Logo | Artificial Rome Open Navigation | Artificial Rome Close Navigation | Artificial Rome Anchor | Artificial Rome Forward | Artificial Rome Backward | Artifical Rome

Interactive Media Foundation

MYRIAD - WHERE WE CONNECT. The Installation.

Berlin, Germany

The Installation 2023/24

MYRIAD. WHERE WE CONNECT.

An immersive, multimedia experience at the intersection of art, science and storytelling. MYRIAD. Where we connect. is an exhibition about Earth's networked global system of life, told through powerful and challenging stories of migrating animals, in an age of man-made change.

Case Film

Fascinating Journeys in a Connected World

This exhibition explores the power of immersive technology, spatial interactions, an artistic and sculptural language of form, and emotional storytelling. Visitors embark on a multimedia journey into the world of animals. They cross oceans, fly over mountain ranges or roam the solitude of the Arctic together with them. Through interactions, the exhibition wants to change the visitor's perspective. They become part of a world they have never experienced before. The exhibition creates an understanding of global dependencies and encourages concrete action. From connection to compassion to action.

Installation view
Interactive particles on the carbon blocks

Carbon as Connecting Element

A central artistic element of "MYRIAD. Where We Connect.“ is carbon, functioning as a narrative and aesthetic link between content and form. Created in stars through the fusion of helium and delivered to Earth by countless asteroid impacts, carbon became the building block of life. All living organisms contain this element, making it a key artistic medium in this project and the installation. Flexible and ubiquitous, the chemical element carbon forms the basis of all life on Earth. Simultaneously, it assumes significance in the current climate discourse when existing as carbon dioxide. Handmade charcoal drawings are integrated into all MYRIAD’s digital formats, blending analog and digital elements in its visual design. In a sculptural setting, like the immersive exhibition, the charcoal drawings transform into a spatial environment.

The Basis of All Life: Carbon

Carbon functions as the narrative and aesthetic link between content and form, the individual elements and global interrelations. Analog haptics and digital formats shape the overall design aesthetic. Carbon particles, with their tendencies towards continual movement — forming, breaking down, then reconfiguring in new ways — infuse this exhibition with a sense of organic vitality and an understanding of a world in a constant flux yet deeply interconnected.

The migration routes
Visitor examines the food sources

Planetary Emergency

MYRIAD. Where we connect. redefines the relationship between humans and Planet Earth as a living system. The exhibition seeks to raise awareness that our world is in serious danger, and enables a new biocentric perspective, in which the audience becomes part of the system Earth: both as a living organism as well as a factor shaping its environment. By making the environment tangible both as something that is infinitely fascinating and shockingly fragile at the same time, MYRIAD. Where we connect. effectively mobilised its visitors to take action in order to preserve the Earth's biodiversity. This exhibition contributes to the wider social discourse, opening our eyes to alternative future scenarios.

The Journeys

The journeys of individual animals during their migrations are narrated on three large scale carbon modules. In the overall 22 minutes animation, visitors follow the flight route of animal flocks and the stories of individual species.

Interactive soil particles
The sardines
Watching the giant whale

— Max Planck

When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

Young visitors are welcome
Wolves on their routes

MYRIAD. Where we connect. Transforms scientific evidence into sensual experiences through the means of art.

— Franziska Nori, Director of the Frankfurter Kunstverein

Visitors interact with the particles

Myriad. Where We Connect.

was created in close collaboration with an interdisciplinary team. The representations are based on real data from over 20,000 tracked animals migrating in water, on land, and in the air. This comes from the Movebank database, a long-term project of the Department of Animal Migration at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. MYRIAD. Where we connect. brings together current research content from the fields of animal migration, behavioural biology, climate research and infrastructure development, drawing on the Big Data of the Movebank project, among other sources. Abstracted data and information are transformed into experiences through art, creating a connection between people's imagination and awareness of the global interconnectivity of our planet's ecosystems.

Borders and barriers section

Festivals & Exhibitions

Awards

Credits

Executive Producer

  • Saskia Kress
  • Michael Grotenhoff (Filmtank, Interactive Media Foundation)

Creative Lead

  • Lena Thiele (Miiqo Studios)
  • Sebastian Baurmann (Miiqo Studios)
  • Dirk Hoffmann (Artificial Rome)

Author, Creative Director, Art Director

  • Lena Thiele (Miiqo Studios)
  • Sebastian Baurmann (Miiqo Studios)

Lead Visual Artist

  • Dirk Hoffmann (Artificial Rome)

Creative Director

  • Robert Werner (Artificial Rome)

Lead 3D-Artist, 3D-Artist

  • Christian Rambow (Artificial Rome)
  • Katharina Przyborowski (Artificial Rome)

Technical Lead Interaction and Tracking

  • Mateusz Marchwicki (Artificial Rome)
  • Ferdinand Streicher (Artificial Rome)

Technical Support

  • Thorsten Sperling-Ufer (Artificial Rome)
  • David Pettersson (Artificial Rome)

Architecture

  • Hinnerk Dedecke (unit-berlin)

Sonic Experience

  • kling klang klong

Project Lead

  • Jochen Watral (Artificial Rome)
  • Kerstin Klewitz (Filmtank)

Content Director

  • Antja Karoli (Interactive Media Foundation)

Technical Lead Media Installation

  • Christian Hergarten (Hergarten | Interactive Environments)

Technical Supply

  • satis&fy

Exhibition Support, Project Management

  • Dr. Christian Dirks (BERGZWO)

Communication Lead

  • Boris Nitzsche (Interactive Media Foundation)

Media Development

  • Magnus Froböse (Context Film)

Documentation

  • Robert Werner (Artificial Rome)
  • Sophie Hu (Artificial Rome)

Scientific Support

  • Prof. Dr. Martin Wikelski (Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior)

With scientific support of

Supported by

In alliance with

The installation MYRIAD. Where we connect. was produced with the support of the FKV for the exhibition “Bending the Curve – Knowing, Acting, Caring for Biodiversity”.