Back to the Retro-Futures by Omar Barco

Design and Digital Arts - Retrofuture Exhibition Edinburgh Napier University By Omar Barco 40063759

BOARDS 3

Index Introduction 10 Target audience Other specifications 10 Area of the Exhibition run & time 11 20s Retrofuture 12 Tron 80s tunnel 14 60s - 70 retrofuturism 16 Tron legacy tunnel 18 Steampunk retrofuturism 20 Create your own retrofuture 22 Poster, Ticket & Launch Event 24 Appendix 25

Introduction ‘Back to the retrofuture’, more than an exhibition is a chance to experience different kinds of retrofuturism. People will be able to immerse in every design space, not only observing and looking at the things like in traditional displays but interacting and being part of it. Also, after experiencing all the retrofutures, the visitor will be led to a space where he/she will create his/her own retrofure. The spaces/retrofutures that are represented in the exhibition in order of appearance are; • 20’s retrofuturism – based on Metropolis, dystopian vision • TRON 80´s tunnel • 60´s-70´s retrofuturism • TRON Legacy´s tunnel • Steampunk retrofuturism • Create your own Later, we will have a look more in detail of each space.

Target Audience and other specifications The principal target audience, the kind of people that really are going to appreciate this exhibition are adults around 30 years old – the range can be from 20 to 50 but focused on the previous mentioned -. Most of them are geeks or ex-geeks that have finally got a good job and a family so they can spend some money on their hobbies and ‘toys’. Technology, movies and music are part of them. retro and design call their attention for sure. We are offering them what they always wanted, live in a retrofuture, actually we go beyond and offer several retrofutures and the possibility of create your own. Also, younger generations will love it. To access to some parts of the exhibition, there is the need of climbing stairs –rocket and treehouse - and the interactions in the ‘Tron tunnels’ make it not apt for people in a wheel chair. Only with special help, communicating it to our personnel and under their responsibility, they will be allowed. We do not really want to deprive anybody of experience this exhibition. The exhibition will run for 3 months and we expect thousands of visitors, most of them will revisit it several times. As this is in collaboration with the Edinburgh City Council, the price of ticket is very low, £5 normal ticket, £4 for students. We wanted to make it free but we are afraid of families with children coming any time like the rest of the museum and this exhibition is prepared for many people but not too many, so we avoid this problem in part. The money will go to amortize the cost of the exhibition previously paid by the council, and then after an agreement, they will use the money for health and/or education. If we get an over income it will go to the organizers.

Area of the exhibition Run and Time

1st Floor

The selected area for this exhibition is the ‘connect room’ of the National Scottish Museum. After a long hard work, this area is unrecognizable and perfectly adapted to the purpose of this exhibition. People will visit every room in order, if they want to return to some of the visited room they can, but undoing the way they have walked before, There is no way of going from the last room to the second without walk through the spaces in between. There is an estimated time of 5 minutes per room – more in some, less in others – being a total of 30 minutes at least to experience the whole exhibition

2nd Floor

X-Ray 3d model of the exhibition - Connect room National Scottish Museum

20’s retrofuturism based on Metropolis, dystopian vision The first space / retrofuturism that the visitor will experience is a 20´s dystopian vision of the future based mostly on Fritz Lang film Metropolis. People will enter through a tight grey tunnel, which will become in a couple of steps in a cold grey space with high walls made of papier mâché, emulating square grey buildings. The light will come from some of the ‘windows’ - there will be a ‘roof’ at 15m not letting natural light getting in. What rapidly will call the attention is the 12 meters tall ‘Raygun Gothic Rocketship’ made by ‘5 Ton Crane’ which people can investigate even from inside and appreciate every detail of such retrofuture art work. A person will control the access in the scaffolding-staircase ensuring that there are not people crowded. This person will be dressed according with the aesthetic of the room. The music will have an important role in this area, as you can see there are not interactive installations and this is because the sensation is the most important in this space. We do not want distractions just the environment and the music will create a dystopian atmosphere in an unknown time. A good actual example of how people will feel is a room of the Jewish Museum in Germany called ‘Fallen leaves’ where people walk over ‘metal faces’, surronded by high grey walls. In the ‘Fallen leaves’ the sound created by the metal faces when stepping on them is very important to create an uncomfortable feeling. We do not want to stress people but transmit this ‘coldness’ in contrast with the rest of the rooms. Finally the visitors will pass to the next space through a black door – curtain – under a big old clock, direct reference of this space and the whole exhibition.

