- Event
- Open Lab
Open Hertzlab & XR experience »Criptastically Hacked«
with Christian Bayerlein and Puneet Jain
Fri, October 17, 2025
- Location
- Lecture Hall
- Entrance fee
- Free entry
The Open Hertzlab takes place from 3 pm to 6 pm.
The slots for the XR experience start at 1 pm.
Online booking closed! - There are still a couple of free slots available. For spontaneous bookings, call: 0721 8100 1348
A participatory encounter at the intersection of disability, technology, and artistic intervention – what happens when hacking becomes a tool of care, resistance, and radical creativity?
In this session, web developer and activist Christian Bayerlein joins artist-researcher Puneet Jain to explore disabled-led innovation in XR and digital accessibility. Bayerlein – who lives with spinal muscular atrophy and directs his own care team – shares a practice rooted in autonomy and techno-critical experimentation: from micro-joystick interfaces to wheelchair-powered heating systems and open-source accessibility tools.
Puneet Jain, whose artistic research investigates the ableist foundations of XR technologies, presents experimental prototypes designed in close collaboration with crip activists. By hacking body-worn tech and reframing immersive media through the lens of access and agency, Jain repositions extended reality as a space for disabled storytelling and resistance.
The event includes a one-on-one XR experience from Jain’s XR artwork Crip Sensorama, followed by informal reflection. The experience is non-invasive and each session lasts 20 minutes and includes optional dialogue about the perceptual shift experienced.
Together, Bayerlein and Jain present a framework of „crip-tech“ that is less about fixing bodies – and more about questioning the systems that define usability and participation.
Booking Info for XR Experience “Criptastically Hacked”
For everyone aged 12 and older
Verfügbare Zeitfenster (je 20 Minuten):
1:00 pm – 2:40 pm
• 1:00 – 1:20
• 1:20 – 1:40
• 1:40 – 2:00
• 2:00 – 2:20
• 2:20 – 2:40
4:20 pm – 6:00 pm
• 4:20 – 4:40
• 4:40 – 5:00
• 5:00 – 5:20
• 5:20 – 5:40
• 5:40 – 6:00
Please contact workshops@zkm.de to reserve a slot. When booking, indicate both a first and second choice based on your preferred time slots listed above. You will receive a confirmation email. Only then will your registration be considered confirmed.
Imprint
Artist: Puneet Jain
Disability perspectives and narratives: Eric Desrosiers, Christian Bayerlein
Film and Audio-Visual production: Yesica Duarte
XR Development: Puneet Jain, Yesica Duarte
Narrator’s Voice Over in the Video Essay: Puneet Jain
Narrator’s Voice Over in XR: Christian Bayerlein
Mouth Interface Development: Puneet Jain, HIVE Lab, IIT Kanpur
Fabrication: HIVE Lab, IIT Kanpur, Luke Franzke, Shaahkar Siddiquee
Additional Contribution: Grit Uhlemann for “Christian’s Train Video”
This work was initiated during the FOUNDING LAB program at IT:U and Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria. The FOUNDING LAB is realized as a Public Partnership between Ars Electronica GmbH & Co KG and the Interdisciplinary Transformation University (IT:U), Austria and financed through funds from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research. Additionally, the research conducted during the making of the artwork was supported by Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Société et Culture (FRQSC).