A journey deep into the subconscious, Aska is an animated 360° short that unfolds in a colorful surreal world populated with the artist’s individual mythology. It is narrated in ten one-minute segments, each with its own story and meaning.
Running time 10 minutes
Lead Artist /Director Dominik Turan
Slovakia, 2021
In cooperation with the Institut für theatrale Zukunftsforschung am Zimmertheater Tübingen and supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, two artists or artistic teams have the opportunity to continue developing their projects, guided by internationally renowned mentors. The teams, selected by a national jury (Peer Mia Ripberger/ Artistic Director at the ITZ; Sabrina Schmidt/ Festival Dramaturg VRHAM; Markus Selg/ Artist, Stage Designer, Musician) will present the results at the VRHAM! FORWARD discourse programme from 4 to 12 June 2021 in Hamburg.
With VRHAM! FORWARD, VRHAM! Virtual Reality & Arts Festival has invited artists, creative teams and experts to experiment with virtual and augmented reality in the field of performing arts, to discuss and discover current developments. The programme, supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, in cooperation with Institut für theatrale Zukunfsforschung (ITZ) am Zimmertheater Tübringen, included discourse events, panels, workshops and residencies. For our panels and keynotes we could gain well-known national and international speakers. You can check out the panels here:
VRHAM! Virtual Reality & Arts Festival is offering a full-day workshop on Virtual Reality in the performing arts in Hamburg’s creative quarter Oberhafenquartier. The workshop is aimed at colleagues from the performing arts throughout Germany and is completely free of charge. With Mario Simon from the Akademie für Digitalität und Theater Dortmund and Lena Biresch, Virtual Experience Designer, VRHAM! has found the perfect experts to ease possible fears of the technology, to provide the participants with practical basic knowledge and to find out together how they can integrate Virtual Reality into thier own artistic practice. Ulrich Schrauth, Artistic Director of VRHAM! and Immersive Programmer of the London Film Festival, will also give an overview of what’s going on internationally in the field of immersive media and performative arts.
The VRHAM! Virtual Reality & Arts Festival goes on tour, first stop Moscow: In cooperation with the Stanislavsky Electrotheater Moscow and in the framework of the Year of Germany in Russia, virtual and augmented reality artworks from all over the world were presented in the immersive exhibition ULTRAMARIN from 22 to 25 April, which deals with the topic of water.
The exhibition concept based on the VRHAM! programme 2020. The festival programme includes works by Adrien M & Claire B, Sandro Bocci, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Christoph Monchalin, Olivia Mc Gilchrist, Can Büyükberber and Michelle-Marie Letelier.
With the first VRHAM! ON TOUR exhibition curated by Ulrich Schrauth and produced by Irina Tokareva, VRHAM! wants to promote the immersive art from Hamburg and foster international networking in this field. Further exhibitions are to follow.
UTRAMARIN was supported by the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media, Institut Français/Russia, Italian Embassy/Russia, Embassy of the Kingdom of Belgium/Russia. Technical partners are Film XR and Great Gonzo Studio.
For the VRHAM! FORWARD, Markus Selg is part of the selection committee for the teams. The artist, stage designer and musician was awarded the German Theatre Prize “Faust” in 2020 for the stage design of “ULTRAWORLD”, a theatre performance he conceived together with Susanne Kennedy for the Volksbühne Berlin. At the end of February, the new common production “I AM (VR)” celebrated its digital premiere in Tokyo. Markus Selg is a researcher, someone who crosses borders. A conversation with him about experiments, multimedia spaces of experience and VR in theatre:
VRHAM!: Susanne Kennedy told in an interview about your new joint project “I AM (VR)”: VR … “is a tool that lets us realize what reality is in the first place.” What artistic potential does VR offer for the field of theatre, for the performing artists and the audience?
MARKUS SELG: VR is a kind of mirroring of the human sensory experience, directly in one’s own head. It is not only a powerful technology of simulation, but a profound tool for reflection on human perception and ego-consciousness. Who am I? Who is this avatar with whom we identify? Do we exist in the physical world or do we exist primarily within the stories our brains tell themselves. Who or what hallucinates these stories? If we live in our own simulation, how can we interact with others? Can we even distinguish between reality and simulation? With the walk-on stage and VR, theatre has the possibilities of total immersion with simultaneous collective presence in the space. Compared to cinema or computer games, our physical bodies can also be included in the theatre space. With the fusion of theatre, VR and art, a system can emerge within which we can create the most complex cosmologies – with the audience as actors at their centre.
For VRHAM! FORWARD, VRHAM! Virtual Reality & Arts Festival, together with the Institut für theatrale Zukunfsforschung (ITZ) at Zimmertheater Tübingen, is looking for artists from Europe who are working in the field of the performing arts experimenting with Virtual and Augmented Reality. An interview with the artistic director of the ITZ, Peer Mia Ripberger.
VRHAM!: Who is the Open Call aimed at, who can apply until 31st March?
PEER MIA RIPBERGER: For the joint Open Call, we are looking forward to receiving submissions from artistic production teams in the field of immersive art. These can be both conceived projects and artistic works in the early stages that can be continued here at the ITZ in Tübingen in a concentrated working environment. We provide one of our stages for this and the most beautiful terrace on the Neckar for breaks and evenings.
V!: The use of digital media including VR is at the centre of your theatrical work. What potential do you see in this for the artistic process and socio-political exchange? What does this mean in concrete terms for the residencies you have announced?
