Elmar Trefz

The Race Car Project

Telepresence Installation

El coche                                   El Controller                                      La interfaz

Transmisión video                     Conexión                                                   Max/MSP

Elmar Trefz is an Interaction Designer and New Media Artist currently based in Barcelona, Spain. His work has a strong focus on putting the user in the centre of attention. He is passionate about the relationship between the real and the virtual world. One of his projects was The Race Car Project at Playshop, where Internet users from the virtual world could control RC Cars in the real world. Furthermore he is interested in how the Internet can be liberated from the screen and float freely around us. This interest is manifested in his work The Wave Pillow, where a Surfer can feel the size of the waves on the vibration of a pillow. Both of these projects where outcomes of his Residency at Futurefarmers in San Francisco, California where he also gained his first teaching experiences with Amy Franceschini at Stanford's SUDAC Lab. His latest project City Veins is based on the ubiquitous existence of Mobile Phones and their owner's relationship with the urban environment. Its aim is to visualize Location Based interaction. When not designing Elmar likes to capture his surroundings through photography, some of his pictures where published in the book "Rollen" by Ralph Kenke and Pit Lederle. Originally he is from Germany but studied New Media and Interaction Design at the National Institute for Design Research in Melbourne, Autralia and the Media Centre of Art and Design in Barcelona, Spain from which he holds a MA in Interaction Design.

Project Links: City Veins | The Wave Pillow | The Race Car Project | My84 | Table Service

Latest Press: I.D. Magazine | Pig Magazine | Surfer Magazine | GEO Magazine