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Rumtiden Idea Lab

Heart Of Wood

An AI designed forest, 3D printed by an ABB Robot, 3,2 m tall trees, tree stump-stools, benches and a collective giant social sculpture. Interactive graphics with particle clouds control by the visitors movements. An eye in the ceiling following the visitors.
What happens when technology makes it possible for us to design our children, enhance and replace body parts, when we allow artificial intelligence to make decisions in crucial life choices? Explore these questions and more in the exhibition Hyper Human.
Client: Museum of Science and Technology Stockholm.
3d print in recycled Swedish wood by TWR - The Wood Region, print engineering by Malin Fleen, Roger Andersson, Alexander Nordvall and Mikael Sjösten. Post treatment by Guy Liogier. Designed by Monica Förster/BAS ITG. Project management by Hakan Lidbo. Projection wall and eye by Jaime Reyes.

Hyperhuman

An AI designed forest, 3d printed by an ABB Robot, 3,2 meters tall trees, tree stump-stools, benches and a collective giant social sculpture. Interactive graphics with particle clouds control by the visitors movements. An eye in the ceiling following the visitors.
What happens when technology makes it possible for us to design our children using genome editing? Where is the distinction between man and machine when we are able to enhance and replace body parts? Who is in control when we allow artificial intelligence to make decisions in
crucial life choices? Explore these questions and more in our new exhibition Hyper Human.
Client: Museum of Science and Technology Stockholm. 3d print in recycled Swedish wood by TWR - The Wood Region, print engineering by Malin Fleen, Roger Andersson, Alexander Nordvall and Mikael Sjösten. Post treatment by Guy Liogier.
Designed by Monica Förster/BAS ITG. Project management by Hakan Lidbo. Projection wall and eye by Jaime Reyes.

Big Mac Signature

Awarded advertising campaign where AI analysis of hundred of thousands of signatures merged into one signature that became the signature of the Big Mac hamburger. By creating clusters of signature characteristics one median signature was selected and programmed into a modified xArm robot. The robot then appeared at a series of event at McDonalds restaurants, to make signatures for the fans.
Client: DDB Nordig/McDonalds.
AI analysis and xArm programming by Max Björverud, assistance by Mikael Sjösten, computer interface design, management and AI professor acting by Håkan Lidbo.

The Vega Sphere

Rumtiden helped Spanish architect and design group Spacepopular to build a 2,5 m diameter Earth globe for the new school in Vega. It can be rolled in all directions and has no north or south. It doesn’t have any borders or lines between water and land, only topography. But instead the main internet cables connecting the planet are marked as bright yellow lines. The Vega Sphere is built in the library of the new Vega Culture School in Vega outside Stockholm.
Client: Haninge Municipality.
Podium drawn and built by Anna Torvaldsdotter, project management and acoustics by Håkan Lidbo.

My Mood

My Mood is a large interactive sculpture at World Of Volvo, Sweden's new brand experience center. The visitor's can explore different emotions, controlling generative art that is designed to express the different emotions. As well as controlling the music. The sculpture is 6x3 meters and hold 4 stations; Happiness, Anger, Sadness and Surprise, each with 3 AI cameras, LED light, emotion control screen and a real hologram.

ABBA Disco Carpet

This is a giant dance carpet made for the ABBA Museum in Stockholm. The visitors step on 6 different groups of sensors printed on the carpet, also represented on the big screen. Each group of sensors control different music instruments; drums, percussion, bass, melodies and chords, plus extra sensors for visual effects, selfie photo and video recording. The sensors work with binaries, so 3 sensors control 1+2+4 different sounds and the effect controllers do different things depending what visual or sound effect that is active. Everything is in perfect synch so regardless of how you play, it will always sound fantastic.
Client: ABBA.
Programming and hardware by Max Björverud, assisted by Mikael Sjösten and Niklas Ekholm, design by Tiziano Leonardi, music and concept by Håkan Lidbo.

Multi Sensory Music

A musical interaction sculpture developed together with different groups of disabled children - and a music instrument that looks very different from others. The project was the Winner of the Mariano Gago Ecsite Award for best European museum installation in 2016.
With Multisensory Music the visitors create music by touching the sculpture and each other. The shape is weird and edgy to make it challenging to reach to contact surfaces. The large number of possible combinations of touching makes for endless exploration in music.
The music is expressed not only as sound but also as vibrations though 5 bass shakers inside the sculpture – and it’s visualized as animations that “look like the music sounds” displayed on the rhombic glasses from projections inside the sculpture. Each rhombus representing a musical harmony. Music is experienced with many senses at the same time.
Client: Museum of Science and technology Stockholm.
Programming and sensors by Magnus Frenning and Göran Sandström, interactive graphics by Dan Spegel, carpeting and paint by Romeo and Daniela Brahaneastu, concept and sound design by Håkan Lidbo.

