Eku Wand studied
Visual Communication in the 1980s at the Hochschule der Künste, now the
Berlin University of the Arts. After working as an art director for computer animation and video production at Cinepool in Berlin, he founded
Pixelpark, now
Digitas Pixelpark in Berlin, in 1991 together with
Paulus Neef, where he was one of the managing directors and creative director. Pixelpark was one of the first multimedia agencies in Germany in the early 1990s and pioneered the
New Economy.[1][2][3] Neef and Wand were later classified as “Internet pioneers”.[4]
With Pixelpark, Wand realized, for example, the interactive sales promotion terminal (
kiosk system) MusicMaster for the department store chain
Karstadt, which enabled customers to access more than 60,000 music and video titles via
touch-sensitive screens.[5] In 1995, the Bertelsmann Group took a stake in Pixelpark,[6] the company transformed itself into an AG (public limited company) and went public in 1999, experiencing economic turbulence from 2001 onwards,[7] and today belongs to the international agency group Publicis.
Wand left Pixelpark as early as 1993 because the development was moving too strongly in a purely commercial direction and the growth of the agency was too fast[8][9] and he founded the multimedia studio eku interactive, which he still runs today. Here he conceived and produced interactive
new media projects, designed
graphical user interfaces and websites for companies in various industries.
As author, director, producer and publisher, he designed and realized
edutainmentCD-ROM titles and
computer games as self-published productions. Among them the award-winning interactive documentary thriller “
Berlin Connection”. The innovative project of a “digital scavenger hunt”[10] combines documentary material with fiction and
adventure game. Furthermore, Wand produced the interactive multimedia CD-ROM documentary “Berlin in the Underground – An Interactive Journey Through Time Under The
Potsdamer Platz” together with
Dietmar Arnold, First Chairman of the
Berlin Underworlds Association.[11][12]
Among his best-known works is the animated visualization of poems by Austrian poet and writer
Ernst Jandl. Wand has received awards and prizes for his media design projects at
IMAGINA,[13]SIGGRAPH,[14]Prix Ars Electronica[15] and Europrix.
Eku Wand's artistic media design and multimedia works have been featured and permanently exhibited at media festivals and exhibitions, including the
Centre Pompidou[16] in Paris, the
Vienna Technical Museum in Austria, and the
German Hygiene Museum in Dresden.
From 2009 to 2014, the
German Universities Excellence Initiative for the German Games Industry is being created under the leadership of Eku Wand.[24] In this nationwide unique cooperation, the Braunschweig University of Art and the
Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences are jointly breaking new ground in the training of computer and video game developers with the
Games Academy in Berlin and Frankfurt.[25]
Between 2011 and 2017, Wand established the Indonesian
citizens’ initiative “Save Bangka Island”, which aimed to prevent iron ore mining on
Bangka Island (North Sulawesi) and preserve it as a habitat and nature reserve. Wand designed motifs, organized media appearances and orchestrated a long-term campaign in social media platforms and online media.[26]
Awards and honors
1991: Prix Pixel INA Award, Best Student Work,
IMAGINA, Monte-Carlo, Monaco
1991: Electronic Theatre,
SIGGRAPH, Las Vegas, USA
“Smell and Memory” – Results from Neurobiology. Interactive media installation for 7 Hügel / 7 Hills Exhibition,[27]Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin 2000 and permanent at
German Hygiene Museum.
“Berlin in the Underground” – An Interactive Journey Through Time Under the Potsdamer Platz. Interactive CD-ROM. eku interactive, Berlin 2001,
ISBN978-3-935709-02-6.
Wand, Eku (December 2, 2004). "Stories, Storylines, Events. Model: Interactive Storytelling". In
Fleischmann, Monika;
Reinhard, Ulrike (eds.). Digital Transformations. Vol. Media Art as an Interface of Art, Science, Economy and Society. Heidelberg. pp. 19, 242–247, 368.
ISBN978-3-934013-38-4.
ISSN1614-6662.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)
Wand, Eku (March 1, 2007). "The Documentary Game "Berlin In The Underground"". In Glück, Alexander (ed.). Underground Perspectives. Vol. The Historical Use of Hidden Spaces and their Possibilities for the Future. Innsbruck:
StudienVerlag. pp. 179–196.
ISBN978-3-7065-4327-9.
^Brandt, Jan (August 30, 2000).
"Scavenger Hunt Digital". Jungle World (in German). Vol. 35/2000. Berlin: Jungle World Verlags GmbH. Retrieved April 20, 2021.