Eku Wand (born 25 October 1963 in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

as Uwe Wand) is a German

Designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exper ...

and

Multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...

director. Wand is a professor of media design and multimedia at the

Braunschweig University of Art The Braunschweig University of Art (Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, HBK) is the second largest fine arts college in Germany. History The history goes back to the “Zeichnen-Instithut” (Drawing Institute) founded by the Bruns ...

with a research focus on

Interactive Storytelling Interactive storytelling (also known as interactive drama) is a form of digital entertainment in which the storyline is not predetermined. The author creates the setting, characters, and situation which the narrative must address, but the user ( ...

Career

Eku Wand studied

Visual Communication Visual communication is the use of visual elements to convey ideas and information which include (but are not limited to) signs, typography, drawing, graphic design, illustration, industrial design, advertising, animation, and electronic resourc ...

in the 1980s at the Hochschule der Künste, now the

Berlin University of the Arts The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the second largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research uni ...

. After working as an art director for computer animation and video production at Cinepool in Berlin, he founded Pixelpark, now Digitas Pixelpark in Berlin, in 1991 together with Paulus Neef, where he was one of the managing directors and creative director. Pixelpark was one of the first multimedia agencies in Germany in the early 1990s and pioneered the

New Economy The New Economy refers to the ongoing development of the American economic system. It evolved from the notions of the classical economy via the transition from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-based economy, and has been driven by ...

. Neef and Wand were later classified as “Internet pioneers”. With Pixelpark, Wand realized, for example, the interactive sales promotion terminal ( kiosk system) MusicMaster for the department store chain

Karstadt Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH was a German department store chain whose headquarters were in Essen. Until 30 September 2010 the company was a subsidiary of Arcandor, Arcandor AG (which was known until 30 June 2007 as KarstadtQuelle AG) and was respo ...

, which enabled customers to access more than 60,000 music and video titles via touch-sensitive screens. In 1995, the Bertelsmann Group took a stake in Pixelpark, the company transformed itself into an AG (public limited company) and went public in 1999, experiencing economic turbulence from 2001 onwards, and today belongs to the international agency group Publicis. Wand left Pixelpark as early as 1993 because the development was moving too strongly in a purely commercial direction and the growth of the agency was too fast and he founded the multimedia studio eku interactive, which he still runs today. Here he conceived and produced interactive new media projects, designed

graphical user interface A graphical user interface, or GUI, is a form of user interface that allows user (computing), users to human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through Graphics, graphical icon (computing), icons and visual indicators such ...

s and websites for companies in various industries. As author, director, producer and publisher, he designed and realized

edutainment Educational entertainment, also referred to by the portmanteau edutainment, is media designed to education, educate through entertainment. The term has been used as early as 1933. Most often it includes content intended to teach but has inciden ...

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

titles and

computer games A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

as self-published productions. Among them the award-winning interactive documentary thriller “ Berlin Connection”. The innovative project of a “digital scavenger hunt” combines documentary material with fiction and

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

. Furthermore, Wand produced the interactive multimedia CD-ROM documentary “Berlin in the Underground – An Interactive Journey Through Time Under The

Potsdamer Platz Potsdamer Platz (, ''Potsdam Square'') is a public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin, Germany, lying about south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag building, Reichstag (Bundestag, German Parliament Building), and ...

” together with Dietmar Arnold, First Chairman of the Berlin Underworlds Association. Among his best-known works is the animated visualization of poems by Austrian poet and writer Ernst Jandl. Wand has received awards and prizes for his media design projects at IMAGINA,

SIGGRAPH SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference centered around computer graphics organized by ACM, starting in 1974 in Boulder, CO. The main conference has always been held in North ...

Prix Ars Electronica The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the best known and longest running yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music. It has been awarded since 1987 by Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria ...

and Europrix. Eku Wand's artistic media design and multimedia works have been featured and permanently exhibited at media festivals and exhibitions, including the

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

in Paris, the

Vienna Technical Museum The Vienna Museum of Science and Technology () is a museum in Penzing, Vienna, Austria, on Mariahilfer Straße. The museum showcases the history and development of technology, industry, and science, with a focus on Austrian involvement. It house ...

in Austria, and the

German Hygiene Museum The German Hygiene Museum () is a medical museum in Dresden, Germany. It conceives itself today as a "forum for science, culture and society". It is a popular venue for events and exhibitions, and is among the most visited museums in Dresden, wit ...

in Dresden. After teaching and guest professorships in the 1990s at the

Zurich University of the Arts Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK, ) has approximately 2,500 students, which makes it the largest arts university in Switzerland. The university was established in 2007, following the merger between Zurich's School of Art and Design (HGKZ) and ...