The Raygun Gothic Rocketship is a creation of

Specifications of Transportation & Requirements for the Rocket • The rocketship stands 40′ tall. • Gross weight (excluding rocket fuel): 13,500 lbs • Heaviest single component: 4,000 lbs • Maximum width (installed): 15′ Transportation: • The ship travels packed neatly on a single, full size (55′) flatbed trailer with no special permitting required. • Equipment: • The ship was designed for assembly with minimal heavy equipment. Actual heavy equipment needs may vary depending on the type of installation. • VR forklift • Crane with a 40′, 5 ton capacity • Boom Lift / Scissor Lift • Back-hoe / Trencher (depending on above or below-ground anchoring) • Anchor driver (depending on above or below-ground anchoring) Anchoring: • Outside, soft ground: 3 x 15,000 lb earth anchors, or 6 x 7,000 lb anchors • Outside, concrete or asphalt (location dependent) • Interior: Location dependent, please inquire for details Power: • The ship is designed to connect to any shipyard or space station power grid with ease. include 2 x 30 AMP 110v circuits.

Jewish Museum - Germany ‘Fallen leaves’

Poster of the film ‘Metropolis’

picture of the film ‘Metropolis’

Jewish Museum - Germany ‘Fallen leaves’

Rocket during Burningman 2009 photo by NK Guy

Bird´s eye view of the space

Rocket during Burningman 2009 photo by NK Guy

View of the entrance

Interior of the Rocket photo by NK Guy

View of the visitor starting the exhibition

picture of the film ‘Metropolis’

TRON 80s tunnel The first ‘tron’ tunnel is based on the first film, so it will be a dark room, much longer than wider, where the floor will be dark grey rather than black. The lines of the grid will be made by white reflective material -the light of this space will be neon lights, emphasizing the grid over the rest-. The entirely floor will be an installation which will recreate the step sound of the film every time we touch the floor, like in the staircase piano in Odenplan, Stockholm by ‘The Fun Theory’. Basically, there will be pressure sensors under every ‘tile’ of the grid, programmed to differentiate every step. The sound is always the same, just like in the film, the variations will depend only on how quick or how many people step on the floor.

Piano staircase by ‘The fun theory’

Everything - walls, floor and ceiling - will be made of mate synthetic material which will be in contrast with the another ‘Tron´s tunnel’

‘The grid’ in the film TRON

Two long Neon light tubes ‘camouflaged’ or integrated let´s say, each one along the two longest walls at 2,5m high - the tunnel is 8m tall - in the lines of the grid at the walls will illuminate this tunnel, highlighting the white lines of the grid

Space of the exhibition inspired by the film TRON

Escene of the film TRON

60s - 70s retrofuturism This area is inspired by retrofurisms of films like blade runner, star wars or the web site Retropolis. In this case, the space will be an indoor place specifically a cafe with retro decoration. In this room there will be an old television but old only in aesthetic because it will be playing the BBC tv program ‘Tomorrow´s world’. just the image, not the sound because there will be soft low gramophone music or similar in the background. There will be two installations in here, one passive that consist in a projection over a ‘window’ where we will see a retrofuture city. It will be an animation, with aereal traffic among other dayly interactions. The other one is a ‘holographic woman’ made by a mixture of projections over cristals and 3d, the best example of this is Hatsune Miku, a virtual pop start. Also, in Edinburgh airport there is another example, where in the pass control, a projection of a woman on a woman’s shape cristal informs people. But that is not all, because using the last iphone voice recognition system, ‘this woman’ will answer

Hatsune Miku, virtual pop star - hologram projection in a live concert

and inform people in real time. Basically, we join or mix the 4 elements below this text and we have our installation. The most similiar is probably the ‘hologram woman’ from British airports, but in the exhibition the machine will be hidden behind the wall, only a hole for the lens will be visible. then a cristal with the shape of the woman who has been recorded for this purpose will be behind the bar. The light behind the bar will be very low so the effect of realism will be stronger. The woman who performs the hologram has been recorded several times to get natural effect when Siri speaks.. about this woman just say that will be dressed in a retro style. Under the bar there will be and iphone connected to electricity and speakers, also a person of the staff to control everything is ok. If you had in mind to take something - drink, meal... - sorry but all is made of plastic, you will have to wait untill the end of the exhibition.

‘Hologram Woman’ in London Luton airport

Hologram of Obi Wan in one of the Star Wars films. The hologram effect will be reproduce on the woman of the exhibition

Entrance from Tron 80s tunnel next to the animated projection

Holographic woman inspired by Star Wars with siriÂ´s system, able to answer people

TRON Legacy tunnel In contrast with the TRON 80´s tunnel, this one will be different in several aspects. The floor will be black instead of dark grey and reflective. The lines of the grid will be made of white fluorescents - under the floor - and drawing squares with rounded corners instead of just vertical and horizontal lines creating the squares. Also the grid will be only in the floor while the walls will be black the first two meters and from there to the ceiling, clouds will be seen like in the film. There is an interactive installation in this tunnel, where people will be detected and projected at the wall, but what will be projected is a body shape made of white lighty lines. This figure will respond to the movements of the person while a disc will be flying along the tunnel. In case of this disc touches ‘our figure’, it will break into pieces, just like in the movie. The person who is touched by the disc, will not be recognised and projected again after 10 seconds. This will be possible thanks to the technology of ‘Kinect’, processing and projection.

