Visualizing electricity and magnetism for a new flagship electric car

In artistic collaboration with BMW, our co-founder and creative director Maxim Zhestkov built three environments with installations visualizing electromagnetic phenomena for the launch of BMW i4. 

Together with our team of designers, the brand and the artist examined the concepts of power and energy from different angles to create a timeless representation of electric forces shaping our world on various levels.

Concept

As an artist, Maxim Zhestkov works with fundamental forces that build the universe we live in. Interested in this approach, BMW reached out to him and suggested exploring how the energy produced by their new powerful electric car can be visualized.

Our task was to create three representations of the electric nature of i4, combined into an art film. It features the car moving through a gallery space and activates installations located in separate rooms with its energy. 

Connected by the narrative and color palette, the chapters accentuate different phenomena based on the real properties of electromagnetic fields.

We developed a set of algorithms to accurately recreate patterns seen in nature in complex simulations that interacted with the car.

Magnetism

In the first environment, i4 stands in a pool of particles that, affected by the energy of the vehicle, begin to attract to each other and form lines of force spreading from the car.

The structure created by the interaction of the car and the surroundings is not permanent: it modifies as the car emits new impulses moving like waves of light and power across the room.

Field

The second concept is based on the static magnetic field that forms underneath the car standing on a glass platform.

As the vehicle turns on, it forms two poles that make small particles move in colorful flows from one point to another, reminding of both magnetic fields and electric currents.

Lines

For the third space, electricity is embodied in the form of a ceiling installation made of lines attracting as the car moves by. 

Connecting with the vehicle and with each other, they accept the electric impulse and form tangled structures under its influence.

RnD

Over the course of work, we tried many different configurations for the installations, looking for those that would better show the beauty of electricity.

Credits

Creative Direction: 
Maxim Zhestkov, Igor Sordokhonov

Art Direction: 
Phil Bonum

Design, Animation: 
Ilya Dozhdikov, Artur Gadzhiev, Tatyana Balyberdina

Edit: 
Roman Kotov, Sergey Shurupov

Sound:
Artyom Markaryan

Text:
Anna Gulyaeva

Year:
2021