Outrace: Eight Audi Robots Invade Trafalgar Square

MILTON KEYNES, UNITED KINGDOM – Sept 17, 2010: To launch this year's London Design Festival, the organisers have commissioned Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram to design an installation in Trafalgar Square. Supported and enabled by Audi, Outrace enables the public to take control of eight industrial robots - on loan from Audi's manufacturing line in Ingolstadt - which have been equipped with light heads which can write messages in light.

Visitors to the square, as well as a global audience, can send three dimensional light messages through the installation via www.outrace.org from 16 - 23 September. The eight tentacles have been fitted with LED lights which can write messages in light which can be broadcast via the website.

Ed Vaizey MP, Minister for Communications, Culture and Creative Industries, will be sending the first message to Outrace at 7.45pm on Thursday evening. He comments: "The London Design Festival showcases the city as the capital of the creative world so it is an honour to be switching on the festival's centrepiece. The Outrace installation is exciting, technologically innovative and artistically challenging. As a worldwide audience commands the robots to write their messages, they'll be experiencing cutting-edge design ingenuity in action."

Peter Schwarzenbauer, Audi AG Board Member for Marketing & Sales, adds: "It is appropriate that Audi has supplied the manufacturing robots for Outrace. The installation is at the forefront of vibrant modern design, a groundbreaking project which mirrors Audi's long-standing philosophy of Vorsprung durch Technik (advancement through technology) and our constant commitment to intelligent innovation."

The London Design Festival runs from 18 - 26 September with over 240 participating organisations, events, launches, talks and tours. www.londondesignfestival.com