UNLEASHED UTOPIAS - Exhibition of the VR ART PRIZE by DKB in Cooperation with CAA Berlin

UNLEASHED UTOPIAS. Artistic Speculations about Today and Tomorrow in the Metaverse

Marlene Bart, Theatrum Radix, 2022

Rebecca Merlic, Glitchbodies, 2022-ongoing

Mohsen Hazrati, FÃL PROJECT [NONE-AI], 2023

Lauren Moffatt, Local Binaries, 2022/23

Anan Fries, Posthuman Wombs, 2022

Opening: September 8, 2023, 7 pm

Award Ceremony: September 15, 2023, 7 pm

At: Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin

Artists: Marlene Bart, Anan Fries, Mohsen Hazrati, Rebecca Merlic, Lauren Moffatt

Curator: Dr. Tina Sauerlaender

The notion of a better world is closely tied to utopia as a theme. The term literally describes a wonderful place that does not exist. It means that the design for an ideal society is a criticism of the current situation. Utopias are based on questions such as: What happens if we change a couple of rules? How can we live well together? Thus, utopias also inherently have great potential for societal change and visions for a better future.

In this exhibition, the grant winners of the VR ART PRIZE of the DKB in Cooperation with CAA Berlin show how we might be able to deploy new technologies for a more just, multifaceted, and personal coexistence. They are alert to the changes in values and norms currently going on in society and link their speculations to topical debates. With the help of virtual reality and site-specific installations, the artists create accessible, immersive, experiential utopias. They critically speculate upon artificial intelligence, 3D scanning, animation techniques, research in scientific fields, or the metaverse.

Marlene Bart works with digitized natural history artifacts, bringing them to life in virtual worlds and producing a new perspective of our concept of nature. Anan Fries renounces the division between nature and technology to overcome the boundaries between biological genders, creating a world in which all bodies could be pregnant. Rebecca Merlic celebrates the liberation of binary identities, physical transformation, and the diversity of human individuality. Mohsen Hazrati combines figures from Iranian myths and soothsaying traditions with forms of artificial intelligence, altered by the artist to provide us with cryptic advice for our futures. Lauren Moffatt looks at the interior human, gathering data from it via artificial intelligence and combining it with painting to create a multilayered, intimate landscape.

The artists’ unleashed utopias rattle not only societal norms but also the purely profit-oriented use of new technologies. With their radical speculations, they open up new perspectives of our lives, our coexistence. Through their visions, they reinforce the values such as openness, diversity, and tolerance that should characterize our society now and in the future. And it is precisely in that where utopia lies.

The exhibition UNLEASHED UTOPIAS. Artistic Speculations about Today and Tomorrow in the Metaverse, produced by the VR ART PRIZE of the DKB in Cooperation with CAA Berlin, will be on display from September 9 through November 5, 2023, at the Haus am Lützowplatz. 

More information

Resonant Realities - VR Art Exhibition curated by Tina Sauerlaender

RESONANT REALITIES

Exhibition of the VR ART PRIZE by DKB in Cooperation with CAA Berlin

Featuring the works of the grant recipients: Banz & Bowinkel, Evelyn Bencicova, Patricia Detmering, Armin Keplinger and Lauren Moffatt

April 16 – June 6, 2021 at Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin

Each individual perceives the world through different lenses. Our personal views determine our impressions of our surroundings. Communication and exchange enable the possibility of encountering and understanding other outlooks. This act can be understood as a resonance of various realities. By putting one's own perspective in relation to another’s, it is possible to expand our own. In the best case, this process may create an open and empathetic coexistence within our society.

In the exhibition space, we interact with virtual reality artworks that here form a digital resonance of the physical world. We encounter virtual beings, observe interpersonal exchanges, and witness arrangements among artificial intelligence. The digital works resonate in the exhibition space in corresponding site-specific installations. The contrast between the physical and computer-generated worlds reveals the divergent parameters that apply to each location. Depending on the environment and one’s own viewpoint, the objects appear in variants and communication follows a different set of rules.

The artistic works reveal a deeper understanding of the digital realm and present technology as a human product which is inextricably linked to our values and norms. Our engagement with these works unlocks the possibility of questioning our relationship to culture, to our fellow human beings, and to the machines and technologies that surround us. This process consequently prompts a reexamination of our thoughts and actions.

