Blowing on a dandelion and making a wish is a small, poetic gesture that is familiar to almost everyone. In this project, the students transform this personal ritual into a digital and architectural experience.
Visitors scan a QR code to access a web app directly on their smartphone. There, they prepare their wish and then blow into the microphone of their phone. The digital dandelion responds to their breath: its seeds scatter and appear as a visual event across the BIX media façade of Kunsthaus Graz. A personal wish thus becomes a publicly visible moment.
Make a Wish
A Wish Becomes Visible
As part of the course Project Work 2 – Interaction Design, led by Birgit Bachler, students Iuliia Razumovskaia and Dila Bayraktar developed an interactive installation in cooperation with Kunsthaus Graz for its BIX media façade.
Digital Interaction, Architectural Experience
The project focuses on creating a simple and intuitive interaction between people, smartphones and architecture. The technology is deliberately kept in the background, allowing the experience and the façade of Kunsthaus Graz to remain the main focus. The digital interface was therefore designed to be minimal. Instead of relying on purely functional instructions, the web app uses poetic language to extend the atmosphere of the dandelion ritual into the digital space. Once visitors are ready, the interaction begins. As they blow, the seeds gradually disappear from the digital dandelion. At the same time, they appear on the BIX façade, seemingly carried away across the building.
At the end of the interaction, the dandelion flowers on the façade wither and then bloom again – a poetic conclusion and a metaphor for sending the wish on its way.
From Prototype to Installation
The development began with a prototype designed to test the interaction between the microphone, blowing and the digital animation. During testing, one of the key challenges was identified: environmental sounds and conversations could unintentionally trigger the animation.
For the final implementation, more precise audio recognition will therefore be used to distinguish the characteristic, sustained sound of blowing from ambient noise. The final application is designed to run entirely in a web browser, without requiring an additional app.
The project combines a familiar human gesture with interaction design, digital media art and urban architecture – making a personal wish visible in public space.
