Metaversum – Utopie, Dystopie oder Realität - Panel in der Villa Hügel Essen

Metaversum – Utopie, Dystopie oder Realität

22, Mai, 19 Uhr, Villa Hügel, Essen

Mit Angie Gifford, Europa-Chefin von Meta, Prof. Dr. Mario Botsch, Professor für Computer Science an der TU Dortmund, Dr. Tina Sauerländer, Kuratorin und Schriftstellerin und Michael Harr, Geschäftsführer der Stiftung Pro Senectute beider Basel. Die Moderation übernimmt die Autorin und Journalistin Shelly Kupferberg.

Non-Profit Organisationen wie zum Beispiel Stiftungen sind wichtige Akteure in unserer Gesellschaft und gestalten die Räume von morgen mit. Dennoch sind sie bisher kaum präsent im Metaverse. Entsteht da nicht ein Ungleichgewicht? Gibt es nicht sogar so etwas wie eine Verpflichtung für Non-Profit-Organisationen, sich im Metaverse zu engagieren? Weitere Fragestellungen, die besprochen werden, richten sich auf ethische Aspekte und technische Bedingungen für den Zugang zum Metaverse.

Seit 2019 lädt die Stiftung in lockerer Atmosphäre Akteure aus Kunst, Kultur, Literatur, Wissenschaft oder Medien in die Villa Hügel ein. Jeder Salon widmet sich einem thematischen Schwerpunkt und greift aktuelle gesellschaftliche Fragestellungen auf.

Der Eintritt ist kostenfrei. Eine Anmeldung ist erforderlich.

krupp-stiftung.de/veranstaltungen/programm/der-huegel-ist-salon

Bild: Krupp Stiftung

DIGITAL FUTURES Panel Talk

July 7th, 2022

The Digital Futures panelists will discuss and highlight the issues related to the intersection of digital and performance art.

Speakers:

Dr. Christiane Paul, New York, Adjunct Curator of Digital Art at the Whitney Museum of American Art | Professor in the School of Media Studies at The New School

Dr. Julie Nagam, Winnipeg, Director Nuit Blanche Toronto | Glam Collective

Tina Sauerlaender, Berlin, Artistic Director VR ART PRIZE | Co-Founder peer to space | Founder SALOON Berlin

Peggy Schoenegge, Berlin Senior Curator | peer to space

Dr. Francesca Albrezzi, L.A, University of California Los Angeles

Rah Eleh, Toronto, Moderator and Artist

We would like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts for their support. In addition, we would like to thank our partners at the European Cultural Centre Performance, European Cultural Centre Italy and the Aabijijiwan New Media Lab.

July 7, 2022 from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM CEST

https://zoom.us/j/96776275337?pwd=MHpIa2JOQ1ZLdVg3K3JSN21tK2k0dz09

Passcode: 573857

SKIN DEEP - Solo Show of Jonas Blume, curated by Tina Sauerlaender

SKIN DEEP

Solo Exhibition of Jonas Blume

Jonas Blume, Yes. (Double David), 2022, installation, two Dibond color prints behind acrylic glass, 80 x 180 cm

Curated by Tina Sauerlaender (peer to space)

At SCOPE BLN, Lübecker Str. 43, 10559 Berlin

April 29 – May 27, 2022

Friday, April 29, 6 – 22 pm: Opening

Skin defines the boundaries of our physical bodies and constitutes the interface for interaction with the world. Artist Jonas Blume uses his skin as medium to reflect on the relationship between reality and image worlds. In his works, skin appears in a liminal state oscillating between flat surface texture and three-dimensional volume, as a membrane between physical state and mediated hyperreality. Based on photographs, Jonas Blume transfers his skin to a variety of mediums and materials to create an enhanced human physicality. In his images, videos, sculptures, and installations he distorts, extends, rearranges, and liquifies his appearance. Blume’s works herald the new age of body consciousness transforming bodies into consumable images. Skin becomes a political canvas because it constitutes the inalienable individual capital that everyone may maximally exploit to generate visibility within the attention economy.

