As a field of teaching, Electronic Media not only involves the aesthetic but also the technical analysis of artistic and applied issues and project developments in relation to electronic media. This field of teaching covers both the development of specific media applications and basic media research.

The focus is on the artistic handling of films, videos, computers and installations in their diverse forms: video installations and video sculpture, sound machines and audio art, computer art, computer graphics, digital image simulation and animation. The aim is for students to develop their own artistic position, to critically analyze the topic of media and mass culture and find an artistic response to it.

At HfG Offenbach we explore and seek to advance the aesthetic innovative energy of new media, their potential for future forms of graphics, painting, sculpture and installation, stage design, film and movement simulation as well as for design and the public. This is done in a conscious dialog with traditional artistic media and not in an overly technical, self-referential manner. This linking with traditional media is realized among other things in video and spatial installations, animations or sculptures. Workshops, technical courses, guest contributions and collaborations serve to complement the instruction in Electronic Media.

The AI Lab allows students to develop their own Deep Learning algorithms that match their aesthetic vision or to integrate existing datasets and trained models into their artistic practice. It serves as a dynamic forum for reflecting on the impact of technology on society and artistic creation, including ethical challenges related to AI. At the same time, the lab strongly focuses on understanding how current algorithms work to foster informed and critical engagement with the field. more

The Robotics Lab is part of the Electronic Media Department within the Faculty of Art. It supports students in developing interactive installations using physical computing, robotics, digital fabrication and artificial intelligence. The courses and workshops offered by the Robotics Lab aim to teach students methods and processes for realising interactive installations based on computer vision models and algorithms. This will enable them to create works that bridge the virtual and physical worlds. Computer vision is a field of artificial intelligence that allows computers to interpret and understand visual information in a similar way to humans. It includes methods of image and video analysis, as well as object recognition and tracking.

More

The electronic media recording studio supports sound projects of all kinds, offering the unique opportunity to work at a professional monitoring station with a full range of analogue and digital equipment. The studio's primary focus is on sound design and acoustically functional, focused studio work. Bastian Kämmer and Phil Hoffart provide comprehensive introductions to the studio for independent use, in-depth workshops on sound design, mixing, mastering and recording, and expert advice on production issues, through to translation to the club system.

In her seminar, "What's Your Set Up," Charlotte Simon focuses on the practical aspects of sound in the context of project-based work. The course covers live performance in its various forms across different contexts and genres, delving into technical and content-related aspects, as well as rehearsals and presentations. The curriculum is organized around a different focus each semester: sound productions for dance on the theatre stages of Studio Naxos, computer music as a collective jam in the exhibition context Rundgang and as a cassette release, choirs, saxophones and DJ modular system hybrids in the techno club, urban sound installations for park and ship at the pop culture festival Rivera. In addition to practical artistic work, students develop an understanding of the technical aspects of sound, including digital audio production, analogue recording and sound technology, as well as analogue sound synthesis. The workshops examine the entire spectrum of sound, encompassing both theoretical and practical aspects. The seminars are complemented by theoretical excursions on pioneers of electronic music, the role of sound in public spaces, experimental club music, noise, and other related topics.

The RAISE research project explored the interactions and relationships between artificial intelligence (AI), sound, and musical expression with the goal to make AI-based technologies accessible and usable for sound creators of various competency levels particularly those with little or no prior knowledge of machine learning or programming, The project was funded by Hessian.AI.

When you examine it closely the perpetual archetypal struggle between frogs and flying goes round in circles. In a nutshell: life and its attendant problems can be a great burden. This being so, living in the here and now would seem to offer relief, but even the frog doesn’t know if this is really the case.

The kinetic installation »Lichtmaschine« was developed for Luminale 2014. The machine consists of a complex assembly of screens, kinetic objects, LEDs and video cameras. Around the screens arranged in a circle many small, movable and immovable objects are positioned, which are driven by motors and lit by LEDs, casting silhouettes and light patterns onto the surrounding screens. Cameras installed inside the circle of screens record the images of objects thus generated, which are in turn projected onto the large screens positioned in the room.

»Lichtmaschine« experiments with direct atmospheric (spatial) experiences, methods of image production and the interplay between real and digital images addressing the topic of vision and perception but also those process of observation and identification.

The experimental music video for Sergej Auto’s »Ni« plays in a simple graphic world. It explores the associative relationships between space, form and music. The observer is unable to resist the hypnotic effect of the complex architectural figures and is increasingly captivated by them.

Curator Manuel Rossner came up with the idea of creating a virtual art-gallery in 2011. Today »cerma« has three exhibitions. Instead of the hallways it has pixel spaces which allow visitors observe art-objects in 3D format.

​3D-Scans urbaner Szenerien aus Offenbach, Berlin und albanischen Kleinstädten in audioreaktiver Manipulation. Pointclouds, generiert aus den LIDAR-Daten der 3D-Scans, werden durch den abstrakten Einfluss von Sound verfremdet. Das Werk erforscht den Schnittpunkt von Architektur, Technologie und Musik. Eine visuelle Programmiersoftware verknüpft Audioparameter wie Bass, Tonhöhe und Rhythmus mit den Tiefeninformationen der 3D-Modelle. Im Verlauf des Videos verstärkt sich die klangliche Verzerrung der Aufnahmen, was die Wahrnehmung des Verhältnisses von Materie und Klang herausfordert.

Studying at HfG Offenbach provides an opportunity for an exchange of ideas and opinions between lots of different creative and theoretical disciplines in the fields of visual communication and product design.

The aim behind relaunching the website was to develop a concept with a visual thrust that does not overly emphasize any one particular area of study nor rely on a non-moving structure.

Teachers and students alike shape the face of HfG through their work, while the university provides a setting in which they can develop themselves freely.

With this in mind a design was evolved whereby the content has a decisive influence on the website’s appearance. There were no rigid layout criteria set to which content then had to be adapted. Individual objects are arranged continually in a pattern. The width of the browser determines how pages are made up and how white spaces are formed. This means an individual image is automatically created for every page and every screen width.

Design elements

The line is the expressive element that all HfG disciplines have in common. As a design tool it is key to the website’s design concept. In its role as a designator, it structures the content and helps users navigate the site. Chance errors and irregularities lend it an individual character.

The line is transformed from a purely functional object into an independent form, which shapes the look of the HfG website.