, on the work of this great film director, prefaced by Henri Cartier-Bresson, with photographs by Nemai Ghosh, one of his still photographer, and contributions by Kurosawa, Riboud, Scorsese, Menuhin, Rostropovitch, … [and many others - this list has no specific order]. In parallel, I organised an exhibition of these stills at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, for the 70th birthday of Satyajit Ray.

More soon.