Accompanying Program: 

Thursday, May 5, 17:30 - 19:30h: Opening Hours - Artist and curator are present

Afterwards 20 - 22h: LIGHT YEAR 85 screening >> Urban Algorithms - videos by Dennis Rudolph, Daniel Molnar, Jung Soo Cho, Vasilena Gankovska and Anne Glassner, curated by Boris Kostadinov

Monday, May 9, 6 pm CEST (online, in English): Artist Talk of Jonas Blume with Dr. Stephan Schwingeler, professor for Media Studies at HAWK University of Applied Sciences and Arts, author of the book Kunstwerk Computerspiel – Digitale Spiele als künstlerisches Material (transcript, 2014) - (Registration by email via tina@peertospace.eu)

Sunday, May 15, 14 - 16h: Opening Hours - Artist and curator are present

Friday May 20, 18h: Curator’s Tour and Artist Talk with Jonas Blume and Tina Sauerlaender 

Friday, May, 27, 16 – 20 h: Finissage

Exhibition Catalog of RESONANT REALITIES is out !

The exhibition RESONANT REALITIES- Exhibition of the VR ART PRIZE by DKB in Cooperation with CAA Berlin took place from April 16 to July 4, 2021 at Haus am Lützowplatz in Berlin and showed the VR works and installations of the grant winners of the VR ART PRIZE, Banz & Bowinkel, Evelyn Bencicova, Patricia Detmering, Armin Keplinger and Lauren Moffatt, and was curated by Tina Sauerlaender Artistic Director of the VR ART PRIZE.

>> Learn more about the exhibition here <<

>> Learn more about the VR ART PRIZE here <<

>> Download the catalog here <<

KSB's Digital Lab #2 with LaTurbo Avedon, Peggy Schoenegge and Tina Sauerlaender

June, 15, 2021, 3 pm CEST

As a part of the Digital Lab #2, peer to space’s curators Peggy Schoenegge and Tina Sauerlaender will participate together with artist LaTurbo Avedon in a panel on AI and co-creation.

Full program here

Virtual Worlds - The Future Of WebVR and SocialVR in Art and Society

Virtual Worlds - The Future Of WebVR and SocialVR in Art and Society

Wednesday June 16, 5 - 5.55 pm CEST

As a part of the 1000Vordenker’s talk series 55 Min Gatherings, peer to space’s director & head curator Tina Sauerlaender will speak about SocialVR’s and WebVR’s impact on the art scene during the pandemic and its consequences for our society and its further developments.

More information: 1000Vordenker.com

Watch the short version of the talk here.

Tina Sauerlaender participates in VRHAM!'s REAL-IN conference

REAL-IN CONVENTION

Immersive Technologies in Interactive Arts

Fri, June 11, 2021 , 10-3.30 pm CEST

The conference aims to bring together artists, producers, cultural institutions, policy makers, industry experts and researchers to explore the potentials of 3D-scanning and volumetric capture technologies for interactive and digital arts. With XR technologies becoming increasingly more accessible, how can creatives seize the opportunity to produce courageous and inventive artistic content? How can technological tools and immersive storytelling be used to develop innovative participatory and social audience experiences? And how to create an immediate and lasting ecosystem that inspires new ideas and drives creative advancement?

Full program here

Watch the talk here

Tina Sauerlaender on a Pioneer of Self-Portraiture in Computer Art: Joan Truckenbrod

Ripped Distance, 1982, Photo: Courtesy of the Artist

Rites of Passage, 1984, Photo: Courtesy of the Artist

Lattice Vibrations, 1986, Photo: Courtesy of the Artist

peer to space’s Director & Head Curator, Tina Sauerlaender, who currently pursues a PhD on Artistic Self-Representation in Digital Art at Art University in Linz (Austria), introduces a pioneering position of self-portraiture in computer art. For one decade, the artist Joan Truckenbrod researched and reflected on her self-image by using the latest digital technologies for her works during the 1980s.

Read Tina Sauerlaender’s article on Joan Truckenbrod for ZI Spotlight, the blog of the German Central Institut for Art History here.

Tina Sauerlaender becomes Art & Tech columnist for Netzpiloten.de

Tina Sauerlaender started to contribute to Netzpiloten.de with a column on Art & Tech on the German platform for the online magazine Netzpiloten.de that focuses on digital and tech.

Netzpiloten.de are among the digital pioneers in Germany. Founded in 1998 in Hamburg by Wolfgang Macht and Matthias Dentler, the company was one of the prominent representatives of the so-called New Economy. As such, it experienced the ups and downs of this economic phase with innovative network products. Today, the Netzpiloten, with around 75 employees in Hamburg, Berlin and Barcelona, work in the fields of digital marketing and digital publications. In particular, the independent magazine netzpiloten.de has accompanied the digital change for over 15 years.

