Research Projects: AEC WorldBeat Exhibit
WorldBeat is an interactive, computer-based exhibit about computers and music. It demonstrates how computers can help you playing, improvising, composing, conducting, listening to, and learning about music.
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WorldBeat was designed and installed as a permanent exhibit for the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), a "technology museum of the future" in Upper Austria's capital Linz. The AEC opened its doors to the public in September 1996. The AEC shows how information technology changes the way we live, work, communicate, and relax. It also became the new home of the renowned annual Ars Electronica Festival.
The WorldBeat exhibit was located on the AEC's second floor called KnowledgeNet. This floor contained a number of exhibits dealing with future ways of computer-supported learning and working.
In 1996, WorldBeat was rated a top three exhibit (most interesting and easy to use) in a large-scale visitors poll carried out by the Ars Electronica Center, alongside two far more expensive virtual reality systems.
In 1998, WorldBeat received the Multimedia Transfer Award as one of the top nine academic software products selected from more than 150 contestants from all over Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Publications
- Jan Borchers. WorldBeat: Designing A Baton-Based Interface for an Interactive Music Exhibit. In Proceedings of the ACM CHI'97 International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Atlanta, Georgia), pages 131-138, ACM, New York, March 1997.
