PROJECTS
Projects
IMMERSIVE
EXPERIENCES
EXAMPLES
Production of an 2D, and stereoscopic 3D immersive installations
BEFORE US LIES ETERNERDY
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Director and Science & Art Producer of the installation “Digital Medicine, Arts, and STEAM: BEFORE US LIES ETERNERDY,” jointly with Alexander Köhn and Mathias Neugebauer
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Immersive stereoscopic 3D & large-scale 2D installation
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The work launched in 2018 as an artistic, large-scale immersive experience in the stereoscopic 3D theatre Deep Space 8K at the Ars Electronica Center, Linz, Austria, and simultaneously at the Media Art Nexus MAN at NTU Singapore.
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Understanding and negotiating complex issues in digital medicine require expertise, time, and dedication. But who is developing new technological possibilities, telling their stories, and shaping the medical future? The installation is based on reflections about researchers and their curiosity and creativity in dealing with issues that can only be penetrated through technical, scientific, and mathematical understanding. The work shows a floating human body and looks into an organ down to a layer of tissue that, when magnified, reveals itself as the space-like environment with star-like lights in which the body floats.
The project shows different scales of the human body, from digitized microscopic lymphoma tissue examined with the molecular cytogenetic technique Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) to detect abnormal changes in DNA to 3D reconstructions of two vessel systems of a liver for patient-individual surgery planning as well as a whole-body MRI.
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Immersive, interactive, and artistic experiences enable emotional, positive engagement with digital medicine and required STEM sciences. The goal is to add educational programs to scientifically informed art exhibitions and engage diverse audiences in the wonders of the human body and the constructive possibilities of new technologies.
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Artist: Bianka Hofmann, Alexander Köhn, Mathias Neugebauer; Fraunhofer MEVIS (DE). In cooperation with Ina Conradi and Mark Chavez, MAN, (SG)
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Recognized the second year in a row by the scientific documentary industry: winning the “Industry Award for Best Infographic” at the Raw Science Film Festival 2019 in Los Angeles.
Credits: Directors and Science & Art Producer: Bianka Hofmann, Alexander Köhn, Mathias Neugebauer; Scientific Advice: Henning Höfener, Andre Homeyer; Sound: David Black; Fraunhofer MEVIS. In cooperation with Ina Conradi and Mark Chavez, Media Art Nexus, Nanyang Technological University Singapore; Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) data kindly provided by ZytoVision; special thanks to Volker Diehl, Jochen Hirsch, Julian Haase, and Dagmar Weiß
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THE BEAUTY OF BLOOD FLOW ANALYSIS
Director and Science & Art Producer of the installation “Beauty of Blood Flow Analysis,” jointly with Alexander Köhn and Mathias Neugebauer
Immersive installation for 2D, stereoscopic 3D, or 360° hemisphere-dome
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“Beauty of Blood Flow Analysis” is based on new research and technologies in digital medicine and conveys emerging possibilities for gaining knowledge and making predictions about the human body. The work allows the audience to witness the swirling flow of blood in the heart and gives an idea of the steadiness of the heartbeat.
Driven by awe and curiosity, this project fuses technological prowess, art, and science. By looking at the flowing blood, various diseases can be detected; for example, turbulent vortices indicate a heart valve malfunction.
The starting point was exclusively real medical data for the dynamic reconstruction of the blood flow of a healthy human heart, recorded at the MR laboratory of Fraunhofer MEVIS. Specially developed imaging techniques allow the local flow of motion to be depicted in the MR images. The highly detailed 4D flow data were processed with a rapid prototyping development platform for medical imaging. To capture the complex temporal and spatial distribution of blood flow, special algorithms extracted 4D flow paths along which coloured particle trajectories were visualised. The movements of the particles show the flow during the heartbeat and illustrate the speed and flow direction of the blood.
Modern MR technology enables the acquisition of highly detailed 4D flow data. New flow visualisation imaging techniques are being integrated into diagnostic software so that physicians can see how blood flow changes due to heart disease without the use of a catheter.
Artists: Bianka Hofmann, Alexander Köhn, Mathias Neugebauer; Fraunhofer MEVIS (DE)
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The short film received the Industry Award for Best Immersive Media at the Raw Science Film Festival, California. January 2018.