See her first text on WebVR conferences here

See her profile on netzpiloten.de here

Mara Johanna-Kolmel's and Tina Sauerlaender's show for Kara Agora

Bunch of Kunst in Quarantine // Paradox Paradise

Artists: Uli Ap (UK), Katharina Arndt (DE), Lara Verena Bellenghi (AT), Hannah Bohnen (DE), Marta de la Figuera (ESP), Ornella Fieres (DE), Bettina Funke (DE), Sabine Funke & Karlheinz Bux (DE), Fabian Hesse (DE) & Mitra Wakil (AFG), Helena Hunter (UK), Dorien Lantin (DE) & Robert Hecht (DE), Marie-Eve Levasseur (CAN/DE), Martina Menegon (IT/AT), Filippo Minelli (IT), Chiara Passa (IT), Agnese Sanvito (IT), Susan Supercharged (US/UK), Thomas Teurlai (FR), Miloš Trakilovic (BIH/NL)

Curated by Mara-Johanna Kolmel and Tina Sauerlaender 

Opening: October 8, 2020, 7 to 9.30 pm CET

Ornella Fieres, I create paths that lead to the clouds in which we go, 2020, Video, 8:55 Min, © the artist

Fabian Hesse & Mitra Wakil, Still Life, 3D-Scan, Screen Capture, 2020 © the artists

Chiara Passa, NULL (void *)0 a material cause architecture, 2017 © the artist

Marie-Eve Levasseur, tactile cravings (exhausted by oversharing everything), 2020 © the artist

Susan Supercharged, The Unlikely Friendship of Mike Tyson and Werner Herzog, 2020 © the artist

Uli Ap, Yellow Alienation, altered video still, immersive video installation, 2020 (c) the artist

Katharina Arndt, Constantly Practice To Take Relevant Selfies, detail, 2020 © the artist

Milos Trakilovic, XYZ, HD Video, 06.47 min, 2016 © the artist

Bunch of Kunst in Quarantine // Paradox Paradise is a virtual exhibition curated by Mara-Johanna Kolmel and Tina Sauerlaender. It turns its lens on artistic production in times of Corona and poses the question of how visual art - in the context of social distancing, national demarcation, domestic retreat, economic downturn, rising nationalism and encompassing surveillance - can open up alternative paths for reflection, transformation and solidarity. As such, Paradox Paradise symbolizes the state of living between the extremes unfolding between physical and the digital worlds. The exhibition at Kara Agora on Mozilla Hubs is a new iteration of Mara-Johanna Kolmel’s open call Instagram exhibition Bunch of Kunst in Quarantine // Reflections On The Viral Vacuum. This edition presents selected European artists from the first edition who have remodeled their artworks especially for the virtual exhibition space.

Further Information

Tina Sauerlaender appointed Artistic Director of VR ART PRIZE

Tina Sauerlaender, Photo by J. Pegman, 2020

Peer to space’s Co-Founder, Director and Head Curator was appointed Artistic Director of the VR ART PRIZE by DKB in Cooperation with CAA Berlin. The VR ART PRIZE  is the first art prize for virtual reality in the field of visual arts with an institutional exhibition in Germany and aims to contribute to the structural establishment of this emerging medium in art. The prize focuses on exploring the artistic potential of new technologies, seeking to explore and critically reflect on how they impact on individuals and society. The prize aims to contribute to the structural establishment of this emerging medium in art.

The Open Call for VR artists is open until June 30, 2020.

vrkunst.dkb.de

Laval Virtual Conference - Panel on Digital and Virtual Art Exhibitions IRL and the Virtual World

Panel at Laval Virtual Conference:
Digital and Virtual Art Exhibitions IRL and the Virtual World

April 23, 2020 at 4-6 pm Berlin time / 10 am -12 pm New York time
At: Laval Virtual Conference (at Laval Virtual World)

Short Talks by
Michael Connor (Artistic Director, rhizome.org)
Christiane Paul (Adjunct Curator of Digital Art | Director/Chief Curator Whitney Museum | Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, The New School)
Alfredo Salazar-Caro (Co-founder DiMoDA)
Tina Sauerlaender (Co-founder peer to space and Radiance VR)
Panel Discussion moderated by
Julie Walsh (Founder Walsh Projects)

How to join the conference?
The participation is for free.
Register for the conference
Download and install the Laval Virtual World (you can use it on your desktop)
Login and explore the world.
Read guidelines how to attend the conferences
The full schedule of the events can be found here.

