When Joachim started his talk, his very Germanic delivery and formal introduction left Jay and I wondering if this was a lecture to duck out of for a coffee break.
However as the talk gained momentum and he gave us an insight into some of the projects that he and his incredible firm Art + Com have been working on it soon became apparent that the coffee would have to wait. Part designer, part conceptual artist, part industrial engineer but very much rooted in the brand.
Sauter has been working as a media designer since the early 1980s. From the beginning, he focussed on digital technologies, and is exploring how they can be used to express content and narration. So much technology sees the end-user isolated in front of a computer screen but Saulter's talk looked at how technology can extend the narrative in communal spaces and open up discussion and communication between individuals.
We saw work for the Munich Opera where large panels were arranged, onto which architecture was projected, generated in real-time and manipulated by the actors to illustrate their control over their environment. In addition, each actor's outline was mapped so that every one of them could also be projected on to individually convey their mood or purpose.
We saw his breathtaking “Anamophotic Kinetic” for the Deutsche Bank headquarters. Where numerous installations bend and flex to form Anton Stankowski's iconic brand.
However the crowning glory was Saulter's work for BMW and an installation for their new global headquarters. As a metaphor for precision, engineering and design ART + COM used thousands of ball bearing suspended by wire on rotors to perform a narrative dance to describe various BMW models. Click play, sit back and enjoy design at its purest and most elegant.