Unbelievable turnout, this exhibition is a must-see. Tune your interwebs to EMP.
Opening party.
Archetypes table in the exhibit space. The kiosk was installed in the wild woods area of the exhibit.
Mapmaker interactive in the exhibit. People could pick between a wizard, a pirate, or a manga styled map to create their world.
Remember back before Chuck E. Cheese? Showbiz Pizza Place was the original family fun spot, with the animatronic performing band…Rock-a-fire Explosion, powered by ’70s technology.
This “show”, or set of pneumatic-driven band members (originally designed and manufactured by Creative Engineering) are being rebuilt and upgraded by Jason Rudolph in West Seattle, currently at a large, vacant retail space (formerly Petco). Jason is looking at new ways to control the band and to create new shows. First step is to rehabilitate the vintage band members.
Under-the-latex, all moving parts are actuated with compressed air-powered cylinders.
This is essentially a communications hub, which handles all of the switching for the pneumatic controls-currently a Tivo is sending the show controls’ timing through a bundle of wires with data that tells the band how to move and when to move, so that it syncs with the music.
What do Mark Twain, Marie Curie, and Nikola Tesla all have in common? They are all part of South Lake Union’s latest design installation by Belle & Wissell titled “Macro-Micro”, part of a series of artful and sustainable design projects commissioned by Vulcan Real Estate. This project is just one part of Vulcan’s vision for the new Amazon.com campus in the neighborhood. We invite you to come see it in person at this location.
The graphic metal sculpture, located on Boren Avenue (between Thomas and Harrison) is made from 8,640 multicolor, individual pucks-capable of being rearranged into future compositions to give this project an extended life (a total of 10,000 pucks were produced). The initial theme is based on “innovators”, a reflection of the neighborhood’s past, present, and future.
This Belle & Wissell design project was realized in collaboration with Vulcan Real Estate, Amazon.com, and fabricator McNae Metals.
Giant mesh racks were made to hold and support thousands of metal pucks.
Once the pucks were joined, it was time to paint.
Mesh installed, pucks painted, next comes the paint by number part. Each puck was hand set in the mesh on site using a detailed grid guide.
The finished piece.
This isn’t a cloning experiment but rather it’s South Lake Union’s latest installation titled “Your Face is Puzzling to Me”, an interactive exhibit commissioned by Vulcan Real Estate for the new Amazon.com campus on Thomas St. (between Terry and Boren). This project is part of Vulcan’s larger vision for Seattle’s most up-and-coming neighborhood.
Contribute your face (in person) at “Your Face is Puzzling to Me”
This Belle & Wissell design project was realized in collaboration with Vulcan Real Estate, Amazon.com, and fabricator Turner Exhibits.
The concept behind “Your Face Is Puzzling To Me” is to elevate the diversity of the people in the South Lake Union neighborhood, bringing together faces that make the neighborhood special. Folks passing by can use a capture station to add their photo to the project. Once your photo is taken, it is processed and juxtaposed with previously submitted faces. Also in the rotation are faces from the past, a few inanimate objects, and some other surprises.
The result? Some weird looking folks.
Drooling over well-designed furniture is one of our favorite hobbies. So you can imagine our excitement when the Bellevue Arts Museum opened an exhibition featuring the king of sexy modern furniture; George Nelson. On loan from the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, the Seattle area is one of four lucky U.S. stops to be able to take a peek.
The exhibit, open through February 12, features his accomplishments in office, house, exhibition, and corporate design. Each piece inspires, making us a little bit happier having seen it in person.
The man himself
Marshmallow Sofa, delicious but oddly colored
Clock wall at the exhibition
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Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses, an exhibition that pays homage to this significant Northwest band and the music scenes that surrounded it, has only been open a month, but is bringing museum visitors out in droves to EMP in Seattle.
Both local and national press have been covering the exhibit, including The Seattle Times, MTV and Rolling Stone, and praise the exhibit design approach for it’s complexity, innovation and style.
Large photo murals
Visitors looking at objects in the long display case with photo murals behind them.
