A Touch of Code: Interactive Installations and Experiences

by Robert Klanten (Editor), S. Ehmann (Editor), V. Hanschke (Editor)

Thanks to the omnipresence of computers, cell phones, gaming systems, and the internet, a broad audience has traded its past reservations against technology for an almost insatiable curiosity for all things technical. Against this background, unprecedented new tools and possibilities are opening up for the world of design. In addition to sketchbooks and computers, young designers are increasingly using programming languages, soldering irons,
sensors, and microprocessors as well as 3D milling or rapid prototyping machines in their work. The innovative use of powerful hardware and software has become affordable and, most of all, much easier to use. Today, the sky is the limit when it comes to ideas for experimental media, unconventional interfaces, and interactive spatial experiences. A Touch of Code shows how information becomes experience. The book examines how surprising personal experiences are created where virtual realms meet the real world and where dataflow confronts the human senses. It presents an international spectrum of interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of laboratory, trade show, and urban space that play with the new frontiers of perception, interaction, and staging created by current technology. These include brand and product presentations as well as thematic exhibits, architecture, art, and design. The comprehensive spectrum of innovative spatial and interactive work in A Touch of Code reveals how technology is fundamentally changing and expanding strategies for the targeted use of architecture, art, communication, and design for the future.

Genres: Art, Design, Technology, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2011

About the author

Robert Klanten has been a key figure in the global creative industry for more than a quarter of a century, helping to reimagine the way we approach publishing. He has driven over 800 publications and commercial projects.
Robert is the CEO of gestalten, the company he founded in 1995. Under his leadership, gestalten has established itself as a pillar in the field of contemporary visual culture, design and architecture, by immersing its readers in creative landscapes, cultures, people and art. gestalten regularly collaborates with the biggest names in the creative world and is known and loved by millions around the globe for its iconic books.
He has shown how creativity has no limits in the digital age: through inspiration, inclusivity and promoting understanding; and by connecting the global and the local through storytelling.

Reviews

[Arie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little dry in some of the explanations, so that it's nearly impossible to read for longer than ten minutes without getting bored. This is totally unfair to most of the works described within, some of which are utterly extraordinary. Also, the emphasis is hugely on design as opposed to fine/visual art, which for me was a little disappointing as I was looking for inspiration for my own artist's practice. (Was still inspired, but a little less so than if there were more "art" based ideas)

Still, the works are excellent enough to make this a worthy read for anyone interested in interactive art and design.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent collection of projects, marred by some sloppy copy editing and horridly uninspired project descriptions.