Client: JL Design

Overview

Picking up on the topic of urbanization onformative developed permanent digital art content for the commercial and cultural center TX Huaihai in Shanghai. »CX-Shanghai« aesthetically adopts the prevailing contrasts found in the city from a macro and micro perspective into a playful complexity of light and shadow, day and night, void and abundance, structure and formlessness. From a bird’s eye view of the city, complex patterns start to emerge and horizontally draw an infrastructure of quarters, streets and blocks of houses. Taking a closer look, similar structures can be found in architecture, facades and materials at a smaller scale. Inspired by the growing city, the digital real-time artwork picks up on these structures to interpret them in a dynamic digital art installation. To authentically transfer the vibes and shapes of the ever changing city to the visuals, location-based city data is analyzed in real-time to generate the structure of the generative artwork.

Goals

The goal for the artwork was to aesthetically interpret both typical architectural structures and the vibrant, fast-changing life of the city. The spirit of the TX Huaihai as a modern commercial and cultural center, is resembled in the future-facing concept of the artwork. Utilizing real-time data, it builds a profound connection to the constantly changing vibe of the city, while the visuals, inspired by city structures, make up for the beautiful appearance. The real-time installation reflects the fast changing moods and feels in a metropolis on a variety of media screens immersed in vibrant light and colours. Being presented on a prominent semi-transparent screen outside the building that works as an iconic eye-catcher, the work literally immerses into the city. The display on different indoor screens, transfers the work to the insight of the space. By drawing information from different locations in the city the real-time visuals are continuously altering in their composition and mood, representing the endless variety of the city itself.

Additional Information

Resembling the constantly changing shapes, structures and patterns found in the city, the artwork is intelligently creating new looks, playfully drawn and inspired by the complexity and transformation found in the city data. Underpinned with a bespoke sound design, developed in collaboration with kling klang klong, the installation invites the observer to immerse into the abstracted interpretation of the city, shown on a number of screens inside and outside the cultural and commercial center TX Huaihai.