Visitors using the first (of three) interactive touchtable stations to explore an extensive collection of media and oral histories not seen elsewhere in the exhibition.
Nirvana “Confessional” media installation allows visitors to share their grunge stories, and then watch them all on a large projection.
Exhibition Curator: Jacob McMurray
Exhibition Graphic Design and Interactives: Belle & Wissell, Co.
Exhibition Design: Wonder Mine
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Belle & Wissell, Co. is looking for interface developers for full-time and contract employment. The scope of our projects is uniquely vast, so interest in new challenges across various mediums is key. We are currently working on: public art projects, museum media installations with software/hardware integration, single and multi-touch interfaces, programmatic motion design, WYSIWYG content management tools, projected works, experimental filmmaking, and 3D game engines.
If you can use ‘interactive’ as a noun and have experience with any of the following, you could be a good fit for our team: Flash/Silverlight, WPF, C++ (Cinder, openFrameworks), C#, and/or Unity (for media installations, interactive kiosks, and Web experiences). If you’ve got more, we’d like to know about it.
Email resumes and links to work samples: info@bwco.info
Please provide examples of practical experience that show past successful results.
After nearly two years of preparation, fans and contributors came together to view the April 16th opening of the Nirvana: Taking Punk To The Masses exhibit. A unique combination of artifacts from Nirvana’s heyday including hand-written notes, clothing and instruments are incased amongst streaming video interviews, life-sized photographs, and graphic-based maps. The collection is designed to depict the musical layout of the Pacific Northwest landscape and tell the story of a band that helped shape Seattle’s history.
Along with exhibit graphic design, Belle & Wissell, Co. designed a confessional booth that serves as an interactive recording station for visitors and fans to contribute their personal Nirvana experiences to an ongoing video database stream. To use the interface, viewers watch other, prerecorded, Nirvana “confessions” and answer a queued question about an experience they remember having with or about the band. For example: “When was the first time you heard Nirvana?”
Beyond gathering the perspective of guests, the exhibit contains several interactive touch tables (Belle & Wissell, Co.) which display streaming interviews, music and album art, all selectable by by the viewer. Since the viewers’ relationship to the band varies greatly, the interface allows the user chose how expansive or general their experience of topics is.
Addressing such a complexly personal piece of Seattle history was challenging, but by combining past artifacts with new technology, the Nirvana: Taking Punk To The Masses exhibit is a powerful and dynamic composite of experiences – connecting fans of all ages to a band and an era that changed music history.
Exhibit Graphic and Interactive Design: Belle & Wissell, Co.
Exhibit Design: Wonder Mine.
Curatorial: Jacob McMurray and the EMP curatorial team
Born Presents: 417 • 903 project was selected as a winner in the Communication Arts Interactive Annual 17, which hit newsstands in March.
Belle & Wissell would like to thank and congratulate all of the contributors who made this project possible:
Scott Benish, Lead Designer
Gabe Kean, Design Director
Thomas Ryun, Art Director
Amy Spreadborough/Anmarie Timble, Writers
Craig Ernst, Online Editor
Chad McMurray, Sound Engineer
Marq Dean, Project Manager
Edrea Lita, Associate Art Director
Adobe Systems, Inc., Consultant
Born Presents (Born Magazine), Client
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Finalists were announced last week for Toronto’s annual Flash In The Can Awards. Belle & Wissell, Co.’s Paccar Hall digital wayfinding system for The University of Washington’s business school is among those nominated for a Flash Usability and People’s Choice awards.
See a video of this project here.
An interactive directory provides students and faculty with real-time information from multiple data sources, revisions to locations of people and departments, and navigation through the complex floor plans and multi-level building entrances. The project also includes a digital donor program with touch interfaces and passive digital displays to clearly credit the contributions that made Paccar Hall possible. Additionally there is a business Twitter feed interactive that streams constant news from up to twelve Twitter feeds like The Economist and The Wall Street Journal. Write an essay online.
Winners for FITC will be announced at the ceremony on May 3. Fans of Belle & Wissell can cast their vote for the People’s choice by visiting the nominees page.