In March 2022, ARGEkultur invited Ursula Schwarz and three other artists to explore the technical and artistic possibilities of VR experiences for the first time during the DIGITAL SPRING as part of a Media Art Lab. Mentored by the media art collective minus.eins, the artists developed their own digital projects, which were shown at the OPEN MIND FESTIVAL in November 2022 at the ARGEkultur.
BRHRNG - Single-user experience
In the single-user experience BRHRNG, artist Ursula Schwarz and her team explored the question of the possibility and impossibility of physicality and touch in digital space. Where does touch arise? Can touch be experienced digitally at all? And: Can touch be digitally archived?
In one-to-one encounters the artists and the visitors met in especially created spaces on the open source platform Mozilla Hubs. There the artists were decribed longed-for touches and those that did not take place by the visitors and transferred them into the digital space using a motion capturing technique.
The performers transformed thoughts, longings and words into concrete touch and preserved them in the form of an avatar in the digital space. 10 of these touches can still be visited and experienced in the memory of the Digital Foyer of the ARGEkultur.
BHRNG is located in the space of the in-between – between analogue and digital, between touching and being touched, between reality and fiction.
Credits
Direction and idea: Ursula Schwarz
Performance: Olivia Mitterhuemer, Ursula Schwarz
Text and digital accompaniment: Dorit Ehlers
Concept development: Ursula Schwarz, Olivia Mitterhuemer, Dorit Ehlers
Artistic and technical mentoring: minus.eins (Roman Senkl, Nils Corte)
Technical implementation: Nils Corte with support from the ARGEkultur technicians
3D Design: Felix Ludwig
Production: INFLUX – Network for Dance, Theatre and Performance