#hertzlab: Virtuality – New Dimensions of the Real

At the Hertz-Lab, ZKM's artistic research and production platform, the topic of virtuality is both artistically negotiated and scientifically explored in a variety of forms. To kick off the new streaming series #hertzlab, virtuality will be examined from various perspectives and using the example of current projects at the Hertz-Lab.

One of the currently much discussed developments in the field of digital media is virtual reality. Developed as early as the 1960s, the concept of computer-generated reality has experienced a veritable hype in recent years, reaching even a non-specialist audience. The idea of immersion in a non-existent reality triggers different reactions, from euphoria to rejection.

»BEYOND MATTER« is an international, collaborative, practice-based research project reflecting on the virtual condition, with a particular focus on its spatial aspects in art production, curation and mediation. Its diverse activities and formats include digital revivals of selected past seminal art and archival exhibitions, conferences, artist-in-residence programs, an online platform, and publications. The work »VRMe« by the media artist and programmer Bernd Lintermann exemplifies how an artistic VR experience can be concretely designed. The image and tracking qualities of current VR technologies can lead to such a degree of immersion in a non-existent reality that viewers experience themselves and their bodies as a self-evident part of the scenery. While in conventional media the body stands in front of the image, in virtual reality it experiences itself as part of the action. »VRMe« addresses this new physicality by confronting viewers with different representations of their bodies in virtual reality.

The event was held in German.

Video documentary:

ZKM | Videostudio

Camera: Christina Zartmann, Peter Müller
Editing: Hauke Jörgensen