I must confess that I love websites where you simply "click around' and see what happens. And I've come across one on which you can spend a ridiculous amount of time exploring. A hauntingly mesmerizing site, 99 Rooms was created in Germany by ROSTLAB (see credits below).
99 Rooms is a unique internet art project that interweaves wall painting, photography, animation and sound in a manner entirely unknown until now. Shortly after its launch in June 2004, more than two million individuals throughout the world have already visited this interdisciplinary composite work of art.
Above: Room 68 before pressing on the little knob on the wall to the right
Above: Room 68 once the knob has been pressed flashes with light and sound
99rooms stemmed from the mystical, often apolocalyptically charming pictures created by Berlin artist Kim Köster within the countless vacated premises of East Berlin‘s industrial sector. Photos of these paintings were initially produced in digital form and then animated through a cooperative effort between Richard Schumann & Stephan Schulz and then subsequently complemented through a personal sounddesign from Johannes Buenemann. The final product of this year long effort is a scintillating intermediary world which invites the observer into an journey through its morbidly-beautiful rooms.
above: another room in which the cow's nose bleeds
ROSTLAUB Gbr
Mainzer Strasse 1,
10247 Berlin, Germany
Email: wir@rostlaub.com
Kim Köster (The Artist)
Richard Schumann (Art Direction)
Johannes Bünemann (Sounddesign)
Stephan Schulz (Flash / Programming)