Shanghai Studio

Text from CreativeHunt:

"In a time where tech is so important we should be reinventing what reality looks like. Can we make sustainable highways that generate electricity when cars drive over it? What would Facebook Square look like? These are the questions that need to be asked and answered. I feel that is not happening – and that's the roles of artists, designers and architects". 

Put like this, opening a studio in the sometimes futuristic metropolis of Shanghai seems an obvious choice for young Dutch artist, Daan Roosegaarde who before addressing a rapt, sell-out audience at Dutch Design Workspace last night, took time to explain to CreativeHunt his new China ambitions. 

Trained as a sculptor, Roosegaarde quickly realized that the sense of movement captured in his early, static works wasn't enough. And so, by 2003, the artist had begun experimenting with automotive technology, creating architectures such as Liquid Space that were both visually striking and responsive to human interactions. 

"At that time, the term 'interactive design' referred more to people who built websites for flashy IT companies, as opposed to installation art. It was quite recent, and a completely new field. We became fascinated in ways to use technology to create poetry... we wanted to make the things that we dreamed about.", Roosegaarde recalls. 

Cue Dune: an early creation crafted from lengths of fibre optic cables, sensors and speakers, the work looks almost organic, like some star-laced and swaying meadow of grass. The work responds to both movement and sound, quivering, chattering and sparkling depending on human reactions. In the artist's own words, "It's like a weird artifact from the future that remembers a time long ago when we lived in caves and walked through the grasses on the prairies, sharing stories around the camp fire... These are all in everyone's DNA somehow. In that way it relates more to storytelling, recreating our world and personalizing it... Its a poetic instrument in that way". 

Despite being exhibited in some of the world's most acclaimed museums, Roosegaarde is most proud of how the work has been received in public spaces. In the 1940s Maastunnel, Rotterdam, for example, the work added a supernatural element to the dimly-lit tunnel and even became a hot spot for wedding photos – an effect that the artist claims as baffling, despite the otherworldly romance of the piece. China, too, has revealed a new side to the work, and Roosegaarde is adamant that "If Dune could talk, it would talk Mandarin. I've always felt that in Europe people are constantly trying to figure out where the sensor is, like it's a puzzle without a soul, but in Asia, they're more intuitively connected to it, the relationship with technology is completely different. It's more sentimental somehow, but at the same time playful, they're ready to negotiate with it more. It's an obsession for the future, for innovation". 

These works are far from solely decorative, however, and in 2008, a commission from a Rotterdam nightclub saw the artist create the phenomenal successful Sustainable Dance Floor. The piezoelectric creation harvests energy generated through dancing and transformed by embedded technologies, resulting in some 25watts generated for every 1watt used, the surplus of which goes to lighting, sound systems, and all the other energy-eating trappings of your average club. 

Right now, Roosegaarde and his team of engineers, designers and coders are working on Intimacy, a series of dresses crafted from smart e-foils, copper and wireless technologies. The initially opaque high fashion garments become increasingly transparent depending on the closeness of personal encounters. It's sensual, intimate and a sort of futuristic version of blushing – a second techno-skin that responds in an all too human way. "We have a client in LA who wants a shipment and so we're working on a series which is even more wearable, with leather, pockets, that sort of thing – something that people can really wear." 

If all these seems to outlandish to ever become mainstream, Roosegaarde would ask you to think again: "What I've seen is that it becomes more natural. Take the escalator. The staircase used to be a static thing. Then, the escalator was invented in 1897 and suddenly our world became animated, automated. At that time it was shock for people – but now, we're used to it to the extent that if we're on an escalator that doesn't' work we get annoyed. Continue that line across another 100 years from now, then what? We won't still be looking at computer screens, I'm certain. Things will become more organic, and I'm interested in what kind of stories there will be to tell". 

The sheer enthusiasm and certainty with which the exuberant designer details his visions, observations and dreams leaves listeners in no doubt that Roosegaarde is already thinking steps ahead" of a current project, a series of completely energy efficient cars by BMW, he tantalizingly explains "We're talking about what the future of mobility will look like – it won't be on wheels, that's for sure!" 

We'll just have to watch and wait to see what tales Roosegaarde builds around future cars, but in the meantime, he has high hopes for not only his new Shanghai studio, but also creating in China in a world increasingly accepting of digital art: "There's a new generation of digital natives for sure – I think it makes a difference if you grew up with a fax machine or a Facebook account. Things have changed in the last four or five years. Right now it's considered the new default, the new natural way of interacting and the reason these artworks will always be there is because they don't just rely on technology, but they also rely on this poetic story, something classic that will always be contemporary and relevant". 

Learn more about the work of Daan Roosegaarde here, or click here for details of his new book, Interactive Landscapes.

Via: CreativeHunt.com