Our “Salone” invites visitors to discover twelve projects conceived as ludic antidotes to a world filled with screens. Designed distractions that coerce us into playful and shared forms of interaction. Everyone plays. Electronic. Analog. Social. Play is a form of connection. Social platforms feign connecting us, but in the end they just leave us in limbo. Inversely, play is superficial by design, while secretly inviting us into a deeper understanding of each other and of our own limits.
![](https://abstractmachine.net/media/pages/posts/salone-ludico/0d2ecabddf-1658586055/Salone-Ludico-Street-View-c-HEAD_MichelGiesbrecht.jpg)
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- Link: Salone Ludico
- Project Direction: Douglas Edric Stanley
- Artists: Marion Bareil, Martin Besson, Sébastien Beureux, Sarah Bourquin, Marianna Czwojdrak, Margaux Charvolin, Marion Couesnon, Patrick Donaldson, Yoann Douillet, Jessica Friedling, Charles-Henri Hayoz, Jérémie Lasnier, Eun-Sun Lee, Mai Li, Laurent Monnet, Étienne Ndiaye, Valérie Pierrehumbert, Mélissa Pisler, Benoît Renaudin, Vincent de Vevey, Israel Viadest
- Project Assistant: Laura Couto Rosado
- Interaction Design Direction: Étienne Mineur
- Industrial Design Direction: Laurent Bolli
- Visual Design Direction: Anette Lenz
- Visual Identity: Emilie Excoffier, Romain Graille, David Héritier and Bastien Seon
- Technical Development Direction: Pierre Rossel
- Scenography Direction: Pascal Berger
- Director HEAD – Genève: Jean-Pierre Greff
- Department Direction, Master Media Design: Nicolas Nova, Gordan Savičić
- Additional Production: Alexandre Burdin, Frederic Butor-Blamont, Claudio Cicchini, Robert Favre, Pierre-Alain Giesser, Sébastien Pitteloud, Xavier Plantevin, Daniel Sciboz, Alexandre Simian, Sergio Streun, Nicolas Wagnières, Mathias Zieba
- Images: Michel Giesbrecht
- Videos: Vincent de Vevey
- Website: Marion Couesnon
![Gravity - Salone Ludico Gravity - Salone Ludico](https://abstractmachine.net/media/pages/posts/salone-ludico/310ef75924-1658586055/201704_MD_Salone-Ludico_Milano-HEAD_MichelGiesbrecht_011-1024x683.jpg)
![](https://abstractmachine.net/media/pages/posts/salone-ludico/0218df7dbf-1658586055/Salone-Ludico-KBPS-c-HEAD_MichelGiesbrecht.jpg)
![](https://abstractmachine.net/media/pages/posts/salone-ludico/70746bcd67-1658586055/Salone-Ludico_Penumbra_(c)HEAD_MichelGiesbrecht_002-2017.jpg)
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Designed and developed by the Media Design Master of the –HEAD Genève within an identity designed by students of Visual Communication, the Salone Ludico invites visitors to explore the nature of play. Projects range in scope and scale from robotic mixologists and domotic hi-fi to infinite rooms where space itself becomes the play station. For the more adventurous, an underground club proposes a redefinition of the seedy games room with updated parlour games of strategy and chance.
Salone Ludico from Media Design HEAD - Genève on Vimeo.
Ximoan from Media Design HEAD - Genève on Vimeo.
KBPS from Media Design HEAD - Genève on Vimeo.
Deadline from Media Design HEAD - Genève on Vimeo.
Penumbra from Media Design HEAD - Genève on Vimeo.
Penultimo from Media Design HEAD - Genève on Vimeo.
Bloodbank
![](https://abstractmachine.net/media/pages/posts/salone-ludico/74ff284d4f-1658586055/Salone-Ludico-Murmures-c-HEAD_MichelGiesbrecht.jpg)
For a full listing of the projects and their authors, check out the dedicated website — Salone Ludico —, brilliantly designed and engineered by our web extraordinaire Marion Couesnon.
![](https://abstractmachine.net/media/pages/posts/salone-ludico/5e00f4509e-1658586055/201704_MD_Salone-Ludico_Milano-c-HEAD_MichelGiesbrecht_025-2563.jpg)
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The scenography was designed by Anette Lenz and her team of students — Emilie Excoffier, Romain Graille, David Héritier and Bastien Seon. They designed the typographical system, and all of the perspex-based signage that exploited an innovative aspect of internal reflexion where horizontal light escapes only along the points of the lasercuts. And we collaborated on this dynamic panneau that greeted visitors.
This was easily one of the largest projects I have ever curated or produced. While the space itself was relatively small, we packed a lot of unique experiences in an international design salon known more for its furniture and interiors than for interactive installations. The quality of the forms matched the fit and finish of the interaction design, and we had to develop a lot of our own software and hardware for each installation.
Here are a few images to give you a small peek at the scale of our process that took over a year to design, prototype, develop, and produce.
![](https://abstractmachine.net/media/pages/posts/salone-ludico/d3b56b9046-1658586055/ximoan-5-prez-2819.jpg)
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![](https://abstractmachine.net/media/pages/posts/salone-ludico/675908b7b7-1658586055/DDD-Penultimo.png)
![](https://abstractmachine.net/media/pages/posts/salone-ludico/a5968da24f-1658586055/PenultimoBlanc.png)
![](https://abstractmachine.net/media/pages/posts/salone-ludico/b8452b88e1-1658586055/PenultimoTable2.png)
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![](https://abstractmachine.net/media/pages/posts/salone-ludico/56b165604e-1658586055/Salon_1955_2015.jpg)
![](https://abstractmachine.net/media/pages/posts/salone-ludico/f78ab4cb59-1658586055/SchemaGravity_02-02.png)
For a full list of the objects from Murmures: murmures-photo-selected-objets.pdf