KISDtalk by Christoph Ignaz Kirmaier – h3llo3e8 – the studio as a system

h3llo3e8 – the studio as a system

In this talk, we open our studio as a living interface – a feedback-rich structure where tools, concepts, collaborations, and constraints co-evolve. We explore how systemic thinking shapes not just what we build, but how we work: from lighting installations and exhibitions to speculative instruments and experimental toolkits.

In our daily work, we make heavy use of the visual programming environment “vvvv” as a conceptual grid in which our projects unfold. It enables us to visualize processes, model states, and embed feedback into the core of what we build. In setups involving motion, sound, light, interaction, and space, vvvv becomes a central real-time control unit. A core part of our studio toolkit is our set of custom libraries, modules, interfaces, and prototypes. It enables us to work efficiently while staying open to transformation: not everything has to be reinvented, but anything can be recombined.

Rather than presenting final works, we trace the patterns behind them: the flows between idea and infrastructure, friction and iteration, intuition and automation. What emerges is not a fixed process, but a set of tensions we deliberately maintain.

Christoph Ignaz Kirmaier is a musician, multimedia artist, educator and co-founder of 3e8, a studio for digital art and productions with creative technologies based in Vienna and Berlin. In the past years he has worked across large-scale corporate multimedia installations, sound design, generative graphics, electronics, animation, music videos, user experience and robotic prototypes in several companies, bands and collectives. Christoph is teaching vvvv at the renowned NODE Institute Berlin and at the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten and is currently also studying himself at the Tangible Music Lab in Linz.

Pictures © Ozan Tezvaran