Turning something good into something even better: Once again, as part of the VRHAM! Festival from 4–7 June this year, two teams will work with a mentor to develop their virtual reality projects. This time, it's all about collective instincts and domestic landscapes.
The third edition of the VRHAM! Festival Hamburg will start on 4th June – this time as a home edition due to the current situation. However, attendees of the virtual reality festival can don their VR glasses from the comfort of their homes on 4th June to watch the two groups, who have already been in action for around two weeks as part of the VRHAM! Residencies. The two teams are working on their projects alongside a mentor and will make an approx. 30-minute digital presentation of their progress on 7th June. What should you expect? Here is an overview:
Tyrant, victim or innocent bystander? You and your avatar can slip into one of three roles in the VR project "Captured" by Hanna Haaslahti. However, you and your virtual self will not be alone – you will be part of a group, giving up individual freedom in favour of collective instinct, an unsettling scenario that is well-known in recent history. Haaslathi is working on the project with the companies Fantomatico OY and High Road Stories. It is a virtual self-experiment that will leave you with food for thought. Dutch choreographer, dancer and teacher Anouk van Dijk is supporting the team as their mentor.
The smallest of worlds is our own. Our home. In these times of corona, it is more important than ever. Joan Soler-Adillon, Uwe Brunner and Bettina Katja Lange hope to capture this hoard of stories and valuable memories with their VR project "The smallest of worlds – A social landscape of collected privacy", namely in the interest of a collective domestic landscape. To do this, in the coming days, the three will be calling on an internet community to send them video material from their homes. The press text calls it "a virtual diorama that represents the fragmentation of our day-to-day life in the times of social distancing and self-isolation". The team came together as part of the IMMENSIVE VR/AI Residence 2020 in Barcelona. They are currently working with mentor Fabien Siouffi, founder of VR magazine "Fabbula".
The residences are a collaboration between VRHAM! Festival, Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein and the North Sea Region Interreg project Create Converge.
Fotos: Ulrich Schrauth: Catrin-Anja Eichinger
