Hotel Vue des Alpes Monica Studer / Christoph van den Berg
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Monica Studer / Christoph van den Berg
Hotel Vue des Alpes
Internet project, 2000 (ongoing)
Site: www.vuedesalpes.com
currently: www.transit504.ch/vuedesalpes
Located amidst an idyllic alpine scenery, a fictitious
spa hotel from the 70ties gives the visitors of the site the chance
to make an online reservation of one of the nine rooms for a
virtual vacation of 5 days. During his stay, the visitor has
exclusive access to his room and to the adjacent landscape,
enabling him to explore the mountainous scenery and enjoy the
various amusements for room guests, such as a cable car ride
to the Gleissenhorn glacier region.
All parts of the project are constructed and put together with 3D
software, and there is no photographic material underlying the
images whatsoever. Instead of trying to aim at a naturalistic
perfection, the fiction of all of the constructed objects and their
appearance springs from the authors' childhood memories of
their holidays in the Alps, targeting rather at the viewer's
recognition of the verisimilar portrayal of the location and object
details.
The internet project is a work in progress and is enhanced in
stages.
Internet site, as seen in the browser window
Point-and-click navigation within the region of Vue des Alpes takes place in a Flash player window. The guestbook on the reception desk of the hotel gives access to the room reservation system
Monica Studer / Christoph van den Berg
Prints from Vue des Alpes
Inkjet prints, 2000-2011
6-colour inkjet prints on photo paper, UV laminated,
mounted on aluminium, in various sizes
There is a range of large scale prints from the Vue des Alpes site using
the same geometric material as the website. These images are
especially arranged and re-rendered for highresolution printing in
variaus sizes and formats, and they are not just a marketable aside but
they also refer to Alpine painting from past centuries, carrying on this
tradition with digital means.
'Zimmer 203', 2002, H 219 x W 148 cm
'Terrasse 3', 2001, H 120 x W 270 cm 'Hotel', 2000, H 120 x W 270 cm
'Menage', 2003, H 79 x W 87 cm
'Picknick', 2002, H 120 x W 153 cm
Monica Studer / Christoph van den Berg
Hütte (Hut)
Interactive Installation, 2000
Hut: Inkjet print on photo paper, MDF construction
L 300 x W 200 x H 240 cm
Table and stool: wood
PC and monitor, QuickTime QTVR panoramas, sound
The hut is digitally located on the shore of the small lake of
Vue des Alpes.
In the hut the panorama of the mountain scenery is shown,
the exterior is wrapped with an unrolling of the interior sight
of the hut. Using the mouse, visitors can enter the hut
displayed on the computer monitor as a suite of QuickTime
panoramas. The only way out of it, though, is to exit through
the pane of the monitor, back again into the landscape,
which has changed in daytime and weather situation every
time you get there.
Installation view, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel/Muttenz, Switzerland
Installation detail: Table and stool with PC and screen Installation detail: Interior of the hut
Unrolling of the landscape image in the interior of the hut
Monica Studer / Christoph van den Berg
Landschaft (Landscape)
Installation, 2002
Inkjet print on adhesive Tyvek tissue
H 298 x L 1224 cm
The picture wallpaper with a panoramic
view of the Vue des Alpes landscape was
rendered for the exhibition named
'Tapetenwechsel' (wallpaper change,
change of scene), and posted to the wall
all over the room. The work has been
conceived after the model of traditional
picture wallpapers displaying idyllic
landscapes for home decoration.
Installation view, Kunstmuseum Solothurn, Switzerland
Monica Studer / Christoph van den Berg
Wald (Forest)
Panorama, 2001
Inkjet print on photo paper
structure in aluminium, H 298 x diam 409 cm
An accessible, mobile 360° panoramic image, consisting of
14 panels, which displays a forest zone behind the hotel.
Unlike the purpose of the historical panoramic image to give
a orientating overview of a certain scene, the viewer is
located in the middle of a forest glade, surrounded by pine
trees obstructing the far sight.
Installation view, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel/Muttenz, SwitzerlandWald installation; detail of panoramic image
Monica Studer / Christoph van den Berg
Gleissenhorn Livecam
Interactive installation, 2002/03
PC computer, beam projection
projection size H 270 x W 360 cm
The mock camera on the Gleissenhorn mountain anticline shows
live images from the highest region of Vue des Alpes. Every 10
minutes a new 360° image with the current weather and daylight
situation is calculated, and then projected as a slowly rotating
camera shot. Visitors can use the mouse to set date and daytime
between 0 and 3000 AD and watch the changes of weather and
light.
Installation view, Kunstmuseum Solothurn, SwitzerlandGleissenhorn Livecam: Examples of weather and daytime situations
Gleissenhorn Livecam: Examples of weather and daytime situations
Monica Studer / Christoph van den Berg Ufer (Waterside) Installation, 2000 Inkjet print on photo paper, mounted on aluminium L 600 x W 700 cm (21 panels) A detail view of the lake waterside of Vue des Alpes. Single objects such as stones, grass, wood etc. are rendered in 1:1 scale. The print is left blank where the "waterside" does not extend.