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Credits: Directors and Science & Art Producer: Bianka Hofmann, Alexander Köhn, Mathias Neugebauer; Scientific Advisor: Anja Hennemuth; Sound: David Black; Fraunhofer MEVIS (DE)
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Images: ETERNERDY, Copyright Quek Jia Liang, (left and right), 360 half dome edit Beauty of Blood Flow Analysis, Copyright Fraunhofer MEVIS
ENCOUNTER, INTERACTION, AND CO-CREATION
EXAMPLES
Artist Residency Program STEAM Imaging
LINKING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY WITH THE ARTS AND THE NEXT GENERATION
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Design and lead the artist-in-residency program “STEAM Imaging” as a conceptual framework for fostering meaningful cooperative engagement of scientists, school students, and artists to break down disciplinary boundaries and explore flexible forms of learning and cooperation, realized together with the mathematician Sabrina Haase, starting in 2017.
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Residend: Eli Joteva (US), 2020
Delighted to announce the beginning of “STEAM Imaging III,” an interdisciplinary exploration of digital medicine and the human body, jointly hosted with Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria, in collaboration with the International Fraunhofer Talent School Bremen and the UCLA ArtSci Center, Los Angeles, USA.
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Residend: Yen Tzu Chang (TW), 2017
STEAM imaging is an artist residency jointly hosted by the Fraunhofer Institute for Medical Imaging MEVIS in Bremen, Germany, and Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria in collaboration with the International Fraunhofer Talent School Bremen within the European Digital Art and Science Network.
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Image: At the STEAM workshop, Copyright Martin Hieslmair
EXAMPLES
Production of an Interactive Hands-On Installations
POKING FLORIAN
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Production of an Art Installation Explaining the Function of the Brain
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Project development of the project “Poking Florian,” an interactive installation produced in 2013, based on a furniture sized one, realized at Fraunhofer MEVIS in 2011, exploring 3D print material and analog-digital interfaces.
By touching the dots on Florian’s brain, the nerve fibers appear on the iPad and show which part of his body is controlled by them.
INTERACTIVE EXHIBITS
IMAGE MAN
Production of an Interactive Hands-On Exhibit
Project development of the project “Image Man,” a life-size figure that comprises ten segments produced at Fraunhofer MEVIS in 2015 for the Universum Science Center Bremen.
At the center of the installation is a touch screen showing the beating heart. By touching, visitors can interactively navigate through the results of different imaging methods. The body parts depicted on the segments were produced with different imaging methods.
Images: Poking Florian, Image Man, Copyright Fraunhofer MEVIS
DANCE PERFORMANCES
EXAMPLES
Exploring Body Language at the Intersection of Real and Virtual World
“Experience is only half of human existence. The others half is what hasn't been experienced, yet. Experience and possibilities are twins. Maybe the dance lives from raising these kids.”
Saburo Teshigawara
ART INSTALLATION KAMI ARIZUKI
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Create Free, Conscious, Lively Effects as Moving Artwork
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“I'm not interested in how people move, but what moves them.”
Pina Bausch
Dancer and project developer for the usage of a moving sensitive software Kami Arizuki, including UX interaction concept, which allowed dancers to enhance their body appearance visually. It was the result of cooperation with the software architect Alexander Köhn in 2011. In several experimental settings together with performance dancers trained by Matthias Früh we explored the requirements and built a user interface to create different presets for the visual enhancements, the so called Kami.
The resulting exhibition “Jetzt ist ein anderes Jetzt” in cooperation with the photographer Hannah Klatt offered visitors the screening of my dance performance SELF and three moments: static experimental photographs; photographs that were brought into a state of movement and expanded into a virtual reality; and finally the appearance of the visitors themselves, who could virtually enhance their bodies, showing live at a wall, through their movements.
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Image: Dance Performance Dream
INTERSPECIES INTERACTION
EXAMPLES
Research in Body Language and Bioacoustics
Researcher on bioacoustics and body language in short-finned pilot whales. These research results have contributed to a code of conduct and specific protective measures for pilot whales in the Atlantic off the Canary Islands. I collected field data in 1994, 1996, 2001 and analysed and published the outcome of three field studies. During my studies (Biology, Diploma and Comparative Religion, Diploma) I focused on the evolution of communication, symbolic and ritual-symbolic communication, the biological roots of culture, language and religion and Inter-species interaction.
I developed and managed with my colleagues a program for children with a wide range of physical and mental impairments. To offer the liberating experience of hearing and feeling the sounds of dolphins underwater, without the need to travel out to sea. This includes the integration of underwater sound, aquatic bodywork and coaching for parents. Based on my previous scientific fieldwork, I recorded the sound of short finned pilot whales in the Atlantic Sea.​
Images: Field research, Copyright Behr, Hofmann, Scheer
