Künstler-Magazin Dezember 1997/Januar 1998

The theme of Michael Hoyer‘s 10 projector multivision is as old as humanity itself and as topical as never before: the transmission of messages – telecommunication. Important milestones in the development of communications engineering are presented, visualized and commented on a central communication surface and two smaller projection surfaces with a colorful and accentuated tableau. Authentic image material and historic drawings show fire symbols and characters, telegraphs, semaphores, Morse devices, telephones, modern television transmission systems and computer-based communication technology. Laser animations complement the communication offers, underscore and explain important issues, and enrich the slide projections with an attractive component. The project, completed during the second practical semester in the course media informatics, University of Applied Sciences Furtwangen, under the tutelage of Professor Martin Aichele, is used at Lobo electronic in Aalen as a presentation for clients. There, Michael Hoyer had produced the multivision as part of his internship. To control the ten KODAK EKTAPRO 7000 projectors and the Lobo lasers, Lobo electronic, one of the leading companies in the show laser industry, had developed a special software (at the university, the show is presented with conventional control technology and without the use of lasers; laser animations are simulated with line-based graphic animations).
However, the topic “communication technology” was far from completed for Michael Hoyer with the presentation and installation of the multivision in Aalen. “I am studying media informatics, so there is nothing more fitting than also presenting the topic digitally.” This way, the interesting information material is made accessible for an even larger target audience. “While the brilliance, luminosity and high resolution of slides is still unsurpassed, significant efforts are involved in a three-field multivision with 10 projectors,” Michael Hoyer is convinced. In a first step, all 360 individual motives of the show had to be digitized and processed. Michael Hoyer’s medium of choice: The affordable and flexible KODAK Photo CD. Michael Hoyer presented his idea to Kodak in Stuttgart and was given the opportunity to digitize his slides as part of a ‘mini internship’ at Kodak in Stuttgart, as the support and promotion of talent is an important aspect of Kodak’s company philosophy. Michael Hoyer was enthusiastic: “How often do you get the opportunity to scan for yourself and observe the digitization process? An amazing experience.” The results of his work: A documentation of all shots, 90% of which were personally reproduced and photographed by Michael Hoyer in the Postmuseum in Berlin, on the topic communication technology on 4 KODAK photo CDs. Now, all image data is ready for digital post-processing. For the upcoming semester, Michael Hoyer is planning an interactive presentation of the topic ‘communication technology’ “on a purely digital basis”. However, the exact concept is not yet set in stone. A short demonstration on KODAK portfolio CDs is also in the planning stages, as the aspiring media informatics specialist definitely wants to continue working with innovative KODAK photo CD technology.