The Pop-Up Generation

Housed in a historic building in the centre of old Lausanne, the MUDAC museum has welcomed 'Pop-Up: design entre dimensions' (on show until March 3rd, 2013). The small spaces of the building allow visitors to experience this exhibit on a more intimate level, guided through different moods ranging from abstraction to narration, from technology to textile, and from heavy metal and lace to chocolate...

Pop-Up's second edition includes new elements such as an especially-commissioned mirror by Studio Job, the enchanting 'Danseuses' by Atelier Oï, fur interventions in the public sphere by Neozoon and a site-specific paper cut-out installation by Andrea Mastrovito. The opening was celebrated by live performances by Laurens Manders and Niels Meuleman.

www.mudac.ch

The power of story-telling is contained within a hut where a poetic boy plays a blues song following his girlfriend’s betrayal, crying so many tears that his house starts to sink… Hide was first conceived in 2008 as Laurens Manders’ graduation project in the communication department at the Design Academy Eindhoven; explaining that the live element is a crucial part of his expression, he says “If I sing about my sadness live, the experience of the song is more intense.”

The installation uses temporary architecture, a pop-up book, acoustic music and live performance to perfectly embody the unplugged spirit. Performed in collaboration with Daphna Isaacs Burggraaf, this recording was made at the mudac museum in Lausanne during the opening of Pop-Up: design between dimensions, which runs until March 3rd, 2013.

daphnalaurens.nl

Visiting the exhibition ‘Low Tech’ organized by Exit at MAC Creteil in Paris we we’re taken on a joyride from dimension to dimension. Feeling welcomed by an optimistic atmosphere amongst a crowd of people that were interacting with the installations, figuring out how the surreal animations are made and planning their own DIY projects inspired by the works on display.

Twenty projects from international artists and designers filled several spaces and corridors, creating a sense of adventure while walking through the building.Inspiring all to pick up our digital camera’s and hammer and nails at the same time to create a hands on future in this digital era.

Enjoy these memorable works!

Subject & text by Jules van den Langenberg

www.maccreteil.com

Pop down screen.Nicky Assmann’s project ‘Solace’ is a kinetic light installation, a screen made out of soap, created by a handcrafted device, is lit and mesmerizes visitors by showing them a colourful liquid surface which randomly pops down.

As it’s a looping process, the excitement of the screen appearing and disappearing creates constant changes of atmosphere.

www.nickyassmann.net

Playing with perspective.‘The Tenth Sentiment’ by Ryota Kuwakubo is a playful installation that let’s us experience an intertwining of the second and third dimension. A train, with a LED light attached on the side, slowly moves on a track, passing various objects and creating shadows on the walls. Visitors are able to imagine the viewpoint from sitting in the train while at the same time having an overview of the whole scene.

 Ryota Kuwakubo places us in various dimensions by playing with perspective and scale. The video above shows the installation as well as an interview with Ryota Kuwakubo himself in an episode of the documentary Jap_ON.

www.vector-scan.com

In between reality and animated narration. A collection of videos were projected in a small cinema-like setting.

These two films in which stopmotion and motion footage are mixed create an imaginative world within our existing world, taking us somewhere in between.

"Young generations born with and behind the screen live in a shadow area, a no man's land between the second and third dimension that they wish to connect. This popup generation moves easily from 2D to 3D and back again as if they do not even notice that there is a difference.

 The brain is trained to see volume in a flat sketch and to discover a structure behind the volume found in an architectonic drawing." Lidewij Edelkoort

Buy the catalogue on line 

www.motimuseum.nl

The Motion Cabinet by Niels Hoebers is a portable stage equipped with all of the tools needed for stop motion animation, updating the art of puppeteering for the 21^st century. Its mobility makes it flexible enough to adapt to different situations and especially practical for collaborations and hosting pop-up workshops with others.

Hoebers introduces us to Walter, a hybrid character who is: “being confronted with reality, an understanding that has a completely different meaning for puppets than for humans… In this story Walter discovers his own reality.

He realizes that he has been created and animated by humans. Walter is starting to doubt his whole existence. But he is told that his existence is about a co-operation between man and puppet and that they need each other to meet in the imaginary world. Walter has to accept that he's being animated by a higher power. But this higher power has to make sure that Walter leads a happy and pleasant life.” (NH)

www.nielshoebers.nl

Camille Scherrer has created her own universe, saying that her narrative vocabulary brings 2D visuals to life in projects that “play at the intersection of technology and art, looking for new fields of investigations”. As a designer, she has created and collaborated on motion animations, books, communication and art, yet her interactive projects best illustrate her pop-up philosophy.

This project from Sherrer’s media and interaction design graduate studies at ECAL saw the screen come to life in response to specific pages of the book being read. An experience in 3D is enhanced on a 2D screen, flipping our perceptions, enchanting our imagination and blurring the borders between the real and the virtual.

www.chipchip.ch

“The difference in letterforms is physically defined: With a pen you use your hand and with a brush you use your wrist. Of course I’m very used to doing bigger stuff with a spray can, in which you use your whole arm. And recently I’ve been experimenting with big brooms on the pavement. The shapes have the same starting point but the physical aspect really defines how it looks in the end”. (NM) Meulman has developed a typographic language that uses action painting on large surfaces. Having taken the streets and walls of public space, he now tackles the gallery floor in a distinctly Dutch material: liquorice dropjes.

 He notes that we live in exciting and fluid times: “First there was the internet bubble that exploded, than we had the banking system that collapsed and now I feel that post-modernist bullshit artists and their elitist galleries and museums are being taken at face value. There are so many great artists with roots in the urban asphalt emerging at the moment, it’s not even funny!”

www.nielsshoemeulman.com

Neozoon is a collective of artists based in Berlin and Paris, interested in using public space as a venue for ephemeral artworks. By using recycled fur coats and reshaping them into a flat figurative or abstract shape, Neozoon’s temporary pop-up installations and films explore the third dimension and the strange interaction between humans and animals.

For the Pop-Up Generation exhibition, Neozoon have installed their furry creatures at several public sites in Breda. Although their permanence is not definitive, images of these works can be seen on their website.

www.neozoon.org

James Victore says he “strives to make work that is sexy, strong and memorable”. His freestyle graphics and evocative designs inspire honest and immediate reactions from the audience, expanding the perception of what good graphic design has the power to achieve.

Interested in engaging the public while viewing his work,Victore has designed a pop-up experience for the guests attending the Pop-Up Generation exhibition opening. Creating two different buttons to select from, visitors were asked to choose what is better?

To live an authentic life that is hard? REAL

To live a life that is unsatisfying but easy and financially secure? FAUX

Results: 250 people opted to lead a more REAL existence*

214 people people preferred to take the FAUX option*

* NB: this included some people who opted to choose both options

www.jamesvictore.com

Today’s youngest generations are born into a life dominated by being, playing, learning and sleeping with flat screens (TV, PC, Xbox, Pad, Phone and Pod), living in a shadow area between the second and third dimensions which they would like to connect, and between which they strive.

This Pop-Up Generation moves fluidly and easily between 2D and 3D, as though they no longer notice that there is a difference: their brains are trained to see volume in a flat sketch or to discern structure within volume.

This is how a more imaginative world will develop, one that offers supple and flowing experiences, a world where the eye and the mind scan images in search of a reality to be found in a two-and-a-half dimension, accumulating layers of two-dimensional matter to produce the illusion of three; letting them pop-up and fall flat in one simple movement of up and down, around and about, back and forth, and moving in unison on the swing of existence -  Lidewij Edelkoort

MOTI Museum Netherlands December 13 - April 12

Download the press images here

Download the english and dutch press releases here