Hasta La Ideas

Digital agency Saint and Karsten Schmidt have created a generative marketing campaign for the V&A’s new show of digital art and design, Decode. And you can make your own version…

V&A Decode generative identity from postspectacular on Vimeo.

Saint commissioned Schmidt to create an ever-changing open source artwork (above) that will be used for the exhibition identity (a detailed description of the process is on Schmidt’s site here. Documentary pics here). Visitors to the Decode website can then interact with the piece and create their own version, either at a surface level by manipulating Schmidt’s piece, or at a deeper level by downloading the open source code (here). The visitors’ efforts can then be posted to the Decode site. Check out the Recode gallery to see the submissions so far – here’s one by Austrian artist Lia who is also exhibiting in the show:

Recode Decode by Lia from Victoria and Albert Museum on Vimeo.

Recode Decode by Lia from Victoria and Albert Museum on Vimeo.

A selection of the best will then be featured on digital advertising screens on the London Underground.

A review of Decode will appear in the January issue of CR, out on December 18, but in the meantime here are a few highlights:

Daniel Brown’s On Growth and Form at the entrance to the show. An ever-changing array of exotic digital flowers is created using images drawn from the V&A’s collection

Decode’s exhibits are not confined to the gallery – Jason Bruges Studio’s Mirror Mirror (commissioned for the show) is located in the pond of the v&a garden. A group of light panels each contain a camera to detect the presence of visitors walking into the garden. The visitors’ movements are captured and displayed across the water

Also commissioned specially for Decode is bit.code by Julius Popp, which sits in the Museum’s Grand Entrance. Rotating tracks form words drawn from a variety of websites monitored by the work

The sound-reactive Dune by Daan Roosegaarde (photo: Daan Roosegaarde) which visitors to Decode pass through on their way into the show

Daniel Rozin’s Weave Mirror uses 768 motorised laminated c-shaped prints which go from light to dark. The user stands in front of a screen: the shadow they cast behind them is then translated into a ghostly portrait on the Weave Mirror as each element whirrs and clanks into place acting as a mechanical pixel

Decode is at the V&A’s Porter Gallery until April 11