The Brain Index is a interactive, multi-user digital installation at the Jerome L. Greene Science Center at Columbia University. Uniting art, science, electronic data, and information design, it invites visitors to consider the brain from a different perspective and to explore the current research of the neuroscientists working upstairs in the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute.

The purpose of the installation is to engage the public, capture their imagination, encourage wonder, and reward curiosity by vividly communicating the complexities of the research and why it matters. Broadly accessible interactive storytelling unravels the work of individual researchers pushing the boundaries of neuroscience through combinations of illustration, laboratory simulations, information design, research artifacts, and narrative text.

The world’s smallest computer is an IBM-designed edge device architecture and computing platform that is smaller than a grain of salt will cost less than ten cents to manufacture and can monitor, analyze, communicate, and even act on data. It packs several hundred thousand transistors into a footprint barely visible to the human eye and can help verify that a product has been handled properly throughout its long journey.

AV&C + Vincent Houzé rejoined forces in 2016 to create phases – a new kinetic light and sound installation premiered at the Day for Night festival December 17th & 18th, 2016 in Houston, TX.

Exploring light as a kinetic sculptural medium, phases is composed of robotic mirrors that scatter a kaleidoscope of projected beams around a circular scrim enclosed space filled with a generative musical score.

21 motorized mirrors are arranged in a triangular assembly, and mounted overhead in the center of a 30′ diameter circular space with scrim walls. Real-time generative graphics are created by algorithms that also control the choreography of the mirrors, and trigger parts of the procedural soundtrack. Precise control over the mirrors allows focusing all the light beams on a single point, or dramatically sweeping patterns 360 degrees across the scrim walls of the room.

The installation is experienced from several vantage points. At a distance, the beams travel well beyond the circular space, extending hundreds of feet into the surrounding volume. On the scrim walls, the projected patterns resolve out of the beams and are revealed as coherent visual imagery. Inside the scrim perimeter visitors can look directly up into the mirror array, where the light-folding sculptural object becomes a glittering hub between light sources and destinations.

The live, evolving soundtrack is triggered via the interplay of the mirror movements and projected animation. A cycling array of low frequency phrases, echo laden notes and stochastic percussion create a mechanical and precise soundtrack tightly tied to the choreography of the sculpture. The multi-channel soundtrack is spatialized throughout the installation allowing precise placement of sounds around the 360 degree sound field.

Cadillac’s move to downtown NYC directly engages the carmaker with the district’s influential creative community, and Cadillac House is the physical embodiment of the brand’s cultural alignment with the world of design, fashion and art.

Gensler’s brand and architecture studios envisioned an open, multi-purpose space, with tightly integrated technology that materializes the brand’s design language. A colonnade of glass, mirror and digital displays greets visitors at the sidewalk and continues indoors, leading to a brand wall at the end of a runway populated sometimes by cars, sometimes by fashion models.

AV&C designed and created a generative media software system that takes photos, videos, and color selections, along with a myriad of layout and behavior selections to create on brand animations composed for the 18 columns and back wall in the space.

For the inaugural Day for Night festival, AV&C’s Vincent Houzé, Stephen Baker and David Bianciardi created lull – an immersive and contemplative installation that explores the liminal state between conscious and unconscious.

In the center of an unlit 6,000-square-foot warehouse, waves of liquid light undulate wistfully across the walls of a semitransparent triangular structure. Simple rules shape this ever-evolving animation, giving rise to organic abstracted patterns with complex behavior that teeter between order and chaos. Immersed in layers of distant melodies that reverberate in sync with the surging fluid, as well as in a dense plume of fog that extends and blurs the light within, visitors dip in and out of the sculpture as if in a dream.

Power, flexibility, and momentum are brought to life through these eight emotional brand expressions for NIKE, showcasing the revolutionary form and function of the new 2015 GOLF lineup.

We kept the color palette simple, but used multiple techniques to highlight the form and function of the products. Individual designs were first animated, then projected or reflected onto the products, and filmed. The 8 films makes it clear that everything stems from the same philosophy of excellence, but each product also has its own look. The spots highlight Trollbäck + Company’s belief that with the right treatment, every object has a story to tell. With a moving light source, an edge is suddenly interesting. These animations give life to the product.

AV&C teamed with Hush, Mother, Zaha Hadid Architects and Related Companies to design and create an innovative experience showcasing Zaha Hadid’s entry to New York City – a signature residential project at 520 West 28th Street.

Visitors to the by-appointment sales and marketing gallery are enveloped in a physical environment that draws deeply on Hadid’s aesthetic and which forms a complex canvas upon which a series of media experiences unfolds.

Immersive curved projections, a responsive architectural model and a interactive glass table combine with choreographed sound design and lighting transitions, and are controlled by a sophisticated agent interface to seamlessly inform and inspire potential buyers.

Google’s acquisition of FireBase was celebrated at Google I/O 2016 with a sculptural digital installation that visualized data sets from the platform. Alex Czetwertynski brought AV&C in to collaborate on designing the form and visualizations, and to code the realtime software that generated the visualizations over the course of the 3 day event.

We started the week by kicking off the AICP Next Awards with a huge installation at the Skirball Center in New York. It was an incredible experience that played seamlessly across seven screens, including five LED cubes and a gigantic LED curtain as the backdrop to the the main projection screen. The booming ride went through a graphic universe created with generative code, live action and traditional 2D and 3D animation.