WALKTHROUGHS by Synthesis Gallery: Martina Menegon and Tina Sauerlaender

WALKTHROUGHS by Synthesis Gallery
April 20 at 6 pm Berlin time / Noon New York time
Live Streaming on Facebook here
ZOOM Link here
 

Martina Menegon will introduce her VR works and be in conversation with peer to space’s Director Tina Sauerlaender. They will speak about the perception of self and the creation of identity in the digital world. The talk will be moderated by George Vitale (Synthesis Gallery).

About the series Walkthroughs : VR art live streamed through the artist's eyes. A weekly meetup happening online with curators joining the conversation and creatives that, in turn, put the headset on, share their screen and walk us through the VR work. The walkthroughs focus on providing an overview of the artist’s creative process and insights into the work as heard from the artists themselves, as they walk us through it.

Image: Martina Menegon, ‘when you are close to me I shiver’, VR experience, still, 2020

Synthesis Gallery
Martina Menegon

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.

Peer to space’s Director Tina Sauerlaender at VRHAM 2019

June 9, 2019, at 6 pm at Stockmeyerstrasse 43, Hamburg HafenCity, Oberhafenquartier, Germany

peer to space’s director Tina Sauerlaender moderates a panel with Gabrielle Roque (Director COCOTTE-MINUTE, winner of the international Residency VRHAM! 2019), Ulrich Schrauth (Artistic Director VRHAM! Virtual Reality & Arts Festival) and Julie Walsh (freelance curator for VR & AR, founder of Walsh Projects) on exhibiting VR Art in a physical space.

VRHAM! is an international Festival for Virtual Reality Art. Established in 2018, the festival opens its doors for the second time, from 7 to 15 June 2019, in Hamburg’s Oberhafenquartier. Under this year’s motto “DIS:SOLUTION” they present a large selection of Virtual Reality experiences and live performances by contemporary artists. 

Further Information

VR art exhibition on Speculative Species at Espronceda, Barcelona

SPECULATIVE SPECIES - VR Art in the Age of the Anthropocene

Artists: Bianca Kennedy & The Swan Collective (DE), Juan Le Parc (ARG/FR), Jakob Kudsk Steensen (DK/US), Lara Torrance (UK/US)

Curators: Tina Sauerlaender & Peggy Schoenegge (DE) and Erandy Vergara (MX/CAN)

At: Espronceda, Center for Art & Culture, Carrer D'Espronceda 326 Nave 4,5 & 10
08027 Barcelona, Spain

Opening & Artist Talk & Panel Discussion: June 20, 2019, 7 pm

Duration: June 20 to 29, 2019

In the course of industrialisation, urbanisation and technolisation, human’s impact on the environment is increasing. The use and destruction of nature and its resources impairs the ecosystem, causing damage such as the hole in the ozone layer, climate change, the endangerment and extinction of various species. New procedures make it even possible to change DNA, which equally affects the whole system. All these human interventions inevitably affect global ecology and its creatures. Mankind has never been perceived as such an influencing factor for the environment. Today’s scientists and thinkers propose a new epoch, the Anthropocene, that describes and deals with the man-made changes, speaking from a geology of humankind.

Art as a mirror of current affairs also deals with these issues and uses new technologies such as VR. Using the possibilities of the virtual space as a room for experiments, artists reflect and speculate on characteristics and future developments of this new era of human interference with the environment and its creatures. They ask about the development of flora and fauna and how living conditions of different terrestrial species change. What kind of interrelation between humans and their environment will occur? The artists engage with the interconnections between humans and their fellow living creatures today and in speculative futuristic settings. This discussion/debate/speculative approach is transferred into the virtual space, in which the visitor immerses into.

Bianca Kennedy and The Swan Collective propose insects as alternative nutrition causing future genetic modifications. Juan Le Parc reveals an ancient temple built with meat products as a theatrical animal tragedy to discuss the duality of mass consumption and religious symbolism. With RE-ANIMATED Jakob Kudsk Steensen resurrects an extinct bird from recordings of its mating call in a world inhabited by algorithmically grown digital plants. Lara Torrance draws attention to endangered species in New England by placing their glassy versions into the virtual space.

