Gestalten Veldt brings together a two-part, multidisciplinary artwork developed by Erik Madigan Heck. The project encompasses a publication titled The Garden and a musical score titled Safe Passage, alongside two fragrances, a series of poems and writings, and a short film. Collaborators include Tilda Swinton, Leanne Shapton, Les Eaux Primordiales, Ben Grandgenett and Matthew Herbert, among others.
We were commissioned to create a digital experience which would showcase the project as a whole. We designed a website which encourages users to create their own journey through the full breadth of the artwork, featuring inventive navigational tools, animations and transitions. The characterful typography that features within the book and the record are represented on the site, alongside a bespoke typeface created by the APFEL Type Foundry to provide the website with its own distinctive voice.
The imagery within The Garden is presented as an immersive slideshow on a horizontal axis, utilising a variety of layouts to echo those within the book, alongside animated text and video. Safe Passage's score and other sound pieces use a custom media player that mimics a record playing, allowing artwork and type to rotate. The essay pages are browsed on a vertical axis, with images moving at a different speed to the text and a pull-out slideshow that overlays the text behind.
