2015年4月23日



Iconuu Wuhan Station Opening Ceremony – an icon language in a social experiment blast
April 9 ^th at 2pm,  an opening ceremony started for an innovative project created by ZKM|Karlruhe called “iconuu”. The information presentation session for the Wuhan Station launch was held at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Institute of New Media Art. Professor Jian Zhang introduced the background, the significance and details behind the iconuu concept. She stated that this is a big step towards innovation in the social platform arena. Linking together 8 different cities from different parts of the world,iconuu creates a new channel of artistic expression in the world of media and technology. Iconuu is different compared to other social platforms in that it uses a pictorial language that’s unsystematic and spontaneous.It allows for communication between nations that would have otherwise been hindered by the language barriers between nations. Social platforms are no longer a communication tool, but are also a fun experience to play with. In the presentation, Professor Zhang spoke passionately about this project and invited many students to try this social platform for the first time.
         
After five days of setting up for the installation site, iconuu finally launched its first experimental session on April 13 ^th, 2015. On this date, Wuhan， China  Station opened simultaneously initiated with 6 other countries around the world. People from different cities were all connected through the internet on this common iconic platform. Every city is represented by a color, Wuhan is programmed to use green for all its displayed icons. At the same time, people from other time zones in other cities in Europe or Korea are welcomed to participate in the icon creation process. The user drags icons onto the platform to create narratives that expresses meaning ,multiple users can come together and build and expand upon the existing narrative to make an even larger narrative, hence communicating and sharing together.  Students from different schools and majors have come to the atrium at the Art and Design Department through word of mouth to come and experience the fun of this novel interactive concept. Some students described their brain freeze in seeing some very creative ways in which people from other countries have build their icon narratives. One computer major student claimed, “my logical education has stunted my ability to think and respond in such a random but creative way.”Pictorial language is definitely another approach to communication that could prove to become very mainstream with useful potential. The students at the Institute of New Media Art is having a much more fluid process playing with the icons since they have already become very familiar with the iconuu concept. In fact, All the icons shown as part of the Wuhan Station are actually created by the very undergraduate students at the institute. They played with iconuu with much pride seeing their own designs displayed in the system. Without the accuracy of a language system, participants here have much freedom and imagination in guessing what people from other parts of the world are trying to say, especially in guessing icons of cultural significance, which makes the process that much more fun. Some students also advised that this project would be great fun if brought to other school departments for many more people to experience.  



                     

As this installation project continues, we plan to add more icons to the project system. Students are all much welcomed to participate in the creative process of expressing yourself on iconuu.
We are in the Univerity West 7 Building Atrium everyday until end of June. Snacks are also provided!