Curated by: Tina Sauerlaender (Artistic Director)

More information: vrkunst.dkb.de

Online Events and Timeslot booking: hal-berlin.de

Image credits: Patricia Detmering, Aporia, 2020 / Evelyn Bencicova, Arielle Esther, Joris Demnard (Ikonospace), Artificial Tears, 2019 / Lauren Moffatt, Image Technology Echoes, 2020 / Banz & Bowinkel, Poly Mesh, 2020 / Armin Keplinger, THE ND-Serial, 2020/2021

RADIOSANDS - exhibition curated by Tina Sauerlaender

RADIOSANDS - Installation by Thom Kubli

August 23 - September 1, 2019 at Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin

We live in a filter bubble online. Algorithms sort through the daily flood of information so that we can select fragments to build our reality. Just as grains of sand, we assemble the pieces until they make sense as a whole. The installation Radiosands reflects the generation, distribution and perception of information in the digital age.

Thom Kubli, Radiosands, HeK Basel, 2019, Image © Aya Imamura

Radiosands is comprised of sixteen identical radios specifically designed for the installation. They float upon delicate pedestals as if on radio waves through the space. The audio fragments emitted from the radios are based on search results algorithms found in analog FM radio frequencies in the area. The search terms were predefined by the artist. They refer to political entities, emotions as well as perception and reflect life in today’s society. Like Facebook’s algorithms, they select information to be heard on the radios in real time. Audio excerpts from various broadcasts come together simultaneously in the exhibition and create a spatial installation of sound. Sentence fragments from different sources form new meanings together. The installations of Radiosands are always site-specific, because the events taking place in the surroundings are transmitted via radio into the exhibition space.

Radio or Internet—despite the medium, all information is repetitively filtered until the receivers perceive it. The starting point is the intention of the senders, who decide on the content, formulation and channel. The selection of the medium, its range and distribution determine how visible the information will be to specific groups. The recipients’ selective perception and cultural imprint makes them more open to some information than to others. Out of the fragments they receive, they generate a meaningful narration of our reality.

How many building blocks do we actually need to make our reality convincing? And how truthful is it? These questions are reminiscent of world building in science fiction and fantasy literature. It describes the construction of an imaginary, holistic cosmos with many single components necessary for a consistent, credible world. The end product is what the artist Thom Kubli calls “granular reality.” In novels as in reality, it is important that we embed these small pieces of information in a narrative both coherent and consistent to make it ring true. We may then forget the single parts and see only the big picture, like sand on the beach. 

The exhibition Radiosands at the Haus am Lützowplatz is curated by Tina Sauerlaender (peer to space).
The project is a collaboration between Thom Kubli with the research team of Dr. Sven Hirsch the Institute for Applied Simulation at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences.

Artistic Idea, Composition: Thom Kubli
Research Direction ZHAW: Dr. Sven Hirsch
Computer Language: Dr. Manuel Gil, Dr. Martin Schüle
Audio analysis: Prof. Dr. Thilo Stadelmann, Daniel Wassmer, Tobias Schlatter
Programming: Lydia Ickler, Norman Juchler
Technology and mechatronics: Florian Guist, Marek Olkusz
Assistant: Christian Maximilian Blasius

 With the helpful support of:  Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Hasler Stiftung, Migros Kulturprozent, ZHAW (Zurich University of Applied Sciences), HeK Basel and Haus am Lützowplatz.

Special thanks to Speechmatics for making the Speech Recognition Engine available.

PECHA KUCHA ART NIGHT about NETWORKS

January 31, 2018, 7.30 pm at Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin

Ein Abend. 12 Vorträge à 6 Minuten 40 Sekunden. Je 20 Bilder.

Moderiert von:
Yvonne Zindel (geb. Reiners) und Tina Sauerländer

Netzwerke sind in der Kunstwelt omnipräsent. Sie manifestieren sich in der Form von Kooperationen, Vereinen, Verbänden oder interaktiven, partizipativen sozialen Skulpturen, Salons sowie ihren Äquivalenten in der virtuellen Welt. Aber was bedeuten Netzwerke für KuratorInnen, KünstlerInnen, KunsthistorikerInnen und andere Akteure der Kunstszene eigentlich? In Kurzvorträgen im Pecha Kucha-Format beleuchten die SprecherInnen aus der (Berliner) Kunstszene die Bedeutung des Netzwerks als Plattform für Austausch, gegenseitige Stärkung und nicht zuletzt als eine (produktive) Metapher für menschliche Zusammenarbeit.

Die Veranstaltung wird organisiert von Performing Encounters und peer to space

Further information and speaker's list