In 2006 Vogt & Weizenegger sought a way of presenting their vast video archives within the exhibition “V+W_Design Matrix” at the MARTa Museum of Modern Art in Herford, Germany. As a playful concept was requested, we came up with a video billiard idea during a few quick one-on-one rounds of napkin sketches. We designed and implemented a large table to play a special kind of billiard on.
Quick how-to: the White ball is the camera. Blue, red and yellow are video windows. Move these balls and your composition will change. Zoom in by hitting white towards one of the other balls. Pink is the audio ball. Like an ear held to a TV, it defines the mix of sounds you get from the three concurrent video streams by its position within their triangle.
The tracking of the billiard balls is done via an overhead optical system. To avoid visual confusion and to add a dash of style players are invited to wear black gloves with their black queues.
Turquoise triggers effects and filters. Place it either on the hexagons to trigger a selection of visual effects, or put it on the “brain schematic” to filter your selection of clips to a specific subject. Green is the timeline / a-z control. Roll it along the length of the table to choose the year of your selection. Move it across the shorter length to go from a-z among the clips of one year. Dump it in the hole to clear the filter and yield any random pick of videos instead.
Turquoise triggers effects and filters. Place it either on the hexagons to trigger a selection of visual effects, or put it on the “brain schematic” to filter your selection of clips to a specific subject. Green is the timeline / a-z control. Roll it along the length of the table to choose the year of your selection. Move it across the shorter length to go from a-z among the clips of one year. Dump it in the hole to clear the filter and yield any random pick of videos instead.
The “Berliner Nacht” was the opening event and was rounded off by some VJing from the MESO developers Thomas Hitthaler (a.k.a. AMPOP) and David Dessens (a.k.a. SANCH) on the exhibit hardware already installed in the museum.
Curious about our approach? Feel free to get in touch!
Max Wolf Partner +49 69 24 000 322 max.wolf@meso.design max.wolf@meso.design +49 69 24 000 322
MESO Digital Interiors GmbH
Gutleutstr. 96 . 60329 Frankfurt . Germany
Team
Sebastian Oschatz, Thomas Hitthaler, Marc Sandner, David Dessens, Tobias Teickner, Max Wolf