52 Hz Weird Intermediate Beings

Virtual Reality SeminarIn this seminar, we are exploring the capability and inexhaustible power of our brains to adapt to any kind of scenario. One may not realize it, but our brain is processing data faster than any supercomputer, rapidly constructing mental maps based on sensory inputs as one moves through the built environment or gets confronted with everyday situations. Our ability for neuroplasticity paired with the emerging tools to create immersive virtual environments opens up new and provoking ways to see and engage with the tangible and intangible world we inhabit. All the Experiences developed during the seminar explore possible ways of engaging with simulated animal visions in order to perceive built environments from a different point of view. It is about designing machinic eyes, interfacing with computer visions to change the perception from human to non-human, staying fleshed while allowing to be wired in order to sense different species point of view. We have explored how interactive interfaces can augment and mediate human experience, interaction, and perception while developing new sensing modalities. And we questioned the following:

What does it mean to escape from the human (centered) visual regime.

How does it feel to enter the sensory apparatus of an animal?

Can the virtual experiences of inhabiting another creature challenge our most unquestioned routines?

Does the change of perspective create new empathic relations between human and non-human?

What is the value of manipulating and estranging bodily awareness?

How does it feel if you shrink to the scale of a mosquito and dwell on another body?

What is nowadays spatially and psychologically innovating?

How would you define Post humanism?

Can we provoke a sense of counter-visuality through experiencing other life forms?

Students: Jaclyn Debiasi, Iris Schumacher, Rebecca Sillaber, Sabrina Neuwirth, Fabio Brunn, Laura Kopp, Magdalena Rechei, Jan De Con, Sandro Sanin, Stephan Hollwarth, Johanna Achma, Konrad Sonne, David Kienpointer, Moritz Riedl, Nathaniel Nutt, Jan Klassen, Jonas Langenfelder, Anna Pompermaier, Jim Wagner.

Teaching: Uwe Brunner, Cenk Guzelis, Raphael Hanny