Nanika Website

andreas — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:30:24 +0000

As usual, updating the site ends up last on the to-do list.

We’ve been quite busy the last couple of months. We’ve created software for Nokia to render movies of some of the interactive work we have made for them, for deployment in countries where SMS is prohibitively expensive and to support some of the languages we didn’t get around to last time.

Currently we are creating an interactive window display for the Diesel store in Milan, a small Phase 1 of that should be installed in the next weeks or so and as usual there are a few things in the pipeline that are kinda sorta confirmed, but I don’t want to jinx it.

The D&AD nominations should be public any day now, I took part in the jury for “Digital Installations”, it was excellent fun and, as I imagine is the case every year, there was some great work on display.

Hana

andreas — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:40:46 +0000

A self-funded project, Hana is about giving something back to the computers that help me do my work every day.

I wanted to give them a new experience and the furthest I could think of from a computer was a flower, so I decided to create them a piece of software that would help them dream about flowers.

The idea is that no process of creating the flowers is hidden from the computer, no bitmaps are used and as few human decisions are hardwired into the software as possible.

If the computer had the capability, it should be able to think and feel it’s way through as much of the creation of the flowers as possible.

Toca Me 2008

andreas — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:58:07 +0000

Thank you so much to the Toca Me crew, I had an absolutely amazing time and so did everyone I spoke to.

The presentations gave me a lot of food for thought, the diversity of them was very well thought out, and I met some wonderfully talented people I hope to see a lot more of in the future.

One thing I think I forgot to mention in my talk, I did rush through it a little bit due to nervousness, was that you can download “For All Seasons” from

http://www.hahakid.net

I haven’t quite decided what to do with “Hana” yet.

Long overdue pre-update.

andreas — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 12:54:42 +0000

When we made this website, for some reason ease-to-update kind ended up last on the list, big mistake.

We’re gathering documentation on the work we did last year for Wieden+Kennedy/Nokia on the “Meet Your City” campaign and we’re about to finish a self funded project called “Hana”, so that should be online soon.

Also we’d like to feature more of the fun R&D that we do, which might take a redesign of the site, so we’ll see how that goes.

If you are in Munich on the 23rd of Feb, we’ll be doing a presentation at the TOCA ME design conference and we’ll be at OFFF Lisbon May 8th onwards!

Wired Nextfest

andreas — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 19:18:44 +0000

We’ve been fortunate enough to have been chosen by Wired Magazine to exhibit at their annual Nextfest Event, September 13th to 16th 2007 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

If you want to come and say hello we will be in the Future of Communication pavilion showing Wind and SwimmingMessageSystem.

Nanika Lightbox Prototype

andreas — Wed, 30 May 2007 09:41:38 +0000

A couple of weeks ago we reached a milestone in a project we are calling the “Nanika Lightbox”, we’ll think of a new name soon.

The aim of the project is to build a platform for us that we can use to sell digital artworks in the future. We want to make it easy to own and display digital artworks/toys and essentially remove the computer from the perspective of the owner, apart from the odd remote control panel for the pieces where customisation makes sense.

We’ve got a prototype now and we’ve started writing the framework we will build our future “lightbox” work on, the prototype box can be seen below running an old piece called “TimeVideo”. If you might be interested in owning one get in touch.

Internship 2007

andreas — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:32:17 +0000

Hello.

Nanika is around a year old now and we are getting to the point where it makes sense to take on an intern, we like our expansion real nice and slow.

We are looking for someone with strong design skills, a good eye for the devilish details, great ideas for interactive work and lots of enthusiasm.

Knowledge of the various Adobe packages and platform independence are a given, a bit of 3D experience wouldn’t hurt.

Strong Google skills are a must.

You will have at least dabbled in Flash programming or Processing, good Java or C++ skills would be a dream come true.

If you also happen to be good with electronics I think we should probably swap places.

You’ll be working with our small team of 2 ( 1, 0.5, 0.5 ) from the Hi-ReS! London office on various in-house things and whatever projects we happen to have on at the time, some very interesting stuff coming up.

If you are interested send your application to:

info ((at)) nanikawa.com

with “Internship 07″ in the subject line.

Fashion has a new face.

andreas — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 12:08:57 +0000

We’ve just finished a small project for Channel 4 UK to promote their upcoming show “Ugly Betty”.

It uses face detection technology to superimpose the new face of fashion onto people viewing the installation, we should have some documentation up, ehrm, “shortly”.

Ugly Betty

andreas — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 16:29:48 +0000

The TV show “Ugly Betty” takes place in the superficial world of high fashion and beauty, so for our installation in the Channel 4 Uk building we created a Magic Mirror that transforms whoever looks into it into the shows central character using face tracing technology.