Invited by the Goethe-Institut and Studio XX in Montréal, Erandy Vergara and Tina Sauerlaender developed the concept of their exhibition series Critical Approaches in Virtual Reality Art where this exhibition is part of. This series combines the passion and expertise of two curators: Erandy Vergara's engagement with postcolonial and feminist perspectives on media art and theory (Mexico/Montreal) and Tina Sauerlaender's curatorial engagement with digital technologies and Virtual Reality (Berlin). Together with peer to space’s curator Peggy Schoenegge, they curate the exhibition SPECULATIVE SPECIES.

Image: Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Re-Animated, 2018, screenshot of VR experience © the artist

Technobodies: Pecha Kucha Art Night 5 / Post-Digital

Pecha Kucha Art Night 5 //Post-Digital takes place as a part of the Technobodies event series:

CUBE, Virtual Gallery for Virtual Art, Architectural Design by Manuel Rossner, Courtesy of Roehrs & BoetschDate: May 23, 2019, 6 pm (doors open)

Date: May 23, 2019, 6 pm (doors open)

Location: Grüner Salon, Volksbühne, Berlin

Tickets on Eventbrite // Event on Facebook

In the digital age, the digital is no longer only digital. Digital aesthetics entered real space long ago, and new technologies such as Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality are producing new art forms. Curating takes place on and offline, in exhibition spaces, websites or on social media. Art is now even sold over Instagram. Museums use digital tools to promote their exhibitions. Art and life are now increasingly intertwined outside of the museum and the White Cube.

The evening’s speakers will introduce their various subject areas and thereby will sketch an exciting picture of the post-digital art scene in Berlin. The talks will be given in English or German.

Speakers:

Antje Akkermann, Curator of Media, Ethnological Museum and Museum of Asian Art in the Humboldt Forum

Alma Alloro, Artist

Tilman Baumgärtel, Author, journalist, professor for Media Science, University of Applied Sciences, Mainz

Philip Hausmeier, Co-founder, RadianceVR.co

Janne Nora Kummer, Director, performer, multimedia artist, member of the artist collective virtuellestheater

Wolf Lieser, Director, DAM

Peggy Schoenegge, Board member, medienkunstverein.com

Anika Meier, Art scholar, author, curator

Daniel Neugebauer, Head of Department of Communications and Cultural Education, HKW

Nina Roehrs, Director, Roehrs & Boetsch

Manuel Rossner, Artist and founder of Float Gallery

Sakrowski, Curator, panke.gallery and member of 21cc

Since 2015 the lecture series PECHA KUCHA ART NIGHT has been organized and moderated by Tina Sauerlaender (peer to space) and Yvonne Zindel (Performing Encounters).

More information about the event.
More information about the previous PECHA KUCHA ART NIGHTS.

Technobodies is curated by Yvonne Zindel, who explores the possibilities of the digital in art and design, cultural hacks, and digital forms of mediation in a research-based and artistic way. Since 2014 she has regularly been negotiating topics such as AI and hacking in her series Performing Encounters. The series addresses scenarios for the exchange and genesis of ideas at the interface of art and science, in the intimate yet public setting of the Grüner Salon. The interplay between data and our bodies will be explored. In doing so, the imaginary contradiction between analog and digital is reflected upon critically, and the informal exchange from the digital hub will be brought back to the analog salon—and vice versa.

Group Show on New Media Art at Goethe Media Space, Toronto

TOUCHING FROM A DISTANCE II - Transmediations in the Digital Age

Commissioned & presented by the Goethe-Institut Toronto
Co-presented with Hot Docs, Images Festival & Digifest

Artists: Jonas Blume (DE), Manja Ebert (DE), Ornella Fieres (DE), Aron Lesnik (DE), Lorna Mills (CAN), Sarah Oh-Mock (DE), Julia Charlotte Richter (DE), Anna Ridler (UK), The Swan Collective (DE), Tina Wilke (DE).

