VR

Kalina Bertin: "ManicVR was part of a deeply healing process"
Kalina Bertin, filmmaker and director of ManicVR, invites us to join her on a journey into the "inner worlds" of her siblings who are diagnosed with bipolar disorder. In 2019, she was awarded the Golden Nica in the Computer Animation category for her work.

The Wandering Mind: Feel the Pulse of the Earth
Feel global environmental data, experience it with your own senses and be connected to the Blue Planet even more intensively as a human being: This is the aim of The Wandering Mind project by the artist duo slow immediate. In a few weeks their residency will start in Argentina and Austria - organized by the European ARTificial Intelligence Lab.

Levers and Buttons: The Virtual Way to the Golden Nica
With their video game, the four youngsters Lorenz Gonsa, Martin Hatler, Samuel Stallybrass and Vincent Thierry made it to the Golden Nica: They received the the prize for "Levers and Buttons" in the u19 - CREATE YOUR WORLD category. This year's Prix Ars Electronica will be awarded in Linz on September 7, 2018.

VREI: VR Devices for the 2018 Ars Electronica Festival
The Ars Electronica Festival (September 6-10, 2018) will feature several virtual reality projects once again this year. To let festivalgoers enjoy hands-on experiences with them, Vienna-based VREI Company has made a few VR devices available. VREI CEO Florian Sam provides details in this interview.

TROPICS: The Golden Nica of Computer Animation 2018
The coveted Golden Nica of the Prix Ars Electronica in the category of computer animation goes to "TROPICS" by Mathilde Lavenne this year. At the Ars Electronica Festival from September 6 to 10, 2018, the artist will present her award-winning work - read more in the interview.

Deep Space LIVE: The Virtual House of Medusa
Ancient Rome comes to life at the Ars Electronica Center on Thursday, June 14, 2018. A Deep Space LIVE event entitled “House of Medusa” kicks off with a talk about the sensational finds made at an archeological dig in Lorch near Enns, Austria. Then, visitors can behold of virtual reconstruction of the original in VRLab.

MasterWorks: World Cultural Heritage, Right Up Close
Set out on a virtual journey to World Cultural Heritage sites worldwide in the comfort of the Ars Electronica Center! Your departure gate: CyArk’s MasterWorks. Elizabeth Lee, vice president of CyArk, told us more in this interview.

Physicians’ Colleague, Patients’ Helper: The Cognitive Computer
The 3-D short film entitled “Physicians’ Colleague, Patients’ Helper: The Cognitive Computer” will be running in Deep Space 8K at the Ars Electronica Center beginning in May. This film explains how deep neural networks can facilitate the evaluation of medical data, and how this is changing both the physician’s role and the doctor-patient relationship.

VR-Themed Weekend: Virtual Realities in Gaming
How are VR and AR changing the gaming scene and computer games? In Part 2 of our interviews previewing the virtual and augmented reality-themed weekend April 6-8, 2018, we discuss the upshots of these developments with Jeremiah Diephuis of the Playful Interactive Environments research group at the Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences’ Hagenberg Campus.

VR Themed Weekend: Virtual Worlds – New Realities
Digital environments occupy the focal point at the Ars Electronica Center April 6-8, 2018. The “Virtual Worlds – New Realities” themed weekend features talks and workshops about virtual & augmented reality. And, of course, there’ll be lots of installations that let visitors experience this amazing technology right up close, hands on. To find out more, read the first part of our interview about the themed weekend here!

Cultural Heritage in 3D
2018 is European Year of Cultural Heritage, and the Ars Electronica Center is taking part by hosting several events devoted to our cultural heritage throughout the year. Kicking things off will be a themed weekend on January 27-28, 2018 in Deep Space, where one of the featured speakers will be Stefan Traxler, archeologist at Upper Austria’s Landesmuseum. In this interview, he discusses cultural heritage and his upcoming talks as well as how technology has changed archeology.

Cultural Heritage: The Past Has a Bright Future
2018 is European Year of Cultural Heritage. To mark the occasion, the Ars Electronica Center is making cultural heritage a highlight of this year’s program of events. But you might ask why the Museum of the Future of all places is focusing on the artistic and cultural treasures of past epochs? Indeed, because the research on and presentation of them is currently undergoing a revolution. A revolution that was triggered by new technologies!

The Linz Synagogue in 3-D
The Linz Synagogue that was destroyed in 1938 has been reconstructed—at least, virtually—and it’s now possible to tour it in Deep Space 8K at the Ars Electronica Center. In this interview, Danielle Spera, director of the Jewish Museum of Vienna, talked to us about the general significance of a synagogue as well as her personal connection to the Jewish house of worship in Linz.

The Virtual Reconstruction of the Linz Synagogue
On Kristallnacht in November 1938, a mob acting on orders of the Nazi regime broke into the Linz Synagogue—like so many other Jewish houses of worship that night—ransacked it and set it ablaze. All that remained of the synagogue was a burnt-out ruin.

CyArk: Cultural Heritage as Virtual Experience
Groups of visitors to the Ars Electronica Center can take a joint virtual tour of some of the world’s most important cultural heritage sites courtesy of the 3-D content provided by CyArk now being screened in Deep Space 8K. Elizabeth Lee, vice-president of the international non-profit organization, talked to us about the possibilities that this opens up, and went into detail about CyArk’s mission: digitizing humankind’s cultural heritage all over the world.

A Weekend Outing in Outer Space
The Uniview visualization software used in Deep Space at the Ars Electronica Center takes visitors on interactive 3-D flights through the entire known universe in breathtaking images. Never-before-seen dimensions of outer space make up the itinerary of this mind-blowing trip.

The Universe Within – Cinematic Rendering
Because of the technical innovations in the Deep Space 8K, it is now possible to use highly complex programs. One is the Cinematic Rendering app for the presentation of photorealistic images of the human body in 3-D and jumbo-format dimensions.