Sap: BIT.CODE

Credits & Description:

Type of Entry: Digital Design

Category: Online Digital Design

Advertiser/Client: SAP

Product/Service: BUSINESS SOFTWARE

Entrant Company: OGILVY FRANKFURT, GERMANY

Design/Advertising Agency: OGILVY FRANKFURT, GERMANY



Artist: Julius Popp

Exhibitor: Victoria & Albert Museum (London)

Creative Director: Peter Strauss (Ogilvy Frankfurt)

Chief Creative Officer/Executive Creative Director: Dr. Stephan Vogel (Ogilvy Frankfurt)

Producer/Director: Thomas Bausenwein (Filmmeisterei Film- Und Fernsehproduktion)

Director of Photography: Stephan Heinz (Filmmeisterei Film- Und Fernsehproduktion)

Director of Photography/Editor: Rafael Metz (Filmmeisterei Film- Und Fernsehproduktion)

Art Buying: Christina Hufgard (Ogilvy Frankfurt)

Account Management: Veronika Sikvölgyi (Ogilvy Frankfurt)

Advertiser's Supervisor: Barbara Windisch (SAP)



Brief Explanation:

SAP commissioned the Leipzig-based artist Julius Popp to create an installation – part monumental sliding puzzle and part mechanical display. The installation uses SAP software to identify and filter relevant key words from internet news sites in real-time. Thus Business Software from Walldorf became an integral part of a work of art.

Describe the brief from the client:

SAP wanted to find a plausible and impressive way of demonstrating how modern software is intelligent enough to deal with “information overkill” and came up with a spectacular solution. The “bit.code” machine.

Description of how you arrived at the final design:

Julius Popp's idea was to show how an unlimited variety of meanings can be created from a very limited number of elements in a very rigid mechanical setup - and how from a seeming chaos of fragmented data, suddenly coherent information emerges. Thus, he arrived at the design of bit.code: A number of identical chains with a fixed order of black and white elements. Variation only occurs when these chains move individually to create black and white pixel patterns - most of which make no sense at all to the human eye, while some contain readable words: Keywords filtered from news websites, the smallest conceivable real-time snapshot from the mighty stream of online conversations.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market:

“Bit code” was exhibited in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and other international museums. The exhibitions and the extensive and positive media publicity meant that many art lovers and IT experts now see SAP Business Software in a new light.