interaction:

CES Las Vegas 2019

As one of the most important events in the IT industry, visitors flock annually to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Expectations of the new innovations are always high. And with jangled nerves at its side, Mercedes-Benz was ready to exceed them. This year’s presence features a uniquely designed, intelligent exhibition booth with interactive, real-time visualization dramatized on a LED panorama backwall. Impact aside, this element serves as a powerful reminder that in a digital show – the dialog between brand and visitor remains just as strong.

From a staging perspective this is also a first. The large-format LED wall allows the presenter to control it via an iPad app. The backend software, originally developed for computer games, is so powerful that the content and animations displayed can be input in real-time. Hardware and software are programmed to work in tandem to deliver an LED projection twice the resolution of that of a digital cinema. And they create a live, dynamic perspective no matter where the audience are. With visitor-generated content visualized dynamically, real-time feedback and agile topic selection – the stand is alive with energy and audience-engagement. And this, in turn, creates an experience that no visitor to the Mercedes-Benz stand will forget.

And that’s exactly the goal. To put experience and digital communication into the heart of the Mercedes-Benz’ presence. And it’s not just the LED walls that embody it. Under the iconic brand element “Silver Flow” – represented as a floating textile lamella structure with atmospheric lighting – visitors are invited to experience a digital Mercedes-Benz brand in live form. Anyone wanting to dive deeper into the mechanics of the car- like the infotainment system MBUX (Mercedes-Benz User Experience), the battery-powered EQC, or the new Mercedes-Benz mobility ecosystem – has the opportunity to do just this in the experience area. Here interactive exhibits can be explored individually or explained in person at the dialog table.

Mercedes-Benz at the innovation show

HopfenBierGut

Hops and beer – the town of Spalt (south of Nuremberg) lies at the heart of a German hop-growing area that is not only steeped in tradition, but also home to a truly unique brewery.

A 500-year-old granary in the town houses a modern museum brimming with interactive installations. The features in the museum were given a neutral design to blend in with each room and accentuate the ambience. This was achieved by building on different perspectives, leading the eye and thus allowing the two-floor exhibition to add a touch of authenticity and presence to the history of the town. To appeal to visitors’ perceptions, their senses are stimulated with hands-on exhibits, each of which falls into one of four display themes. Actively immersing visitors in the experience helps expand the horizons of each piece, taking the exhibition to a new level.

Modern media are used to introduce each theme, starting with an oversized interactive folding map that takes visitors on a virtual tour of the town. In the same way that the annual cycle of hop growing dictates the rhythm of the town and its inhabitants, a ‘panorama of the year of a hop’ brings its natural cycle to life with a 180° video. Visitors are accompanied on a journey through time, tracing the twelve months of the hop in a traditional town like Spalt. In the section focusing solely on beer brewing, visitors can walk into a huge brew kettle and learn about the bio-chemical processes that take place. An interactive beer table explores the beer cultures of the different countries to which Spalt hops are exported and where these unique hops find their way into brewmasters’ recipes. To visualise this process, a beer bottle is placed on a sensor, activating a virtual journey of exploration on the media screen – a voyage that covers the entire table top. The table is then laid, with a treasure trove of interesting facts and anecdotes on the culture and history of beer in each country.

Hop and beer museum, Spalt

Christmas in Times of War

Temporary Exhibition

AUTOWERK

KonzernForum of the Autostadt

Marine Life – TUI MS3

Interactive Exhibition on Board the Cruise Liner

Archaeopteryx Examined

Media Installation

Carnival of Hell

The First World War and the Senses

iF design exhibition Hamburg

Permanent Exhibition

Hohenschönhausen Memorial

My rating

5/10

The permanent exhibition in the former National Security central remand prison of the former East Germany focuses on the biographies and personal experiences of the victims. The layout of the Memorial draws a clear distinction between the authentic location as a »carrier of history« and the documentation and exhibition level. The medial information layers stand out from the historical building structure and distinguish between the authentic and the new.

The exhibition is divided into a Prologue, a Victims’ Area, a Perpetrators’ Area and an Epilogue. First of all, a medially staged abstract model of the prison complex is used to distinguish the various stages of detention. This introduction is accompanied by auditory witnesses of the inmates. The large Victims’ Area Room exemplifies on the basis of five focal topics the fates of the prisoners. Large, illuminated panels superimposed with projections define the space, shed light on the topic area and display authentic locations on the themes. In the subsequent, largely preserved Perpetrators’ Area, the use of constructional elements is reduced to a walkable bridge, on which display cases containing staged objects are placed. The surfaces conveyed remain clearly readable for the visitor and are subtly staged with typography projections. Following the tour down into the cellar, the visitor experiences an authentic impression of the so-called “submarine”, a windowless prison section. Here the encroachments of the exhibition design have been scaled back even more. Only a single cell is medially staged to be able to didactically draw attention to the key facts. Next to it is an interactive monitor, which provides the stories of the former inmates in the cells. The Epilogue ends off the tour with present-day statements of the victims.

Permanent Exhibition