OLN | The Zoo
Project information
submitted by
Hannes Waldschütz
Co-Authors
Ahmad Kanawati, Farnaz Yaghoubi, Hammad Raza, Helia Valizadeh, Laura Yeghiazaryan, Mohammad Ehsan Shah, Shriya Singh, Ferdinand Flechtner, Sagarika Labroo, Ariba Rafi
Mentors
Hannes Waldschütz, Eva Hornecker
Faculty:
Media
Degree programme:
Human-Computer Interaction (Master of Science (M.Sc.))
Type of project presentation
Research project
Semester
Sommersemester2025
- Bauhausstraße 11
Available during summaery opening hours
Project description
The Zoo, is a vibrant ecosystem of interconnected, responsive devices—each a unique creature within a shared network. This project explores the dynamic possibilities of tangible and multimodal interaction by creating a zoo where every device communicates with and reacts to the others in real time. Through this playful Network of things, we invite visitors to explore how machines can form their own expressive community.
Each student in the group is designing and fabricating an individual physical interface. These devices are not isolated units—they continuously send and receive messages from one another. What makes the Zoo interactive is its capacity for nuanced communication: users can select not only which device they want to activate, but also the way that device should respond. For instance, a light-based device may respond with a dim glow or full brightness depending on the input signal’s intensity.
This introduces a layer of emotional or interpretative feedback to our network. Each creature in the zoo responds uniquely based on both the sender’s intention and its own character—lighting up, moving, or making sound to signal its response, turning abstract data into physical behaviors.
At Summaery, the Zoo will be exhibited as a living, interactive network. Visitors can interact with any individual device, watch how the others respond, and discover the ecosystem-like behavior that emerges.