Curated by Tina Sauerländer (peer to space)

Opening & Artist Talk: Friday, March 22, 2019, 6:30 pm

Goethe Media Space, 100 University Ave, North Tower, 2nd floor, Toronto, Canada

Jonas Blume, Predictive Biography, 2018 © the artist

Ornella Fieres, As if we are passing through tunnels, Video (Still), 2017 © the artist

Sarah Oh-Mock, You Want It Darker, Video (Still), 2017/18 © the artist

Tina Wilke, GLOCAL, Argentina / Bolivia, 2012-2018, Video (Still) © the artist

Aron Lesnik, IMITATIO, Video (Still), 2018 © the artist

The Swan Collective, Here We Are - A Turing Torture, 2018, VR Experience (Still), 2018 © the artists

Julia Charlotte Richter, Das kleine Rotkäppchen (Little Red Riding Hood), Video (Still), 2011 © the artist

Touching From A Distance presents recent digital art works immersed into the book shelves and media hardware at the Goethe Media Space. All works deal with transmediation, the process of translating information between different co-existing media–analog or digital, written or visual. The concept of transmediation reflects our daily internet routine, as we stay connected via intangible yet visible information. The band Joy Division praised the effect of music conveyed through the radio with their 1979 song Transmission: “Touching from a distance...sound, that's all we need to synchronise.” Today, digital data reaches and connects us as we post images, create short videos, or use emojis.

The 10 featured works build bridges between literature, language, digital art or VR. Ornella Fieres explores the transitions between analog and digital imagery; Anna Ridler transforms Edgar Allan Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher into an AI animation based on the artist’s drawings; Aron Lesnik creates uncanny animations of people talking about the advantages of reading.

The exhibition is the 2nd version of TOUCHING FROM A DISTANCE, organized by medienkunstverein.com and Literaturhaus Berlin, curated by Manja Ebert, Tina Sauerländer and Peggy Schoenegge in 2018.

The exhibition includes a world premiere by Lorna Mills as well as 6 North American and 3 Canadian premieres.

Duration: Fri, 03/22/2019 - Thu, 05/23/2019

More information

SPECULATIVE CULTURES - A Virtual Reality Exhibition

Matias Brunacci, Virtualshamanism, VR experience, 2018

Artists:  Morehshin Allahyari (IRN/US), Scott Benesiinaabandan (CAN), Matias Brunacci (ARG/DE), Yu Hong (CHN), Francois Knoetze (ZAF), Erin Ko (US) & Jamie Martinez (COL/US)
Curators: Tina Sauerlaender & Peggy Schoenegge (DE), and Erandy Vergara (MX/CA)
At: Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons School of Design at The New School , 2 West 13th St, Ground Floor, New York, USA
Opening: February 7, 2019, 6- 8 pm
Artists' Tour: February 8, 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Duration: February 7, 2019 - April 14, 2019.

Cultures have never existed in a set state. They are all in constant flux brought about by social, economic, and technological developments. The global flow of people forges change, adaptation of norms and the creation of new forms for human societies, religions, rituals, or spoken languages. These processes of change lead to the adoption of new tools or practices and therefore can be considered as engine for progress, growth, and innovation. The new tools of the digital age offer new possibilities for cultures to exist, evolve, and consolidate. Virtual Reality allows artists to speculate about new manifestations of cultural expressions within the conditions of the digital realm. Independent of physical surroundings, new spaces spring into existence. Through their works, the artists shape their hopes and desires into virtual environments representing imagined cultures. Their speculative virtual worlds create different perspectives on established narratives and traditions, as well as images and symbols. The artists’ projects thereby open possibilities for leaving accustomed views and familiar structures behind and exploring different notions of one’s own personal surroundings and conditions of human existence.

This show is part of the exhibition series Critical Approaches in Virtual Reality Art, which was developed by Erandy Vergara and Tina Sauerlaender at the invitation of the Goethe-Institut and Studio XX in Montréal. This series brings together Erandy Vergara's engagement with postcolonial and feminist perspectives on media art and theory and Tina Sauerlaender's curatorial engagement with digital technologies and Virtual Reality.  

Presented in partnership with the Consulate General of Canada in New York.

Talk on Virtual Reality & Art at LMU Munich by Tina Sauerlaender

Image.: Scrubbing 1, Maquette, 2017 by Rachel Rossin (Postmasters Gallery)

As a part of the lecture series on Digital Art History at the KHI (Department for Art History) of the LMU University Munich, Germany, peer to space’s director Tina Sauerlaender gives a talk on Immersion & Virtual Reality in Art and Art History (in German).

January 22, 2019, 7 pm, at Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Zentnerstr. 31, Raum 007 im EG

Further Information (Germany only)