Laurent Mignonneau, Michael Shamiyeh, Christa
Sommerer
Artists who create interactive systems and artistic
interface designs have begun to look for new display
possibilities. For this reason façade’s of contemporary
buildings have been largely investigated as a sort of
membrane for the display of interactive digital content.
These facades often make use of intrusive systems such as
LED displays, monitor walls, or light bulb systems that
fully cover the buildings to achieve large scale image
displays. While LEDs are very expensive, monitor walls
hardly work at daylight situations, and light bulb systems
have only limited display capabilities. Equally we may
understand that the mode of apprehension of media
facades has changed tremendously compared to traditional
types of building surfaces.
As a team of two media artists (Laurent Mignonneau and
Christa Sommerer) and an architect (Michael Shamiyeh)
we investigated the potential of modern media facades as
membranes. In 2008 we developed and patented a system
called Solar Display, which provides a novel, modular,
self-powered, environmentally friendly, and non-intrusive
display possibility for media content on large facades.
Solar Display is currently being installed at the University
of Art and Industrial Design façade at the main square of
Linz, Austria.
The core element of the
system is a grid of self-powered solar pixels. Each solar
pixel unit consists of a
movable element, that is covered with solar cells. All Solar
Pixels are mounted on a flexible grid. The amount of Solar
Pixels, their size and their fixation pattern on the grid is
modular, depending on the overall size of the media
façade and the over-all image resolution that should be
achieved. The smaller the Solar Pixels and the larger the
overall surface, the finer the resolution of the whole
display can be.
The overall image effect is achieved when the various
Solar Pixels are variably inclined, seen from far this
creates different levels of grayscales, as each Solar Pixel
can represent levels of white to dark depending on its
inclination angle.
One of the most challenging part of designing
an
outdoor display is to produce an image that will go against
the sunlight. Facades are usually exposed to the sun to
take advantage of the heat it produces. The conventional
light driven displays are usually consuming a lot of
electricity to produce good brightness and contrast that can
compete with the sun’s brightness, and by doing so they
also produce a large amount of wasted heat and
electricity. Compared to LED displays and monitor based
systems our Solar Display provides an alternative by using
the sunlight instead of working against it.
Solar energy is harvested by each Solar Pixel to power the
electronic circuits, the motor and the communication unit
in an efficient way and by storing some extra energy for
times when sunlight is not available. Sunlight is also used
for controlling each Solar Pixel’s brightness shading
depending on its orientation angle and inclination. This
allows us to run the display in full daylight and direct
sunlight conditions.
All Solar Pixel units communicate between
each
other via embedded infrared communication units. The
Solar Display itself consists of a sufficient amount of Solar
Pixel units, which, seen from far, create an overall image
that can display simple texts or images, advertisements,
announcement or more artistic media content. Solar Pixel
oriented towards the ground appear darker while oriented
towards the sky they appear lighter. A central computer
manages the incoming data, coming either from the local
hard drives, cell phones, cameras, SMS, or from the
Internet. All these data can be processed by our system
and sent as inclination instructions to each single Solar
Pixel. The overall effect, when seen from a distance, is a
whole image, a text or a moving animation or interactive
content on the Solar Display façade.
In addition to its display function our Solar
Display,
can also work as a shading system. As each Solar Pixel
unit can be controlled individually and centrally, they can
for example be oriented in such a way as to only block out
light at the areas needed. Window areas can for example
be covered and closed to block out light while the rest of
the façade can be revealed or opposite, windows can be
revealed at the rest of the façade can be covered. In this
way our Solar Display façade is adaptable to the various
needs such as display functions as well as shading
functions.
In Linz historical buildings façades at the main square are
protected under the law of historical monuments. There is
a long historical discourse of the function of building
facades. Our approach is one of protection of cultural
identity and sensibility towards cultural heritage. Our Solar
Display system was conceived as to not destroy or fully
obstruct the neo-classical façade behind; rather, each
Solar Pixel unit leaves a certain amount of the original
façade being seen, depending on the Solar Pixel’s
inclination. For example, when all the pixels are being
oriented towards the sky, the original façade is entirely
visible. To not destroy the neo-classical façade, a light
weight frame was designed to function like a curtain that
can be installed easily and can be adapted to the surface
and purpose needed. As each Solar Pixel is independent,
the Solar Display can be easily extended to very large
surfaces without the use of extra cables and heavy
mounting casings.
In the images, from top to bottom:
The Solar Display featuring text. The system is being
installed at the University of Art and Industrial Design
façade in Linz Austria in 2009.
The Solar Display used in the layering function. The
original neo-classical façade is still visible while only parts
of the façade are being used for display functions.
The Solar Pixel unit.
The movable Solar Pixel unit at two levels of inclination.
All the photos ©
2008, Mignonneau, Shamiyeh and Sommerer.
Solar Display: a self-powered media facade for Linz
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- Loredana Mascheroni
- 25 November 2008