Monica Studer / Christoph van den Berg
Wasserfall (Waterfall)
Installation, 2002/2005
Computer animation, loop 2'15", with sound harddisk
beam projection projection size H 400 x W 300 cm
A face-to-face encounter with a 3D rendered waterfall.
This most typical icon of a touristic souvenir gets an
impressively physical quality due to its crisp image,
the projection size, and the underlying roaring sound.
Still imageMonica Studer / Christoph van den Berg
Transfer
Panoramic image in public space, 2003
Inkjet print on PVC tarpaulin
Image: H 5 x W 31 m
Scaffold H 580 cm
For the 50th jubilee celebration of a Swiss
banking company (Raiffeisen Appenzell) the
founder's house has been re-crafted as a 3D
model and transferred to the landscape of Vue
des Alpes for the festive season. The giant
image with a traditional wooden platform acted
as backdrop and stage for the ceremonies.
Installation view, Kronengarten Appenzell, SwitzerlandMonica Studer / Christoph van den Berg
Mountain Top
Livecam installation, 2005
Backdrop: inkjet print on PVC tarpaulin,
H 700 x W 1270 cm
Platform and bench: wood
Foreground object: printed film on acrylic,
H 50 x W 60 cm
video camera for live streaming, 12" screen
At the BALTIC Centre in Gateshead (UK), the huge
colourful backdrop invited visitors to mount on the platform
to contemplate the image details. While sitting on the
bench, they were recorded by a small, mostly unnoticed
video camera located in the back of the room. This
recording was streamed live to the BALTIC's internet site,
and retransmitted to a small
12" screen, on which the visitors could watch themselves.
It is only when seeing the collage of their proper image
within the landscape parts on screen, that the illusion of
'having been there' arises with the visitors.
Visitors on the platform: still images from the video live stream recordingsInstallation view, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle/Gateshead, UK
Monica Studer / Christoph van den Berg
Berg (Mountain)
Concept and surface of the Swiss Pavilion, expo 2005 world exhibition in Aichi, Japan
Mountain surface: Inkjet print on PVC tarpaulin
236 individual trianguar panels, L 190-750 cm
Mountain structure: wood, H 840 x L 3500 x W 2350 cm
Backdrop image: H 680 x W 1680 cm
The concept of the Swiss Pavilion has been developed
in collaboration with the team of authors "panorama
2000", while topography and surface design are a
genuine adaption of the vue des Alpes material of
Studer/van den Berg.
The geometry of the mountain ridge, which comprises
triangular polygons only, is borrowed from digital
landscapes as for instance in computer games. More
than 20000 objects (rocks, boulders, stones, grass,
herbs, alpine roses, moss, gentians and so on) have
been meticulously embedded, thus forming a detailed
Alpine surface along with the illusionistic, but still visually
artificial overall impression.
Entering on the front side of the mountain, visitors first
walked across the theme exhibition which was located
inside. After climbing a staircase they were let out on an
exterior viewing platform, completely surronded by the
artificial landscape, to take their souvenir snapshots.
Mountain in a box: Top view of a 3D visualisation of the Swiss Pavilion, Aichi, JapanInstallation view of the viewing platform towards the backdrop image
Installation view of the exit situation of the mountain, the 'chasm'
Monica Studer / Christoph van den Berg
Nebel (Fog)
Interactive installation, 2005
PC computer, beam projection
Nebel is an interactive projection developed like a 3D
computer game. Navigating with the mouse allows the
visitors to wander around without restriction through a
densely fogged, mountainous region calculated in
realtime. The apparent freedom of movement and the
sparse relics such as the occasional trail markings still
do not help on the terrain orientation but lead to a
slightly weird atmosphere of getting lost.
Installation view, Kunstmuseum Solothurn, SwitzerlandGetting lost in the fog, 2 screenshots
Monica Studer / Christoph van den Berg
Wiese (meadow)
Interactive installation, 2005
PC computer, flat screen LCD, trackball
Plinth: wood, H 105 x L 70 x W 60 cm
Wiese is an interactive installation developed like a 3D
computer game. The real world pace is translated by the
trackball interface into a stroking movement of the hand, by
which the visitors can roam over a digitally flowering Alpine
meadow. The meadow is generated in realtime and put
together randomly outside of the field of vision so that the
walker can go on endlessly without getting to a limit. The view
is restricted to the floor and cannot be raised to look around,
and the pleasant feeling of walking between countless flowers
will gradually give way to claustrophobia.
Installation view, Kunstmuseum Solothurn, SwitzerlandWalking between flowers, 2 screenshots
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