news
  • 15.3.2024 – 13.10.2024
    new project , exhibition

    "Water Pressure - Designing for the future" an exhibition of the MK&G Hamburg and Jane Withers Studio – looks at the water crisis from a global perspective. We were commissioned to come up with an installation celebrating water. The result "vital rain" is part of the exhibition and will stay permanently in the museums yard.
    more soon

    MKG Hamburg - Water Pressure

  • april 2024
    new project

    For the glassware company Lobmeyr we designed "ident" - drinking set No.287

    Identical shape, identical height - five individual glasses.
    The series was unveilded during Milan Design Week.

    Lobmeyr

  • april 2024 - ongoing
    factory tour

    We designed the factory tour for Laufen in Gmunden with a lot of details and small installations to guide and inform local and international guests.

    Laufen Gmunden

  • 5.4.2024 - 14.7.2024
    exhibition

    "inWastement" glass series is on show at the Klimabiennale in Vienna at the "design with a purpose" exhibition.

    Klimabiennale Wien

  • 15.9.2023 - 21.7.2024
    exhibition

    HEIMATEN. An exhibition and survey and an attempt to break with conventional takes on Heimat. the exhibition was shown at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G) in 2022. Our specially commissioned piece 'riparian cloud' is now also on show in Molfsee.

    Freilichtmuseum Molfsee

  • 01.06.2024 - 30.03.2025
    exhibition, adapted project

    A utopian insect swarm based on our 'curiosity cloud' developed with 13 children from Dresden swirls during the Kinderbiennale in the Japanische Palais. The participatory process resulted in 24 fantastic, colourful insects.

    Children's Biennale "Planet Utopia"

  • 30.05 2024 - 13.10.2024
    new project , exhibition

    All in! Re-Designing Democracy - Every aspect of democracy has been designed, therefore it can be designed differently. A new "Themis" claims in the exhibition for rights for Nature.

    Bundeskunsthalle

  • 10.05. 2024 - 23.06.2024
    exhibition

    20th anniversary international exhibition and series of events. Our glass project "access" is part of the exhibition.

    design without borders

collective works

using the interaction of people for a production process

collective works is a production process which is just fully functioning when people pay attention to the producing machine. Reacting to its audience, the process translates the flow of people into an object. The resulting outcome varies in colour and size just like the level of interest is varying during the time of production. As soon as one person is coming close and looks at the machine, the production process starts: A wooden 24mm wide veneer-strip is pulled through a glue basin and slowly coiled up around a 20mm thick wooden base. Since the turning platform with the base moves downwards the veneer strip slowly builds up a basket. Once a second person joins to look at the process, a light tone colour is added via a marker onto the veneer. The more people come to look at the machine, the more markers are activated, each with a gradient darker tone. This goes up to four markers, at the same time, staining the veneer-strip black. The interaction is possible due to sensors in the frame of the machine which detect the audience. Depending on the overall interaction time the baskets’ height is defined.
The more often somebody stops by to watch the process the higher the outcome gets. The machine directly reacts to each observer and thus the outcome is as well directly depending on the audience. Every spectator leaves a mark on the object and therefore each basket becomes an unique record of the people’s interest in the object’s production. A basket – a vessel used to collect something becomes a collection of data by itself. If nobody is interested in the project, it stops producing at all and the final object just does not get made. This can be seen as ‘production on interest’. ‘Collective works’ also questions the relation between man and machine. The audience is turned into workers even tough their effort is basically just the time they spend with the machine – but time is what most of us lack. Somehow. Normally many machines in factories just need some technician to monitor the production and suddenly one machine needs some audience to produce colourful, vivid outcomes. This project was initially developed for the ‘W-hotels designer of the Future award’ exhibition at Design Miami/Basel 2011.

some of the resulting veneer baskets

how to 'decode' the objects

some baskets which were produced during Design Miami/Basel in June 2011

Every spectator leaves a mark on the object and therefore each basket becomes an unique record of the people’s interest in the object’s production.

one of the first sketches for collective works

detail of the colouring device

video showing collective works in action

first the veneer strip gets pulled through a glueing device

the basket slowly gets built up

collective works at the exhibition in Basel in 2011

If nobody is interested in the project, it stops producing at all and the final object just does not get made. This can be seen as ‘production on interest’.

due to the stability of the veneer, no substructure is needed for the process

detail of the glue application

very first tests with paper

  • material

    machine:
    wood, custom made electronics,
    motor, sensors, electromagnets, metal, marker

    baskets:
    wooden veneer, glue, colour

  • dimensions

    machine:
    160 x 80 x 115 cm

    basket:
    Ø45cm, height: depending on the interaction time, but max. 45cm

  • electro-technical
    support

  • team

    Katharina Mischer, Thomas Traxler, Greta Hauer

  • a special thank you

    to Martin Robitsch 
    for all his time, help and great support

  • awards

    Wu Guanzhong Art & Science Innovation Award (winner), China, 2012

  • collections

  • links