SECOND PRIZE
Andreas Muxel
Austria, 2008
About the project
Connect demonstrates emergent complex behavior with an elegant economy of means. This testifies to a clarity of thinking and an understanding of the issues at hand. In each of thirteen units, a steel ball is suspended from a rubber string which is driven, yo-yo like, for a short period, by the motor it is suspended from. The only other component of the work is a short string with a magnet at each end. At the outset, it is attached to one ball. The presence of this ‘magnet-string’ causes the ball it is attached to be excited, which in turn causes the loose end of the string to swing around and the ball-string and magnet-string pair to behave as a ‘double pendulum’ - an iconic chaotic motion generator. Eventually, the loose magnet finds a second ball, which excites the second ball, and the assemblage of three swing around, until one magnet breaks away. The process continues in this fashion, the magnet string passing active status around the group in an unpredictable pattern. As an installation, Connect is a charming demonstration of the phenomenon of emergent behavior, in which constantly changing activity emerges from an array of simple elements with identical behavior repertoires.
Career
Andreas Muxel (AT)
In 2004 Andreas Muxel received a Diploma in Media Communiction Design from the University of Applied Sciences Voralberg. From 2004 to 2007 he worked as an interaction and interface designer for the MARS-Exploratory meda Lab at the Fraunhofer Institute for Media Communicaciont. In 2008 he finished his postgraduate studies at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. In his works he is interested in the mixture of digital code and physical material. He lives and works in Cologne, Germany.
Exhibitions (Collection):
2009 Ars Electronica Festival / Linz
2009 FILE Festival / Sao Paulo
2009 Contemporary Art Ruhr / Essen
2008 LAB30, Augsburg
2008 Venez vivre une journée en 2017, Institute Échangeur, Paris
2007 Yahoo! Design Expo, Sunnyvale, California
2007 Talking Cities Audio Lounge, Galerie Renate Kammer, Hambugr
2007 SAM, Architecture Museum, Basel
2006 ENTRY 2006 at the Zeche Zollverein, Essen
2006 Expedition Informatik at the Haus der Wissenschaft, Bremen
2006 RoboCup 2006, Bremen
2006 Kunst Computer Werke, at the ZKM, Karlsruhe
2005 walk in 05 at the Galerie-Aedes, Berlin
2005 Cubo de Luz Festival, Granada, Nicaragua
2004 energie_passagen, at the Literaturhaus, Munich
Awards / Nominations:
2009 Honorary Mention, Category “Interactive Art”, Prix Ars Electronica, Linz
2009 Nominated Share Price, Piemonte Share Festival, Turin
2008 Winner Cologne Design Award
2007 Best Experience Design Award “Yahoo! Design Expo, together with Charlotte Krauss and Ludwig Zeller
2005 If communication design award together with the MARS-Explorary media Lab
2005 Architecture Award 05, poolbar Festival, together with Michael Pichler and Max Stecher