life

Hortus Luminis
Theresa Vogt (DE)
Photosynthesis is an elementary part of everyday life. Nevertheless, our esteem for plants and other phototrophic organisms is limited. This may be due to the fact that most of their biological procedures are not visible to the naked eye. But they can be experienced through a microscope. Hortus Luminis creates a new level of interpretation that deals with the hidden energy of plants and other organisms. The application uses the data from an analogue microscope to grow digital plants.

Pig Simulator
Stephan Isermann (DE)
The Pig Simulator takes place in virtual reality but also in real space. The goal is to escape the slaughter in virtual reality – and, as in the real life of the real pig, this idea becomes futile. The user will live and die like a pig and experience the habitat of the animal as closely as possible through the virtual embodiment of an artificial and cruel habitat designed by humans to satisfy our desire for mass consumption of meat. The Pig Simulator may subvert common expectations about gaming and fights the dark irony of a just world of unequal life forms living in the shared habitat called Earth.

Thoughts on Day and Night
Maike Alisha Effenberg (DE)
By extending mechanical models from the 60s, you will find here a new approach towards nature and ecosystems. Contemplate the equality of the energy flow within a machine and within an organism. Both receive their energy from the light, react to it, and save it for processes at night. At least, this is what we think they do. So how much life do we find in a machine and how much construction do we find in nature?