Scene from the film Tron Legacy

An example and inspiration for this installation is Rafael Lozano´s work, who is continuously creating digital interactive artworks. The music that will sound in this space, will be directly influenced by the music of the film, creation of Daft Punk. So basically will be electronic/digital. Also the disc flying and boucing will produce sounds same as in the film, even whe it touches some of the ‘players’. A person dressed like in the film will show people how the installation works and also will control from the previous room from time to time to ensure that our ‘Siri’ is ok

Interactive installation of the exhibition where people is recognised and projected like a player from the film. If we do not avoid the disc flying around... game over

Steampunk Retrofuturism Just after the TRON legacy´s tunnel, will find ourselves in a steampunk atmosphere full of clock gears at the walls, hearing them in every moment reminding us again the time like in the first room but in a heavier way. In The middle or this room will be the omnipotent figure of the steampunk tree house, again courtesy of ‘5 Tone Crane’. The Tree house is not only a huge nice art work, but climbing it through the spiral stair case, we will appreciate the details of the interior and also, we have access to the second floor where our last experience is expecting us. That is right, the tree house has the perfect height to access to the second floor, where a part of the fence will be remove and made save to pass from the tree to the 2nd level. The aesthetic in the second floor will perdure until we reach the corridors. As in the first space - 20s, Metropolis, dystopian vision there is not any interactive installation because the feeling of being in a steampunk space is the most important. Therefore, the music will play an important role again, where a several desynchronized clock sounds will produce a constant melody. The decoration is very important as well where, gears, metals like bronze, and rustiness will predominate in this ‘room’. Even in the pillars, only place where will be visible and decorated as well except the heaters which already are quite steampunk. The floor will emulate sand, clear reference to Mad max, the rest is based in a mix of several retrofutures that we will specify in the Appendix. Mechanical bird part of the treehouse

Interior treehouse - Burning man 2007

Interior treehouse

Treehouse - Burning man 2007

Detail of the interior

Birdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eye view of the space

First interior design where rustiness took more importance

Steampunk tree house, access to the 2nd floor on the right of the house

Final design where gears are around the room and bronze has more presence

Create your own Retrofuture Approaching to the corridors in the 2nd floor, we will leave behind the steampunk atmosphere to get into a bright white space where an almost disturbing sound, very low, like when silence is recorded, will lead us to the ‘create your own retrofuture space’.

3D projection mapping for pS3

Few elements are real objects

A scenario can be many & any

This area of the museum above the gift shop that usually contain games and objects related with communications, will be divided in four rooms of 4m x 9m and 5 m tall. Inside of them there will be several rectangular shapes, white as well. Each room will have a touch screen just in the middle of the entrance, with an application, which will allow us to ‘decorate’ the space in front of us. How will this be possible? The touch screen will have a camera behind it, creating in the screen an augmented version of the room, which will be change by us. We could choose different elements – sofas, furniture, backgrounds, etc, even music - that will appear in the room thanks to a projector on the ceiling. The eligible elements to choose belong to the retrofutures that we have seen before and also from our actual time and more versions of retrofutures that we have not displayed in this exhibition. It will be a kind of customization of the space, and once the visitor thinks has finished it, can get inside and/or take a picture which will be stored and will give the possibility of introduce an email to send it so everyone can keep their own retrofuture.

3D projection mapping for pS3

There is not postproduction

People is ‘hidden’ to help

This installation has been spired by an Ikea app - student work -, which offers the possibility of decorating a room with augmented reality through a smartphone. Also, examples of projection mapping in theatres, sculptures and preproduction of advertisements have been seen to complete it see more in the appendix -. A person will control access to avoid crowded people, who will be dress entirle in white so if he/she gets into some of the retrofutures, will be perfectly camouflaged. Student Work: A demo of IKEA phone application. The video is produced by Dimitra a Graphic and Digital Design student in University of Greenwich.

People will stand in front of a touch screen and a white empty room...

To let several people at the same time

... to create their own retrofuture choosing different elements

There will be several shapes to recreate better peopleÂ´s retrofuture

Poster, Ticket & Launch Event The inauguration will be on Sunday 11th of March, only 100 people will be honoured to assist, divided in four groups of 25. Most of the tickets are for people involved in the exhibition and friends. Everybody will be received in a room in the Museum with food and drinks. Then the first group will start the exhibition at 11 am and the last group at 2 pm, being 45 min each visit. As a special occasion as it is, there will be more staff than usual to represent different performances in each area.