Think “Being John Malkovich”.

Fiiinally!

andreas — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 12:17:25 +0000

Our new site is in place, took a bit longer than expected (doesn’t everything?).

We’ll be adding more content over the next couple of days, mostly old projects, but we should have documentation done for some new ones fairly soon.

About

andreas — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 16:54:35 +0000

Nanika is a company founded with the aim to explore interaction between man and machine beyond traditional input and output.

Contact:

8-9 Rivington Place

London EC2A 3BA | England

Dial England 44 (0) 207 729 3090

info@nanikawa.com

Showreel 2005

andreas — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 15:37:52 +0000

Hero Images

andreas — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 15:37:30 +0000

SeeMyStore

andreas — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 15:40:29 +0000

A piece for Nokia’s Flagship Store project, which sees high-end retail experiences opened in shopping capitals around the world.
The Nokia Flagship stores are all designed around a very impressive AV system, consisting of anything up to 42 high resolution LCD screens, arranged in groups of up to 18 in a row, with floor to ceiling LED panels able to change into any colour. Needless to say it’s a fun canvas to work with.

What we wanted to do with this piece was to give people visiting or simply passing by the store at night control over this canvas.

The piece is interactive via SMS, allowing people to request colours or abstract scenes consisting of motion and colour via their messages.

The system always precedes an action with the command responsible for it and constantly gives examples.

The observant user will quickly discover that he or she can combine colours with scene names to change colours for the scene and enter custom colours via RGB, giving him or her a lot of control over the lightshow.

SwimmingMessageSystem

andreas — Wed, 10 May 2006 15:39:02 +0000

Wind

andreas — Wed, 10 May 2006 06:31:29 +0000

A piece for Nokia’s Flagship Store project, which sees high-end retail experiences opened in shopping capitals around the world.
One of the overarching concepts with all our work for the Nokia Flagship stores has been to take peoples own content and make something beautiful for them out if it.

This piece, together with SwimmingMessageSystem, is an attempt to bring a bit of nature into the store, the concept of this particular piece being a wind blowing through the store taking messages submitted by users via SMS and flying them across the different landscapes.

In it’s original incarnation the landscape is something like a magic forest, but the idea is to also make versions specific to the locations that stores open up, like the wheat field below for the Chicago store.

The piece is implemented as real time software running on anything from 24 to 42 screens, depending on the store layout, providing a seamless canvas.

Motion Wall

andreas — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:19:16 +0000

We were hired by Projector to take part in the Interactive Interior project for the Sony-owned high-end fashion and gadget store Beyes in the exclusive Omotesando Hills shopping centre in Tokyo.

The store is equipped with a projection system that acts as an interactive wallpaper in the store, cycling daily through the different pieces by the contributing designers.

“Motion Wall” takes its inspiration from whatever it is that makes fire or smoke so fascinating and relaxing to watch.

It uses the motion in front of the screen to generate a never ending swirl of colors, letting visitors participate or simply enjoy what is created by the motion of passers-by.

http://www.beyes.jp/editwall/
http://www.projector.jp/
http://www.beyes.jp/

EveryGallery

andreas — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 15:40:59 +0000

A piece for Nokia’s Flagship Store project, which sees high-end retail experiences opened in shopping capitals around the world.

EveryGallery uses the Nokia Flagship stores as a gallery space, blending the traditional with the contemporary, emulating the picture frames of a traditional gallery, but filling it with the work of the virtual artist while it is being painted.

The AV system in a Nokia Flagship store consist of anything from 28 to 42 high-resolution LCD screens with up to 18 of them placed next to each other acting as a single canvas, depending on the layout of the particular store.
Therefore the piece is implemented as an application that accepts a folder of images as content that it proceeds to render as a set of movies suited for the unusually wide canvas, allowing easy updates with new and relevant content.

LiquidCanvas

andreas — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 15:38:59 +0000

A piece for Nokia’s Flagship Store project, which sees high-end retail experiences opened in shopping capitals around the world.

LiquidCanvas is a piece built to create an ambient background for the stores.
It uses selected images and melts them together with flowers and butterflies to create never ending organic forms and colours.

The AV system in a Nokia Flagship store consist of anything from 28 to 42 high-resolution LCD screens with up to 18 of them placed next to each other acting as a single canvas, depending on the layout of the particular store.

Therefore the piece is implemented as an application that accepts a folder of images as content that it proceeds to render as a set of movies suited for the unusually wide canvas, allowing easy updates with new and relevant content.