Eku Wand

Eku Wand (born October 25, 1963 in Düsseldorf as Uwe Wand) is a German Designer and Multimedia director. Wand is a professor of media design and multimedia at the Braunschweig University of Art with a research focus on Interactive storytelling.
== Career ==
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|New Economy. Neef and Wand were later classified as “Internet pioneers”.
With Pixelpark, Wand realized, for example, the interactive sales promotion terminal (Interactive kiosk) MusicMaster for the department store chain Karstadt, which enabled customers to access more than 60,000 music and video titles via Touchscreen. In 1995, the Bertelsmann Group took a stake in Pixelpark, the company transformed itself into an AG (public limited company) and went public in 1999, experiencing economic turbulence from 2001 onwards, 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 and he founded the multimedia studio eku interactive, which he still runs today. Here he conceived and produced interactive New media|new media projects, designed Graphical user interface|graphical user interfaces and websites for companies in various industries, such as Bertelsmann/Telemedia, Hubert Burda Media, Daimler AG|Daimler-Benz, BVG Berliner Transport Company, GASAG|GASAG AG, Lufthansa Systems, Victoria Insurance Company and Volkswagen Group.
As author, director, producer and publisher, he designed and realized Educational entertainment|edutainment CD-ROM titles and Video game|computer games as self-published productions. Among them the award-winning interactive documentary thriller “Berlin Connection”. The innovative project of a “digital scavenger hunt” combines documentary material with fiction and Adventure game|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 :de:Dietmar Arnold|Dietmar Arnold, First Chairman of the :de:Berliner Unterwelten|Berlin Underworlds Association.
Among his best-known works is the animated visualization of poems by Austrian poet and writer Ernst Jandl, which has been shown 130 times at film festivals and exhibitions. Wand has received awards and prizes for his media design projects at Imagina, SIGGRAPH, Prix Ars Electronica 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 in Paris, the Vienna Technical Museum in Austria, and the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden.
After teaching and guest professorships in the 1990s at the Berlin University of the Arts, Zurich University of the Arts, Academy of Media Arts Cologne and Bauhaus University, Weimar|Bauhaus University Weimar, Wand has been professor of media design/multimedia at the Braunschweig University of Art (HBK) since 2001. Since 2007 he has been the senate representative for German-Indonesian university contacts with the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). Bandung has been Braunschweig’s Sister city|sister city since 1960.
From 2007 to 2014, Eku Wand headed the Institute for Media Research (IMF) at the HBK. His teaching and research interests include User experience design|user experience design, Design thinking|design thinking, Interactive storytelling|interactive storytelling, Narrative environments|narrative environments, and Game design|game design, especially Serious game|serious games, Virtual reality|virtual reality, and Social media|social media. Wand serves as a juror on expert panels and has served on the jury of the :de:LeadAward|LeadAward, :de:Webcuts|Webcuts Award, World Summit Awards, Serious Games Award, iF Product Design Award|iF Design Awards, German Designer Club DDC and the German Design Award.
From 2009 to 2014, the German Universities Excellence Initiative for the German Games Industry is being created under the leadership of Eku Wand. 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.
Between 2011 and 2017, Wand established the Indonesian Citizens' Initiative|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.
From 2013 to 2017, Eku Wand relocated to Indonesia and founded the social media management and marketing agency PT. tewa international with a German partner. 
== Awards and honors ==
* 1991: Prix Pixel INA Award, Best Student Work, Imagina|IMAGINA, Monte-Carlo, Monaco
* 1991: Electronic Theatre, SIGGRAPH, Las Vegas, USA
* 1992: Silver BIMA Award for Business Presentations, British Interactive Media Association|British Interactive Multimedia Association, London, England
* 1992: German Special Award, The 15th Tokyo Video Festival (by JVC), Tokyo, Japan
* 1993: Honorary Mention, Prix Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria
* 1998: Multimedia Award of the City of Stuttgart, 11th :de:Stuttgarter Filmwinter|Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Stuttgart, Germany
* 2002: Nomination, Europrix Multimedia Award – Excellence in New Media, Salzburg, Austria
* 2008: Best Children’s Film, :de:Zebra Poetry Film Festival|Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Berlin, Germany
== Works ==
* “Poems of Ernst Jandl” (direction und production). Computer animation. Berlin 1989.
* “Berlin Connection” – An Interactive Documentary Thriller. 2 Interactive CD-ROMs. eku interactive, Berlin 1998, .
* “Smell and Memory” – Results from Neurobiology. Interactive media installation for 7 Hügel / 7 Hills Exhibition, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin 2000 and permanent at German Hygiene Museum.
* “Berlin im Untergrund” – An Interactive Journey Through Time Under the Potsdamer Platz. Interactive CD-ROM. eku interactive, Berlin 2001, .
== Publications ==
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== Literature ==
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Category:German designers
Category:German directors
Category:People from Düsseldorf
Category:1963 births