Hertzlab

The Hertzlab operates as a transdisciplinary research and development platform at the interface of media arts, science and society.

The Hertzlab unites the Institute for Visual Media and the Institute for Music and Acoustics in order to expand the existing fields of action in close transcultural exchange with international institutes and research centers and to explore the artistic-medial possibilities of expression and design in the age of rapidly accelerated technological progress and digitization.

The Hertzlab focuses on artistic production and media technology research. At the laboratory, contemporary artistic-scientific concepts – for example, extended reality in AR and VR applications, artificial intelligence, immersiveness, or sensor-supported environments as well as research into artistic options in the electromagnetic field – are reflected on across media and genres, examined for artistic applicability and realized in productions.

The title of the Hertzlab is dedicated to the scientist Heinrich Hertz, who proved the existence of electromagnetic waves in his famous spark experiments at the University of Karlsruhe in 1886. He is regarded as the founder of radio technology, the wireless transmission of information – and is thus the model for the innovation center within the ZKM, the Hertzlab.