Appendix 25

Distribution of the area and development of the model The model and distribution of the exhibition have been elaborated thanks to maps of the Museum and several visits to it, to get real awareness of the space. The measurements have been carefully taken and contrast with the elements of the exhibition so they match perfectly. Some errors were found in the previous sketch up model, corrected afterwars to develop the spaces. Also, rough animation was created with Sketch up, to show the run through of the exhibition. It can be seen on tumblr - omartxoretrofuture.tumblr.com -.

Above, Photos of the connect room in the National Scottish Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Below, Photos of the model of the exhibitionâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Back to the Retrofuturesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; made with Sketch up which has place in the connect room of the National Scottish Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

20’s retrofuturism - Extra info This space has been developed quite a lot in its section so we will just add something about the resources from where the information was obtained. photos: - Rocket - NK GUY, Burning man 2009 - Model - Omar Barco with Sketch up - Metropolis - from the film - Fallen leaves - j.barton59.blogspot.com - saatchi-gallery.co.uk Rocket: - fivetoncrane.org - raygungothicrocket.com

Tron 80s tunnel - Extra info To recreate this space, after seeing this film and the new one, we wanted to enphasize differences between both films. The neon lights have been chosen because its popularity during the same time that the first film was released. That characteristic plus the sound of the interactive installation, will call the attention of the nostalgics Several examples were seen for the interactive sound installation but the Piano stair case made by ‘The fun theory’ was the best one. photos:

Neon lights - manufacturer.com Model - Omar Barco with Sketch up Tron - from the film Piano stair case - thefuntheory.com

60s - 70 retrofuturism - Extra info As it has been mentioned before, this space is a mix of several retrofutures created around 60s & 70s. Inspiration: - Star Wars - Blade Runner - thrilling-tales.webomator.com - Retropolis Photos

Window animation - hrilling-tales.webomator.com Model - Omar Barco with Sketch up Hatsune - forums.fanime.com Hologram woman - biometrics4you.com Obin Wan - from the films iphone - apple.com

The interactive installation of this space can be kind of a fantasy but ‘Siri’ is already a reallity, and creating a data base/app with information about the exhibition from where ‘she’ can get access, the difficult part is done. The projection will run/speak thanks to a sensor to detect when someone is close and another one connected with the iphone to detect when ‘Siris’ talks and performs.

Tron Legacy tunnel - Extra info This tunnel, more ‘modern’ than the last one as it has been described before, just detail a little more the inspiration for this installation, especially Rafael Lozano’s Work. ‘Hemmer pulse’ is probably one of my favourite works of Rafael but the one that really has inspired my in this occasion are Frequency and Volume. Also the mirror that detect peoples eyes to expulse smoke from them. Photos:

- Model - Omar Barco with Sketch up - Tron Legacy - from the film - Rafael Lozano - theguardian.co.uk by Leon Neal

Steampunk retrofuturism - Extra info Inspiration: - Mad max - Ciberpunk - Steampunk - Dune Photos: - Steampunk treehouse steampunktreehouse.com engineeredartworks.com flirck.com almostscientific.com - Model - Omar Barco with Sketch up Once more ‘Five Ton Crane’ are the creators of the main ‘attraction’ of the room with their treehouse. Nowadays is in Milton, Delaware at Dogfish Head Craft Brewery headquarters. Here is more information about the structure which can vary depending of the elements we want to incorporate and also match with the dimensions of the ‘connect room’

Create your own - Extra info In this space projection mapping is the protagonist due to its potential create several and different spaces in just one. I put several examples on tumblr but the videos for ps3 video store - great films fill rooms - are the best from my point of view. The discovery of ‘Ikonic’ the App Ikea was great, even after now that was a student work. Reading some of the comments about the video in Youtube, it results that even Ikea ‘likes’ the idea, who know if now they are working on something like that. Photos:

Model - Omar Barco with Sketch up Retrofuture room - verabedageen.iphpbb3.com (forum) App Ikea - youtbe video by Dimitra ps3 video store - great films fill rooms

Dimensions: - Total height 40’ tall - Trunk height 20 - Trunk dia, 2 (5’ total trunk dia. with outer skin) - Total spread of branches 40’ dia. - Main structural support branches dia.: 15’ - Tree House component off of the ground: 20 - House dimensions: 15’ hexagonal / 12’ tall

Regarding the design The design of this book, the boards, posters and tickets has been treated like ‘old files’. This is because the whole exhibitions is about futures that never were, ‘old designs’ of how we would be nowadays. With that idea in mind everything was developed, trying in every moment to keep continuity but avoiding repetition, playing with the design of every space. The style of the logo is clearly recognizable by anyone interested in this exhibition, also the name itself. The font and the structure belongs to the film ‘Back to the future’ simplyfing it at only one ink and adding the ‘Raygun gothic rocket’ of ‘5 Tone Crane’ unequivocal symbol of retrofuture.