Academy of Media Arts Cologne The Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM) is the art and film school of the state of North Rhine Westphalia. It was founded 1989 in Cologne, Germany. Notable artists and filmmakers who studied or taught at the academy include Rosa Barba, VALIE EX ...

and

Bauhaus University The Bauhaus-Universität Weimar is a university located in Weimar, Germany, and specializes in the artistic and technical fields. Established in 1860 as the Great Ducal Saxon Art School, it gained collegiate status on 3 June 1910. In 1919 the s ...

Weimar, Wand has been professor of media design/multimedia at the

(HBK) since 2001. Wand serves as a juror on expert panels and has served on the jury of the LeadAward, Webcuts Award, World Summit Awards, Serious Games Award, iF Design Awards, German Designer Club DDC and the German Design Award. From 2009 to 2014, the

German Universities Excellence Initiative The Excellence Initiative of the German Council of Science and Humanities and the German Research Foundation (DFG) aims to promote cutting-edge research and to create outstanding conditions for young scholars at universities, to deepen coopera ...

for the German Games Industry is being created under the leadership of Eku Wand. In this nationwide unique cooperation, the Braunschweig University of Art and the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences are jointly breaking new ground in the training of computer and video game developers with the Games Academy in Berlin and Frankfurt. Between 2011 and 2017, Wand established the Indonesian citizens’ initiative “Save Bangka Island”, which aimed to prevent iron ore mining on Bangka Island (North Sulawesi) and preserve it as a habitat and nature reserve. Wand designed motifs, organized media appearances and orchestrated a long-term campaign in social media platforms and online media.

Awards and honors

* 1991: Prix Pixel INA Award, Best Student Work, IMAGINA, Monte-Carlo, Monaco * 1991: Electronic Theatre,

, Las Vegas, USA * 1992: Silver BIMA Award for Business Presentations, British Interactive Multimedia Association, London, England * 1992: German Special Award, The 15th Tokyo Video Festival (by

JVC JVC (short for Japan Victor Company) is a Japanese brand owned by JVCKenwood. Founded in 1927 as the Victor Talking Machine Company of Japan and later as , the company was best known for introducing Japan's first televisions and for developin ...

), Tokyo, Japan * 1993: Honorary Mention,

, Linz, Austria * 1998: Multimedia Award of the City of Stuttgart, 11th Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Stuttgart, Germany * 2008: Best Children's Film, Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Berlin, Germany

Works

* ''“Poems of Ernst Jandl”'' (direction und production). Computer animation. Berlin 1989. * ''“ Berlin Connection” – An Interactive Documentary Thriller.'' 2 Interactive CD-ROMs. eku interactive, Berlin 1998, . * ''“Smell and Memory” – Results from Neurobiology.'' Interactive media installation for 7 Hügel / 7 Hills Exhibition,

Martin-Gropius-Bau Martin-Gropius-Bau, commonly known as Gropius Bau, is an important exhibition space in Berlin, Germany. Originally a museum of applied arts, the building has been a listed historical monument since 1966. It is located at 7 Niederkirchnerstraße ...

, Berlin 2000 and permanent at

. * ''“Berlin in the Underground” – An Interactive Journey Through Time Under the Potsdamer Platz.'' Interactive CD-ROM. eku interactive, Berlin 2001, .

Publications

* * * *

Literature

* *

References

External links

Website
of eku interactive

in the

German National Library The German National Library (DNB; ) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to collect, permanently archive, comprehens ...

catalogue
Video
Poems of Ernst Jandl
Profile page
at

Fundraisign campaign page
#SaveBangkaIsland at betterplace.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Wand, Eku 20th-century German designers 21st-century German designers German video game designers German musicians Design educators Academic staff of the Braunschweig University of Art People from Düsseldorf 1963 births Living people Berlin University of the Arts alumni