PMR: Our focus on developing plays on socio-political themes allows us to think together contemporary theatre approaches and innovative media art. In doing so, digitalisation and automation occupy us both in terms of content and form as a means of staging. With VREEDOM, for example, we brought out a VR production in September 2020 that focused on the shared experience of VR for several people. Reflection on the media used also always plays a role for us – like VR here. Together with the VRHAM! team and the residents, we want to build a bridge from Tübingen to Hamburg and enter into an intensive exchange with the productions in order to push this reflection further.
V!: The last year has (inevitably) accelerated digitalisation in many cultural institutions. Do you now see your expertise and experience as even more of an impulse generator and networker?
PMR: We are of course trying to use the full potential of digital technologies in the performing arts and to bring their potential out into the city and the German-speaking theatre landscape. This is particularly exciting here because Tübingen, with its ‘Cyber Valley’, is one of the best and most innovative AI research locations in the world. Face-capturing as a means of staging, social VR and innovative progressive web apps that enable audio walks without audience contact as GPS-based smartphone applications – we have dealt with digitalisation in very different areas. Our discursive and contemporary approach, the young team and the wealth of ideas and innovations at the ITZ enable us as a theatre to break new ground not only aesthetically but also structurally. However, we always confront these digital technologies with analogue settings in order to make theatrical experiences possible – and we consider this to be the way forward. So far, we have refrained from exclusively digital productions.
REAL-IN aims at exploring crossroads of cultural, audiovisual and creative sectors for immersive and interactive proposals, exploiting 3D scanning technologies combined to XR settings. We’ll build a playground for prototyping collective scenarios to boost new participatory approaches and innovative user experiences for the Creative and Cultural Industries and their audiences. REAL-IN will activate multidisciplinary synergies in a co-creation process between creatives, coders, creative industries, with the result to break silos between creative sectors. REAL-IN launches 4 Open Calls, covering 4 different artistic challenges: Interactive Arts, Music, Performing Arts, Fashion & Design and is looking for creative teams. Besides VRHAM! as the partner for visual arts and interactive design, REAL-IN is an alliance made of another major EU festival, La Manufacture (performing arts) in Avignon, two innovative cultural institutions in two major European cities and world ranked events in creative industries MEET Digital Culture Center (fashion & design) in Milan, ESPRONCEDA Institute of Art and Culture (music) in Barcelona), and an award winning audiovisual technology company Dark Euphoria located in one of the major European audiovisual hubs in Marseille.
REAL-IN aims at exploring crossroads of cultural, audiovisual and creative sectors for immersive and interactive proposals, exploiting 3D scanning technologies combined to XR settings. REAL-IN will activate multidisciplinary synergies in a co-creation process between creatives, coders, creative industries, with the result to break silos between creative sectors.
As part of the first Open Call for interactive art, one artwork was selected by an international jury for the REAL-IN Residency. The REAL-IN Convention 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.
Besides VRHAM! as the partner for visual arts and interactive design, REAL-IN is an alliance made of another major EU festival, La Manufacture (performing arts) in Avignon, two innovative cultural institutions in two major European cities and world ranked events in creative industries MEET Digital Culture Center (fashion & design) in Milan, ESPRONCEDA Institute of Arts & Culture (music) in Barcelona, and an award winning audiovisual technology company Dark Euphoria located in one of the major European audiovisual hubs in Marseille.
Within the framework of the EU call for proposals “Bridging Culture and Audiovisual Content through Digital”, REAL IN co-initiated by VRHAM! was one of eight projects to receive funding.
On 7 June, VRHAM! VIRTUAL ends musically: In cooperation with the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival (SHMF) and with the support of the NORDAKADEMIE-Stiftung, the work Tessellatum by Donnacha Denney will be performed at the festival hub by viola da gamba player Liam Byrne together with the musicians Johanna Ruppert (violin), Friedemann Slenczka (viola), Simone Drescher (violoncello) and Kristina Edin (double bass) and streamed live to the Museum of Other Realities and YouTube. Hannah Bregler on common concepts and special challenges:
VRHAM! VIRTUAL: How did the cooperation come about and which piece did you choose for the closing event?
HANNAH BREGLER: The current situation also brings about new formats, approaches to mediation and possibilities, as we are experiencing in a wonderful way in our cooperation with VRHAM! After the cancellation of the SHMF we immediately started looking for opportunities to perform some of the planned concerts without an audience – so we were faced with the same challenge as VRHAM! Our concert series “Moondog” stands for concerts with experimental music in innovative formats, not limited to genres, which is why Tessellatum from this series fits so well with the concept of VRHAM!
VV: What were the special challenges in the preparations for such a concert?
HB: We usually plan with much longer lead times. But the pressure we are all under now has also released a lot of creativity. We were faced with the question of how to integrate virtual elements and the transmission of the live stream into the Museum of Other Realities in a meaningful way. Then we developed ideas with our partners from the PODIUM Festival. Thanks to the enthusiasm of the ensemble we finally chose, and thanks to the entire VRHAM! team, we gradually became familiar with the special appeal of the virtual cosmos in Zoom meetings, telephone calls and a technical rehearsal. Since the transmission of a live concert to the virtual stage is a world premiere, some technical hurdles only became apparent on site, which we were able to tackle and solve together.
The SHMF will not take place this year, instead you are planning the “Summer of Possibilities”? What does that mean in concrete terms and how will the concert at VRHAM! be integrated into your program?
The “Summer of Possibilities” arose from the idea to give artists the chance to perform despite the cancellation of the SHMF and to bring music to people through different channels. There will be numerous formats to be experienced on radio, television or the internet. The VRHAM! concert will be the start of our summer and the closing event for you. It is one of a total of three “Moondog” concerts. All three concerts will be streamed during our festival period from the beginning of July to the end of August. In addition, we will present about 100 events during the “Summer of Possibilities” – thanks to the reduced restrictions, some of them in front of an audience.