At the intersection of technology, art and design, Mehmet (aka Memo) Akten’s work focuses on designing and developing technology to create emotional and memorable experiences. Founder of The Mega Super Awesome Visuals Company, his work ranges from large-scale immersive interactive installations; live visuals for music / dance / theatre performances, music videos; to online works and mobile applications.

Recently he has exhibited and performed at the Victoria & Albert Museum, Science Museum, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Sadlers Wells Peacock Theatre, Manchester Bridgewater Hall, Ars Electronica, Mapping festival, Glastonbury festival, The Millennium Gallery. He has also worked with artists and organizations such as Onedotzero, Aldeburgh Music, BBC Philharmonic, Depeche Mode, Imogen Heap, Mira Calix, The Rambert Dance Company, Streetwise Opera as well as brands such as Apple, Adidas, Rolls-Royce, Texas Instruments and Toyota. Also an open-source advocate, a lot of his source-code and experiments are documented on his blog www.memo.tv.

Acos CoolKAs and Kings of AM, featering DJ OD’s Silent Disco! on thursday, featering on fridayFranky Rizardo, Ralvero, Gelazer! with Shagspeare & Lady Bee, and on saturday Youri Donatz, Skitzofrenix, Foktop! DJ Rockid vs Sandro Silva.

Ticket sales will start soon.

This will be Dj OD’s last live performance in Europe before he leaves for nine months to Australia. He has already performed at Summersonic Japan, Glastonbury UK, Big Day Out Australie, Lowlands NL, Exit Serbia, and many many more………………..

As a little preview you could have listened to Acos Coolkas and Peter Nijborn on the ‘zomerfeesten’ in Nijmegen. On sunday the 18th of july on the Lift! stage of the Affaire they handed out a taste of what’s to come. If you liked that, make sure to attend the main event!

More information about the event in park Brakkenstein and the acts will follow, so stay stuned!

For Dutch, click ‘read more’

De datum voor Cosmic Sensation is bekend! Het event zal plaatsvinden van 30 september tot en met 2 oktober in park Brakkenstein te Nijmegen, vlak bij de Radboud Universiteit. Drie dagen lang feesten dus! Als voorproefje kon je op de zomerfeesten alvast luisteren naar Acos Coolkas en Peter Nijborn. Ze waren zojuist te zien op het Lift! podium van de Affaire. Klonk het lekker? Kom dan zeker naar het echte evenement!

Er zullen zeer spoedig nog meer artiesten voor het event bekend gemaakt worden, dus houd deze site in de gaten!

For English, click here!

Op Cosmic Sensation ( 30 september tot en met 2 oktober, Park Brakkestein, Nijmegen) wordt kosmische straling uit het heelal live omgezet in moderne dansmuziek en spectaculaire beelden die in een enorme koepeltent, 360 graden rondom, worden geprojecteerd. Op deze manier kan de straling uit het heelal, die altijd om ons heen is zonder dat we er iets van zien of merken, hoorbaar en zichtbaar worden gemaakt. Zo wordt de bezoeker deelgenoot van de informatie uit verre delen van het universum waarmee wij voordurend worden gebombardeerd.

Boegbeelden elektronische muziek

Op zondag 18 juli treden van 17.00 tot 20.00 uur op de Vierdaagsefeesten ACOS CoolKAs en DJ Peter Nijborn op, op het Lift!-podium in het Valkhofpark. Zij zijn boegbeelden van de muziek die bij Cosmic Sensation zal worden gebruikt en bewerkt door de informatie van de kosmische straling. ACOS CoolKAs, Konstantin Atomas en Vasiliy Basalaev uit Omsk in Rusland, zijn aanstormend talenten in de elektronische muziek. DJ Peter Nijborn is een bekende naam in de DJ scene en iemand die altijd open staat voor experimenten.

Academische Jaarprijs 2009

Cosmic Sensation heeft in 2009 de Academische Jaarprijs gewonnen als het beste project om vooruitstrevende wetenschap bij een breed publiek onder de aandacht te brengen.

Who are you, and what do you do?

Simply put: I’m an architect / urban planner, born and raised in Brazil. I am currently working with computer graphics; my most important current job being the development of visualization projects for the Fisheries Center in the University of British Columbia. I work primarily with the 3D tool Blender, although I haven’t given up on my sketch book, and have great fun learning more and more computer programming.

On top of that I have music as one of my hobbies, and I’m pretty excited about the 2010 World Cup competition.

Why do you support Cosmic Sensation?

At the end of 2008 I was contacted by the Society of Arts and Technology – an art school in Montreal, Canada – to provide a workframe solution for interactive visualizations within fulldomes. They hired me to extend the open source Blender Game Engine for full support of this immersive technology.

