Herbarium, Iso Omena Service Centre, Matinkylä, Espoo, permanently installed
Interactive installation on a large Multitaction screen
Digital files, custom software
Heidi Tikka & Juho Jouhtimäki © 2016
Commissioned by the Espoo City Library
Herbarium consists of an image database of plants documented in a Finnish forest over a year’s cycle, an algorithm animating the images in real time, and an interface enabling touch based engagement with animated events
Herbarium is based on the idea of a virtual landscape, which actualizes on the Multitaction screen in different configurations. We looked for ways to produce a moment of enchantment for the participant who discovers his or her embodied agency as the creative source for the visual event.
If the algorithmic moving image event mode foregrounds the nonhuman aspect of landscape representation, through the gradual change in the vantage point, the interactive event mode aims at bringing the human body back into the visual experience. Through touch interface, the generated landscape compositions become malleable, as images can be scaled, repositioned, and renewed endlessly.
The image database consists of five folders of images for winter, spring, midsummer, late summer and autumn. The images generated at the touch interface appear in a particular order, following the gradual transition between forest and meadow biotopes.
Credits
Concept, production, photography, editing, Heidi Tikka
Programming, Juho Jouhtimäki
Interaction design and development, Heidi Tikka and Juho Jouhtimäki
Commissioned by
Espoo City Library, Ellen Karhulampi