The Music Tree

When Malmö Live Concert hall and Congress Center opened they commissioned an interactive, musical art piece by Rumtiden Idea Lab. The Music Tree invites everyone passing the plaza outside the entrance to hit the tubes, create sounds and rhythms, amplified and triggering pre-recorded loops, played through the funnels in the branch of the tree. When reaching a certain intensity the music “levels up” and release deep, funky beats played from the root of the tree. The more you play with the beat, the more you level up and the music intensifies.
Client: Malmö Live.
Sound and concept by Håkan Lidbo, construction by Ebrahim Isaacs, programming by Max Björverud, paint by Daniela Brahaneastu, assisted by Katarina Brahaneastu.

The Sample Bar

Sample bar let anyone to play with the musical instruments from the collection of Sweden's Museum of Performing Arts. Instruments that normally only can be handled by museum staff or researchers, with button gloves. In these two installations musical instruments from all over the world, from many hundred years old to moden days, play together - and prove that music truly cross all borders.
Client: Swedish Museum Of Performing Arts.
Sound design and management by Håkan Lidbo. Visual, light and music programming by Christian Vasselbring. Instrument recorded by. Assistance by Claudia Jonas.

Mind Controlled Music

In the future, music will be automatically real time generated to fit our needs an emotions in any moment. We have only begun to understand how music effects us, how it can give comfort, energy, heal, support, navigate, encourage and provide information. Inaugurated with bio sensors and deep learning, music will make us calm before we get to stressed, give us energy before we get too tired and subliminally help us making decisions that are good for us. Our music will be as personal as our inner thought, created only for ourselves, reflecting and manifesting our personalities. Mind Controlled Music is a glimpse into this possible future of music.
With Mind Controlled Music, the user can make musical decisions only by thinking. A head band is reading the alpha and theta waves of the brain.Alpha waves can be detected during meditation, when relaxing -and theta waves or more dominant when focusing, involving mathematics or language.
Client: Musiem Of Sceince And technology Stockholm.
By Ludvig Elblaus, Cornelia Sojdelius and Håkan Lidbo.

Big Beat

How can we help passengers to overcome some of the uncomforted that can be experienced at an airport?
Big Beat is a collaborative music instrument, first built at Stockholm international Airport Arlanda. The buttons stretch over a 10 m wide and 3 m tall wall. If you want to hold more buttons and create more complex rhythms, you have to find new friends to help you. The visitors explore new body positions to stretch and hold more buttons. Finally Big beat is a game. Tones are hidden in the drum sounds. If you find 3 sounds you will go to the next level with new drum sounds. If you the 5th level you have won the game. Big Beat has also been installed at Stockholm Culture Center, FIESP Culture Center, Sao Paulo Brazil, Riyadh Saudi Arabia, Avesta Art Sweden and Technopolis Science Center Brussels.
Client: Stockholm Business Region, Swedavia Airports.
Programming and sensors by Magnus Frenning, concept and sounds by Håkan Lidbo.

The Gas Synthesizer

A vintage synthesizer generating music with gas in glass tubes.
A controller keyboard with a vintage feel and design references to the classic Mini Moog, in Mahogny-looking Swedish oak, 18 valves with gas nozzles, handling the gas flow with Arduino controlled relays and glass tubes in lengths calculated to match the speed of sound in very high temperatures. The result was a beautiful instrument that capture the power and beauty of gas. And the artist Grant showed the potential of the instrument.
Client: Stockholm Gas / TBWA.
Concept and project management by Håkan Lidbo, ignite system by Mattias Jönsson/Panorama FX, synth construction by Ebrahim Isaacs, programming and electronics by Max Bjorverud, keyboard by Farzaneh Farkish, tube tuning by Johan E Andersson.

RTNS-8922

Sounds For Driving

This is the first project that is trying to affect the car driver positively by using sound; specially composed music that prevents negative emotions in different driving situations. Cars today have many built-in safety systems, but they can’t effect how the drivers feel; this is the responsibility of the the driver. If you are angry, tired, out of focus, you should not drive.
Anyone who rented a car from Europcar got a free CD with 7 specially composed songs, each of them aiming to reduce different kinds of negative feelings in 7 different driving situations, based on the latest research in the field.
Client: Wendefalck /Europcar
Music by Håkan Lidbo, research by Martin Ljungdahl Eriksson.

RTRC-3779

Statistic Dance Carpet

Music can hold, not only emotions, but also information. Instead of presenting statistics in a traditional way (often perceived as rather boring) Rumtiden created an installation with interactive music at an exhibition about Swedish innovation at House of Sweden, Washington DC. The exhibition explores the connection between Sweden’s commercial music success and its many technological innovations. The interactive part of the exhibition explores the longstanding, strong business connections between Sweden and the US. It shows how many jobs are created in the US by Swedish companies and US exports of goods and services to Sweden. The more jobs, the higher note.
Client: Swedish Institute, House of Sweden.
By Håkan Lidbo & Max Björverud, graphics by Banker Wessel.

