Iconic Impulses

Imagine: Tomorrow
What will mobility feel like in the future? What will move us tomorrow? What contribution can an automobile manufacturer make to this? The BMW Group is answering these and other questions during a world tour to mark the company's 100th anniversary. Sometimes, the best stories are about things that haven’t happened yet. The BMW Group celebrated its 100th anniversary not by looking back, but by imagining »The Next 100 Years«. The brands of the BMW Group questioned what future mobility will look like, and we were tasked with showcasing their visions – without giving too much away.

To do this, we developed four exhibits – one for each BMW Group brand: BMW, MINI, Rolls Royce and BMW Motorrad – to represent the top-secret »Vision Vehicles« that would be launched in the anniversary year. These exhibits were conceptual storytellers, embodying the ideas of the vehicle developers without revealing their secrets. Sculptural, kinetic, digital and interactive, they stimulated the imagination.

Supported by a narrative soundtrack, they planted new ideas about the future of mobility: »Imagine your car changes shape…« Embedded in the concentric room concept designed by Zeichen & Wunder (Munich) for the ICONIC IMPULSES world tour, the exhibits are performers in the brand environments before the premieres, complementing the visionary vehicle when it is showcased on the stage.

Overall, the exhibition represents a paradigm shift from technical to abstract communication in BMW Group exhibits. Here, the focus is ideas and the emotion of what driver benefits can be. We captured these visions with gyroscopic flywheels, a sculpture of light that synchronises with your heartbeat and a large pendulum that gracefully moves a display of digital particles.

Innovative exhibits, which captivated visitors not just in BMW Group’s hometown of Munich, but in all stops of the world tour to Beijing, London and Los Angeles. Inspiring exhibits, which mesmerised onlookers because an abstract future is exciting when you can experience it.

BMW Exhibit: Alive Geometry
In the brand environment of BMW, a kinetic sculpture explains to the visitor the developers’ vision: “Imagine your car is not just a car but an intelligent companion…” The shape shifter made of 92 linear drives, a wafer-thin skin made of carbon scales and a complex control system visualises intelligent materials, the extension of the senses and the abilities of the driver, connectivity and emotional dynamism.

Mini Exhibit: Pulse of Personality
The digital light sculpture that represents the essence of the MINI reflects the uniqueness of every visitor with an individual display of colours and synchronised heartbeat. Digital personalisation in an interconnected world becomes dazzlingly visible. An LED polyhedron in the middle of the sculpture is surrounded by iridescent glass prisms. Sensors and cameras register the visitor and interpret his aura in a multicoloured, pulsating display of light: “Imagine your car is more than your car…what you share is more than mobility. It is the idea of future that grows the more we share it.”

Rolls Royce Exhibit: Grand Sanctuary
Effortlessly, sublimely, steadily– the imposing Rolls-Royce pendulum swings across the media surface. Detached from time, physics and space, the visitor also sees himself glide through the megacities of the future. “Imagine your time becomes timeless, and peace is the power that moves you effortlessly.” The elegant swing of the pendulum, gentle, as if in slow motion, influences the glowing swarms of particles over which it sways. Highres pictures below.

BMW Motorcycle Exhibit: Precision & Emotion
BMW Motorrad shows how the driver of the future will overcome and redefine borders. A balancing cube with gyroscopic flywheels is a metaphor for a machine that never abandons its driver and allows him to be free and independent. “Imagine your motorbike is a part of you. You would trust him blindfolded…”. The movable base upon which the cube is balanced can be influenced by gesture commands, the choreography remains calm.

BMW Group

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