PLACEBO EFFECTS was founded on April 1 st 1999 – no April Fools joke! Initially named DARK Vision for the first two years, the company got a new name and profile designed by the design company Rayon three years ago. Now, five years in the running, PLACEBO EFFECTS is gearing up to work on design visualisation outside of the Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry.

Illustration: the PLACEBO EFFECTS studio in 1999

If architecture and painting were the dominating art forms of the previous centuries, from the Middle Ages and until the 20 th century, film has been the art form of the 21 st century. What will be the defining art form of this century one can only speculate on? Art has gone from being still (painting, sculpture, architecture) to moving images (film and video art) to being interactive (installations using computer technology and a rare few games). Perhaps interactive virtual environments, a sort of cross breeding of games, music and the visual art forms will be the future?

In current and upcoming computer games such as Half-Life 2 on the PC and Halo 2 on the Xbox, design – and herein architecture – plays an important role.

Now films – cinematic gaming – are influencing games and vice versa – the Wachowski Brothers' “Matrix” series and Quentin Tarantino's “Kill Bill 1+ 2” for sure.

And film has undoubtedly influenced architecture, just as architecture has influenced film. In particular in the futuristic films, those speculating on what may come, architecture can be more than the backdrop for the story. Sometimes it can take on the form of a character in itself, such as in the films of Jacque Tati: “Mon Oncle” (1958) and “Playtime” (1967). Architecture certainly plays an important role in movies such as Ridley Scott's “Blade Runner” (1984), Terry Gilliam's “Brazil” (1985) and Luc Besson's “Fith Element” (1997) to name but a few.

In the 1999 A&D issue on “Architecture & Film II”, architect and lead 3d artist at Digital Domain, Eric Hanson, makes a claim that architects should be and can be more involved with film design, digital sets and visual effects for film.

It is strange to look back on where we were five years ago, stuck in a small room in a cellar, which we even attempted to remodel (see the illustration). Now five years later PLACEBO EFFECTS would like to take up on Hanson's challenge and so it is with great expectations and excitement that we, in our anniversary year, are gearing up for the leap onto the silver screen. We can already see the contours of promising possible projects and are looking forward to the challenges that this most certainly will bring us!