Hybrid Space

Hybrid Space was an installation by the Ars Electronica Futurelab, presented as part of the lab’s 25-years anniversary in 2021. It provided an interactive space in the Ars Electronica Center where museum visitors could meet and interact with online visitors.

Over the years, the Ars Electronica Futurelab has done a lot of research on various forms of reality and their forms of presence or interaction. In the wake of the pandemic forcing us all into virtual video spaces, the lab presented Hybrid Space for the collective exploration of the intersections and boundaries between different (physical) spaces.

With the Installation at the Ars Electronica Center in Linz, online visitors could interact in real time in the physical space in the museum by using a drawing board on the FL25 website, or by taking control of a telepresence robot from home. The robot then “embodied” them, giving them a presence at the museum.

Collective music-making served as a form of interaction. Here, the tracks of different visitors from the various “spaces” intersected, contributing to the overall composition. Another feature in Hybrid Space was the integration of OutReach, one of the winning projects of the lab’s internal Futurelab Ideas Expedition. OutReach seeked to remove the limits on possibilities for action offered by telepresence in real space. It was dedicated to equalizing/democratizing the different forms of attendance.

Credits

Peter Freudling, Friedrich Bachinger, Arno Deutschbauer, Florian Berger, Manuel Dobusch, Simon Schmid, Hideaki Ogawa, Horst Hörtner