Since then I have fallen in love with domes. It’s a combination of so many of my personal and professional interests that I feel very blessed for the unique opportunities I have / had to work with that. Right after the conclusion of this project (successfully integrated into Blender main code in July 2009) I started my graduation project in Brazil. With the main theme narrowed down to “Immersive Domes for Architecture” I had a blast on going deeper and deeper into this subject. Needless to say it was impossible to keep my work brief and after I finished it I was hungry to learn more of it.

Making a long story short, I look forward to any new opportunity to cross these unsailed oceans. Or should I say, “where no man has gone before” Science, Technology, Art, Interaction, Netherlands … How could someone not support it?

What can we expect in terms of visuals?

How can you visualize something invisible to naked eyes? There is no right answer for that, for there is a total freedom in the visuals’ work. You can expect more than fireworks or bright stars in a dark night. Rays, waves, colors, lots of colors. The visual never exists by itself. For its main role is to merge with the sound, effects and detectors to provide a unique integrated experience.

We are trying to gather the contribution from the different artists that are part of this project. I really hope the idea of the “contest” (more like an art exhibition) can work out well.

Have you ever done this kind of thing before?

Tricky question. While a project of this scale puts me slightly outside my comfort zone, the components required to make it work are exactly what I have been working with in my earlier projects.

Interactive visualization in domes is still a big white canvas to be further explored by stubborn (crazy?) people. Yet, my past experience with its usage for architecture reveals that it can soon become a safe ground. A tool/toy to be fully enjoyed by the generations to come.

No kidding. In this past February we inaugurated an immense dome in my former university. One of a kind.

Soon its technology is going to be integrated in some of the study disciplines over there (Universidade Federal Fluminense – Escola de Arquitetura e Urbanismo). I don’t get tired of this though. Fulldomes are a very strong communication tool, and it serves perfectly as a bridge between science and the general audience.

- Any last comments you really want to share with the public?

I’m passionate about astronomy. I spent countless nights wandering in the Planetarium of Rio de Janeiro, either attending one of their presentations, courses or sneaking into the lines to see through one of their telescopes. They used to have a session of live music and a star show. It couldn’t have been more perfect. I knew music and exploring vast dark nights are connect to common roots in the history of humankind. From the clear atmosphere of the African savannas to the flatland of the Netherlands. From native songs to modern digital sound effects. They are our inheritance for future generations. For all of that, for me to live is the cosmic sensation. And I’m really glad to have the chance to take a part in it.

Meet the people who are working on the Cosmic Sensation project! Today: an interview with Peter Nijborn, musical director and long-time DJ.

Who are you?

I am Peter Nijborn and musical director at Office Broomer, the producer of Cosmic Sensation. I have been a DJ for about 25 years and during this period I have played in Rotterdam at regular evenings in Nighttown and various small niche clubs. My expertise has developed while experiencing – as a DJ – the enormous time span in which disco, house, hip hop and hard rock has evolved. After years of playing records, I shifted towards productions and special assignments, usually for Office Broomer.

What do you do for Cosmic Sensation?

I am Musical Director within the Cosmic Sensation project. In preparation for the project, I determine the musical genre and choose the songs for the CD. During the event I will play the special Cosmic Remix every evening. The choice for the genre for Cosmic Sensation was an easy one: we’ll link the idea to the new trend inside Dance, Nu-Disco (a crossing between the 80’s and contemporary dance). During events in the Dome, we noticed that the combination of images in the Dome and the Nu-Disco make a perfect fit. But please note that this will not be a regular House event, but the music will complete the whole Cosmic Sensation experience. At this moment, we are working on the CD, which is the guideline for Cosmic Sensation.

What is special about Cosmic Sensation and why are you supporting the project?

Cosmic Sensation stands out because it is a totally new way of entertainment: location, dome, visuals, and finding the best music without making commercial concessions. The combination of space and the emergence of “space music” a la 2010 is an extraordinary combination and as a DJ you have to exploit this. Because of this there will also be performances of unknown acts like Acos CoolKAs, and believe me … in a couple of years you can tell everyone that you’ve seen them in our dome before they rose to fame.

My motivation is to look at the future and to not stand still … just like science does!

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On Tuesday March 30 the LHC produced the first proton-proton collisions at the record energy of 7 TeV. Many congratulations to CERN and all involved in the LHC for this incredible achievement !

Cosmic accelerators produce the cosmic radiation that interact in the Earth atmosphere with energies that largely surpass this humanly made record energy. However, this happens not under controlled conditions and the number of observable interactions that will be produced at the LHC will be much, much larger. Therefore the discovery potential for the LHC and cosmic ray experiments, such as the Pierre Auger Observatory, is different and complementary.

To show that while we will have fun with cosmic rays at Cosmic Sensation, the LHC also has its entertaining sides, we show this clip:

Good luck!