ROBERT
ZACH
VISUAL
DESIGN
Video
Work
About
Photo
Concept
AEROSKOP
Exhibition Design
The 'Aeroskop' (ancient greek for air + looking) is a multimedia based spatial installation concept for the german aerospace center in Cologne, the DLR.
It is communicating DLR's research on wind energy to the public who is given the chance to grasp the topics matter of wind forecast through 'gamification'.
At the objects surface you can see a newly designed weather map with a wind farm at its center. One can observe weather conditions of the last three days within a radius of 1500 km. These include topography, wind speed and direction, air pressure, humidity and temperature.
The data is taken from alternating wind farms all over the world. Based on this data users can forecast wind conditions for the following day.
In reality those predictions are used for selling the electric energy produced by the wind farms.
More precise forecasts mean more profitable energy sales. If production is less than predicted, additional energy must be bought expensively from other producers to meet customers demand. If production is higher than predicted, the wind farm owner needs to pay a fine for overcharging the electric grid.
This principal of prediction is used for several game concepts. It allows the DLR to explain their field of research using various prepared wind scenarios.
One additional use is a long term game which can be played as a Massive Multiplayer Online Game. Every player gets assigned to a wind farm with one wind turbine at the center of his map. The points earned by giving forecasts for the next day can be used to upgrade your turbine with height, blade length, turbine efficiency or functions like automatic pitch angle correction.
A single game-cycle lasts four weeks and includes three difficulty settings. After one month every player gets a new wind farm at a new location following a mandatory one week break where the player can only observe the current weather conditions.
During the game, the player is rewarded with high scores and game statistics. He can compare his forecast to other players or to real world data.
Concept and Visualisation
Robert Balke, Inga Sieberichs & Robert Zach
Information Design class with
Prof. Dipl.- Des. Eva Vitting