CLIENT: VOLKSWAGEN FOUNDATION
ROLE: 3D (MODELING, ANIMATION, COMPOSITING), CONCEPT DESIGN
COMMISSIONED BY: TILT PICTURES

REFERENCE: WWW.DARWIN-ORCHIDS.COM

Credits (short):
Direction: Ralph Heinsohn
Content and Storyboard: Ralph Heinsohn, Dr. Martin Nickol
Artists: Ralph Heinsohn, Michel Magens, Julia Wolf, Joachim Perschbacher, Bastian Böhm
Music and Sound: Sven Lütgen
Voice-over artists: Paul De Decker, Prof. Dr. Christoph Gutknecht, Monika Hein, Andreas Hofer
for full credits see: darwin-orchids.com

This 3D fulldome show presents the fascinating world of evolution biology. It is an introduction to the largest and most varied family of plants on earth and to the life and work of Mr. Charles Darwin, who carried out intensive research on this family of plants. The story about Charles Darwin, his botany research and the evolution theory moreover has been packed into a stunning world of animated origami paper.

For the planetarium show, I created several scenes in 3D. Including Darwin’s stylized journey which was made ​​entirely of paper, the composition of the “orchid-tricks” – a mixture of live video and 3D scenery and the typographic scene of the genetic inheritance at the end of the show.
The show was awarded three times – with the iF Award, the Red Dot Award and the DDC Award “Gute Gestaltung 11 – Gold”.

CLIENT: CAU – CHRISTIAN-ALBRECHTS-UNIVERSITÄT ZU KIEL
ROLE: ART DIRECTION, GAME PLAY, INFORMATION DESIGN, INTERFACE DESIGN, INTERACTION DESIGN

REFERENCE: WWW.ECOOCEAN.DE

Credits:
Art Direction: Michel Magens
Software Development: Dennis Nissen
Scientific concept and project development: Martin Quaas, Till Requate, Rudi Voss, Jörn Schmidt

The primary goal of this computer game is to demonstrate the common pool problem to the interested public. 4 players have the target to achieve as much points as possible by catching fish. All players rely on the same fish stock and therefore compete for the resource, as given in common pool resources. The game is parameterized in a way that the fish stock will be depleted very soon, if all players catch as much as they can. Only by communicating and sticking to common rules, a sustainable, higher overall catch can be reached in the game.
Winner of the “Out of the Box” Award at the ASC in France.

My job was the conception and realization of the design and gameplay of ecoOcean.

CLIENT: THE FUTURE OCEAN
ROLE: ART DIRECTION, CONTENT, INFORMATION DESIGN, INTERFACE DESIGN, INTERACTION DESIGN

REFERENCE: WWW.OZEAN-DER-ZUKUNFT.DE

Credits:
Art Direction: Michel Magens, Tom Duscher
Software: Chris Engler, Jan Kiecksee, Jens Ewald, Heinrich Löwe
Design: Michel Magens, Chris Engler, Jan Kiecksee, Tom Duscher
Project Management: Manfred Schulz, Tom Duscher, Annika Wallaschek
Construction: Manfred Schulz, Julia Fuchs, Erik Neubert, Fa.Muhlack

“Catch me, I’m an information” communicate the floating words. With his hands the visitors of the table touches the glass surface and grabs the typographical swarm who has just awakened his interest. Aligned with white lines that look like delicate probe of marine animals, spread of secondary information will be visible. Text, images and films on various subjects can be detected by the visitor.
The Ocean Explorer is an interactive table projection. Up to twelve visitors can view texts, films and animation on different topics. With headphones, visitors can also listen to the scientists under discussion. The five meters long and 120 centimeters wide, multi-touch table allows visitors to fish out information such as from a virtual pool of water and even go on an expedition themselves.

My job was the conception and realization of the design and content for the Future OceanExplorer.

Developed during my studies at Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design
ROLE: 2D + 3D MOTION GRAPHICS, SCRIPT-DEVELOPMENT

REFERENCE: WWW.ICH-QUADRAT.DE

ICH² (Me to the power of 2) is an interactive dance performance especially developed for fulldome projection as used in modern digital planetariums. The performance combines expressive modern dance and 360° interactive motion graphics. In this way ICH² is a very unique piece of the emerging genre called Digital Theatre, in which digital media technology enables alterable and imersive stage settings.
Nominated for the “Digital Sparks Award 2008″

My job was to design and implement several 3D scenes which has to be understood as digital stage sets for the planetarium show. Together with the whole team I developed the script of the show.

