Keep VR Weird: Eine Geschichte der VR-Software (2013-2017)

05/10/17 • 28 min

Die VR-Szene explodiert vor Kreativität. Am deutlichsten wird das, wenn man sich die Entwicklung der VR-Inhalte von 2013 bis heute anschaut: Von Guillotine-Simulatoren, Riesenmensch-Fetisch-Spielchen und digitalen LSD-Trips ist alles dabei. So gut wie alle spannenden Ideen kommen dabei von Indie-Studios und einzelnen VR-Nerds – die großen Entwickler dagegen scheinen noch nicht verstanden zu haben, dass VR eben nicht die Realität nachbildet, sondern vor allem eine Traumerfüllungs-Maschine ist.

Jan-Keno Janssen

Die Session stellt die interessantesten, absurdesten, sinnlosesten und kreativsten Virtual-Reality-Inhalte vor; in chronologischer Reihenfolge von 2013 bis heute.

Software-Videoloops liefern nicht nur Einblick in die weirde Welt der VR, sondern zeigen auch anschaulich, wie riesig die Entwicklungsschritte sind – und wie viel sich in lediglich vier Jahren verändert hat.

Jan-Keno Janssen

Die Session stellt die interessantesten, absurdesten, sinnlosesten und kreativsten Virtual-Reality-Inhalte vor; in chronologischer Reihenfolge von 2013 bis heute.

Previous Episode

When Kennedy Died: Breaking the News (en)

On November 22nd, John F. Kennedy's day of death, people almost collectively remember where they were when they heard about his assassination. Today, we are constantly reminded of atrocities happening all over the world: push notifications are front and center and the news constantly breaks. And still, because of the sheer amount of information, we tend to quickly forget and we just swipe the news away. But how do we manage to remember when another alert is just around the corner? In 2014 I started the project „When Kennedy Died“. Based on data from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism I began to take pictures of all the places I was in when I heard about U.S. drones striking, among others, Somalia, Pakistan and Yemen. I realized: in order to be reminded of something, first I have to remember.

Khesrau Behroz

Thus far, I have created around 100 square-shaped collages. They show on the left side a screenshot of the push notification, and on the right side a picture of the place I was in when I heard about the news: on the street, in the restroom, in bed, sometimes even playing a game on the very phone on which I received the message. Walking these same places again in my everyday life, I see myself remembering the drone strikes. It's a vague memory: I don't know the victims, I don't know their names, I don't know where exactly it happened. But what I do know is this: walking this soil that is unburdened by those drone strikes, I pulled into my world a distant reality that feels much closer once I interacted with it.

In this talk, I'd like to speak, in detail, about this piece I started over two years ago. I want to discuss unmanned drone strikes, their quite literal impact and what draws me personally to this topic. I will also get into the follow-up project that I felt was necessary to do.

There will be a Q&A after the talk.

Next Episode

TX/RX (Transmit/Receive) (en)

With live interventions as his basis, Julian will read signal domains - from WiFi to GSM and analog radio - as techno-political territories, opening up questions of ownership, mobility and control in a world where technical forms of activism and decentralised infrastructure are central to positive change. Projects made by him (and made with others) that relate to these tensions will also be introduced, presented within the frame of his practice as a Critical Engineer.

Julian Oliver

What can we, as civilians, do with radio? What can and can't we listen to, and why? What are our rights of broadcast? If the air we breathe is considered public, why not that which passes through it?

Doubling as both intervention and lecture, Julian will lead the audience through an unbridled, hands-on exploration of radio infrastructure on which we depend, from GSM to GPS and WiFi. In doing so, he will read signal domains as highly patrolled techno-political territories, opening up questions of ownership, surveillance and control with a view to activism and decentralised, publicly-owned infrastructure.