RTNS-9802

Yellofier

The Yellofier transforms any sounds into funky music in less than a second. The app, that can be used as a professional production tool or as a amusing toy, is a collaboration between Swedish music producer Hakan Lidbo and Swiss synth legends Yello. Any sounds can be recorded, it’s automatically analysed and cut by the transients, then assigned to 8 different slices. Arrange and edit the sound slices by moving and twisting colourful blocks. The app had 100.000 downloads within 4 weeks after the release on AppStore and has been no#1 music app (iPad) in 8 countries.
Client: Yello, Deutsche Telekom.
Concept by Håkan Lidbo, sounds by Boris Blank, iOS programming by Jonathan Liljedahl, Android programming by Göran Sandström, graphic design by Håkan Ullberg.

RTAP-7792

Exhibition - The Nobel Prize of Literature.

In this exhibition each of the 8 installations has it’s own musical composition expressing the book, the art piece and the theme. All music can be heard in loudspeakers. But as it’s composed, not only to illustrate the books, but also in complete synch with each other, same key and in tempo, any music plays sounds good with everything else. In total the exhibition has 14 sound sources potentially playing all at the same time, but the impression isn’t chaotic as one might think, but immersive and relaxing.
Client: Transpond, Nobel Prize Museum/Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation.
Sound design by Håkan Lidbo.

RTEV-8936

Race Cars Controlled By Synthesizers

Rumtiden Idea Lab helped Teenage Engineering to create a an indoor race track where the race cars were controlled together with OP-Z synthesizers, so the visitors could race with music at the same time as they raced the cars.. The project was presented at Milan Design Week.
Client: Polestar/Teenage Engineering.
By Servando Barreiro.

Job Lab Exhibition

Job Lab is an exhibition where the visitors explore their own abilities and learn about different jobs and what abilities might come handy in those.
Client: Museum Of Labour (Arbetets Museum) in Norrköping Sweden.
interactive installations, projections, sound design, and RFID information system by Max Björverud and Håkan Lidbo from Rumtiden Idea Lab.

Nobel Prize Museum Chemistry Exhibition

This travelling exhibition, starting in Dubai UAE, takes the visitors through the history of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the leureates, the discoveries and the technologies. With synchronised significations of all the interactive installations, the experience for the visitors becomes immersive and calming. The sonification goes down to an atomic level where each nuclear particle of the atoms of the periodic table has it's own sound property.
Client: Transpond, Nobel Prize Museum/Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation.
Sound design by Håkan Lidbo.

Giant Dance Carpet

A carpet with built-in pressure sensors under the markings of the printed patterns. Each group of 6 makers control one music instrument, total 6 groups; drums, big percussion, small percussion, bass, chords and melodies. 63 loops per instrument and a total of millions of possible combinations.
Clients: Deutche Telekomm Köln, FIESP Culture Center Sao Paulo, Loop Festival Berlin, Dansens Hus Stockholm, Swiss Embassy Washington DC, Museum of Labour Norrköping, House of Sweden Washington DC,

Electrolux Clean Dreams

The Electrolux Oxygen Air Purifier is very efficient and quiet, to optimise a good night sleep. But it also has a manual that is so boring that listening to it will help you sleep even more. With a narrator with a deep hypnotic voice reading the manual on top of sparse ambient harmonies, it's almost impossible not to fall asleep.
Client: Electrolux/Primegroup
Music, recording and mix by Håkan Lidbo.

Singing Tunnles

Pedestrian tunnels are the most hated parts of the urban infrastructure. We think they are ugly and scary, but still we have to pass them. But if some one sings in a tunnel with this system, the tunnels listens and sings back the same melody, but with the voice of an angel. The place is not necessarily safer, but it feels lees scary.
The project was nominated for the Sweden's Art and Business Award and won the SKAPA Nobel Innovation Award.
The Singing Tunnels has been mounted, except for 9 different tunnels in Stockholm, also in Sao Paulo brazil, Izmir Türkie, Tokyo Japon, Rijeka Croatia and Brooklyn USA.
By Max Björverud and Håkan Lidbo.

Church projection for hope

A giant interactive installation in Reykjavik, transforming the iconic Hallgrímskirkja into a symbol of hope. “Write for rights" is the largest human rights campaign taking place in over 150 countries each year in december , hosted by amnesty international. the campaign collects signatures and letters for 10 urgent cases of human rights violations, to put pressure on the responsible authorities. we wanted to show the people the impact their signature can make.
Client: Amnesty International
By Jaime Reyes

Renewbable Energy as Acade Games

A project where sustainable energy is made into something fun and engaging for events and exhibitions. Three arcade games, one with solar power, one with wind power and and with water power. By shining, blowing and splashing the visitors can level up and electrify the 3d models.
Client: E-On
By Ebrahim Isaacs, max Björverud and Håkan Lidbo

Exploring responsibility for the futures

An exhibition about the climate crisis, to teach people how we need to adapt our ways of living for a sustainable future. How close would we get to the climate goal of +2 degrees global warming by 2050 if everyone would live like you? How can we make people understand the difference in co2 emissions between the different food we eat?
Client: Värmlands Museum
By Jaime Reyes