VRHAM! Virtual Reality & Arts Festival 2020 is happening: From 4 June, 2020, visitors from Hamburg and worldwide are invited to experience curated Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality art in digital space, exchange ideas digitally and participate in a virtual festival with opening show, partner events and live program. The deadline for submitting 360° films that reflect artistically on the current situation is 8 May 2020. VRHAM! VIRTUAL is presented in partnership with the Museum of Other Realities (MOR) and Kaleidoscope, a global network for Virtual Reality creators.
“The current situation of an acute COVID 19 pandemic presents us with major challenges. VRHAM! Virtual & Reality Arts Festival hosts VR art from all over the world and thrives on the personal encounter between audience and artists, just like our last two very successful festival editions in Hamburg’s Oberhafen showed. It’s all different this year, so we make a virtue out of necessity: With VRHAM! VIRTUAL our festival is going digital in 2020, while trying to convey as much festival feeling as possible”, says Ulrich Schrauth, Artistic Director of VRHAM! “We are very happy that so many of our long-standing partners are accompanying us on this new path and have already promised their support for this ambitious project.”
Open Call – Artistic Response on the Crisis
VRHAM! invites artists from all over the world to explore the current crisis in film. The deadline for submissions of 360° films with innovative approaches is May 8, 2020. The selected films will be shown in the VR Cinema section of this year’s virtual festival edition.
International Cooperation
VRHAM! was able to win the Museum of Other Realities (MOR) and Kaleidoscope,a global network for Virtual Reality creators as partners for the festival’s artistic exhibition. MOR has been created in 2017 and serves as a virtual museum as well as a showcase venue for immersive art and a place where artists can exchange ideas and knowledge. Kaleidoscope is a global network that connects XR creators, producers and international industry members, and helps to develop, finance and distribute XR-Projects. “With our new partners, we are currently reviewing possibilities for accessing VRHAM! VIRTUAL. These should be as low-threshold and uncomplicated as possible,” explains Ulrich Schrauth. Ideally, visitors can select the appropriate access route to the different parts of the program, using the technology they are already familiar with. Partnerships with VR technology rental companies are also being considered in order to provide visitors with the necessary equipment.
VRHAM! VIRTUAL is an experiment. It is the first art festival that will transform its complete program into an almost real world of experience with virtual features. The core of VRHAM! will remain the same: to show outstanding artistic VR work from all over the world and to introduce its creators. Besides the virtual exhibition, digital panels, keynotes, parties and a live program are planned.