Developed during my studies at Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design (Kiel)
ROLE: INFORMATION-/INTERACTION DESIGN, 2D MOTION GRAPHICS

Credits:
Interface Concept, Motion Design: Michel Magens
Supervision: Prof. Tom Duscher
Sound: Sven Lütgen

The practical aim of TANK (german: Reservoir) is to design an interface that mediates the complex interactions between ocean and climate. The design is based on various natural phenomena of the deep sea.
The thesis TANK is an interactive table projection which was conceived on the basis of multi-touch technology.

CLIENT: CLUSTER OF EXCELLENCE “THE FUTURE OCEAN”
ROLE: INFORMATION DESIGN, EXHIBITION DESIGN

REFERENCE: WWW.OZEAN-DER-ZUKUNFT.DE

Credits:
Idea, Concept: Michel Magens
3D-Modeling, Management 3D-Plotting: Christian Costoiu

The two models of coccolithophores show an intact and a weakened protozoa. Because of acidification the weakened protozoa can no longer form his bowl properly.
I chose this model to make the difficult process of ocean acidification more understandable.

Ocean acidification is the name given to the ongoing decrease in the pH and increase in acidity of the Earth’s oceans, caused by the uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Generally speaking when the carbon molecules in the air above seawater increase by four molecules one will diffuse into seawater. About a quarter of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere goes into the sea.
Although the natural absorption of CO2 by the world’s oceans helps mitigate the climatic effects of anthropogenic emissions of CO2, it is believed that the resulting decrease in pH will have negative consequences, primarily for oceanic calcifying organisms. These span the food chain from autotrophs to heterotrophs and include organisms such as coccolithophores, corals, foraminifera, echinoderms, crustaceans and molluscs. As ocean pH falls, so does the concentration of this ion, and when carbonate becomes undersaturated, structures made of calcium carbonate are vulnerable to dissolution.

CLIENT: CLUSTER OF EXCELLENCE “THE FUTURE OCEAN”
ROLE: INFORMATION DESIGN, EXHIBITION DESIGN

REFERENCE: WWW.OZEAN-DER-ZUKUNFT.DE

The Cluster of Excellence “The Future Ocean” is a group of 120 scientists from 20 institutes in Kiel: The Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences IFM-GEOMAR, the Christian-Albrechts-Universität, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design. The task of our team is to design and implement project-related exhibitions which allows an emotional approach to the scientific topics of marine science.

Since 2006, I developed various digital installations for “The Future Ocean”.

CLIENT: CLUSTER OF EXCELLENCE “THE FUTURE OCEAN”
ROLE: SCREENDESIGN

REFERENCE: WWW.OZEAN-DER-ZUKUNFT.DE

Credits:
Screendesign: Michel Magens
Idea, Concept: Christian Costoiu
Programming: Christian Engler

In the fish-sizes game, users have the choice between three different-sized fish of a species (there are also different species). Depending on the size of the fish laid on, the accompanying text appears. This tells the user whether the “captive” fish has already the correct size to be taken from the sea. The users learn that only large, mature fish should be caught, which have already reproduced themselves.
The fish are prepared with RFID-chips. Each signal is assigned to a different result on the screen.

My job was the conception and design of the result-screens of the fish-sizes game.

CLIENT: DR. OTTO TRAINING & CONSULTING
ROLE: INFORMATION DESIGN, EXHIBITION DESIGN

Credits:
Information and Exhibition Design: Julia Wolf, Hana Sedelmayer, Michel Magens
Construction: Markus Robertson
Photos: Holger Stöhrmann

What can the business learn of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and the nature? What makes mudskipper and SMS so visionary? What can a power plant learn from seaweed? What makes bacteria and IKEA so stunningly? These questions are answered within the exhibition “Darwin meets business”.
Three main topics are in the focus of the exhibition which are explained clearly: sustainability, innovation and organization.