November 2021
A kick-off lecture and a two-day hackathon opened a long-term collaboration between Korea National University of Arts (K-Arts) and Ars Electronica about and around the Metaverse and its next level. In the framework of the three yearlong research and prototyping period, students at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) and Korea National University of Arts(K-Arts) collaboratively designed their very own ideas and worlds of the Metaverse.
To start the exchange with the students and develop the research collaboration Horst Hörtner, CTO and Managing Director of Futurelab gave a lecture followed by a Q&A about the Futurelab’s research and experimentation about and with the Metaverse. Artworks from the Ars Electronica Festival history told the narrative of the Metaverse original and development. It continued with where are we now regarding this conversation as well as what questions to keep in mind to work on the next steps.
After the opening lectures the two-day hackathon led by artists Roman Senkl and Nils Corte followed. The students at both universities met for the very first time in person and got to know each other’s ideas, questions and perspectives about the metaverse. After a short journey into and through the metaverse artworks of the two very experienced artists, the students were able to explore different aspects by themselves. They explored navigation through lights and audio, interaction through drawing and chat bots as well as sensing hot and cold through DIY glove-extensions. The hackathon was wrapped up with a final presentation, discussion around and finding a winner projects. All students were able to vote on each other’s projects which was then honoured with a price.
Initiated is the project by Professor CHO Chung-Yean and Professor LEE Seung-moo.
© Hana Yun / K-ARTS
© Hana Yun / K-ARTS
© Hana Yun / K-ARTS
© Hana Yun / K-ARTS
Roman Senkl and Nils Corte
As minus.eins, Roman Senkl and Nils Corte develop and produce theater projects, festivals and installations in virtual reality environments, combining real and digital worlds in artistic livestreams. Recent projects include the virtual theater series “Das HOUSE” or the online festival In Kepler’s Gardens for the Ars Electronica Festival, where they created virtual meeting places in more than one hundred 3D spaces to accompany the festival. For the annual conference of the Dramaturgische Gesellschaft 2021, they created the online spaces as well as the technical infrastructure for the conference.
Nils Corte CEO Peppers Holosuite, Consultant for digital arts at Theater Dortmund, Director, Author, Transmedia Artist and Artistic Director of minuseins cyborg art collective.
Roman Senkl Head of Berliner Festspiele’s laboratory for digital arts, Consultant for digital arts at Theater Dortmund, Director, Author, Transmedia Artist and Artistic Director of minuseins cyborg art collective
Horst Hörtner
Horst Hörtner is a media artist and researcher. He is an expert in design of Human-Computer Interaction and holds several patents in this field. He started to work in the field of media art in the 1980s and co-founded the media art group x-space in Graz/Austria in 1990. Hörtner is a founding member of the Ars Electronica Futurelab, launched in 1996, and since then Managing Director of the laboratory. Since 2020, he is also CTO of Ars Electronica and holds a position as conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle/Australia since 2013. He is working in the nexus of art & science and gives lectures and talks at numerous international conferences and universities.
CTO & Managing Director of Ars Electronica Futurelab
