Lektrik started as a semester project at HS-Augsburg under supervision of Sebastian Onufszak and Robert Rose. The project team was asked to contribute to Modular Festival. We came up with the idea of creating a game people could play with their movements. After some research the doors to the smokers lounge seemed to be a perfect place to track individuals and avoid a technical overkill. While searching for a visual style and game mechanics, we decided for a hardware solution as screen instead of projecting someting into the large windows of Kongresshalle. The idea of taking bulbs as pixels was a guiding decision. We chose a resolution that fits into the windows without looking sparsely, having enough pixels to make our game playable, still be able to build it in time and be in line with our budget. For the game graphics we had to reduce everything to the minimum. The spaceship is nothing more than a triangle of four pixels, enemies are blocks of four pixels.

Having Lektrik tested and the single pixelmodules and relaymodules wired, we moved the two installations to Kongresshalle. With an elevating platform we hang the pixelmodules into the prepared beams and connected them to the relays. The warm color of our halogen bulbs fittet perfectly to the red carpet of Modular Festival and the permanent light installation at Kongresshalle. Only the fuse for our powersupply had a hard time when turning on all bulbs at the same time.

Over three festival days we had all kinds of players. Especially children liked jumping between the large buttons.

If you like to see Lektrik in action, visit the bar Hallo Werner. One part of Lektrik is located above the dancefloor downstairs. It has a different software that fits the needs of a dancefloor. It has fixed programs that can be triggered via a midiinterface, allowing VJs to trigger light flashes, patterns, or simply use it as room illumination.