From 8th to 12th September, Andreas Ingerl and Moritz Schell will present the Ars Electronica Garden Berlin. Here, outstanding student works from the HTW Berlin's Communication Design programme will be exhibited as part of the Ars Electronica Festival 2021 in the Reinbeckhallen in cooperation with the Reinbeckhallen Foundation.

Throughout the course of the digital transformation of our environment, what might be understood as ’objective’ reality is increasingly being modified by a superimposed virtual realm. The spread of virtual reality and mixed reality technologies is laying the foundation for a transition to mass media. At the same time, a global pandemic has subjected dream of a new, virtual, and networked world to a wake-up call. In the wake of social distancing, the temporary shuttering of cultural spaces and educational institutions, the need for virtual spaces and meeting places continues to grow. What do these worlds look like? Which rules should apply to them? Who is allowed to participate in them?

The exhibition ARTIFICIAL REALITY – VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE showcases student projects that deal with these questions: By means of  a Brain Computer Interface, the emotional state of the participant influences the perception of the virtual world.

The exhibition explores the limits of human cognition, wherein the physically experienced environment and a simultaneously projected, minimally altered VR environment result in a form of psychic dissonance. Ongoing dialogue with a voice assistance system creates new virtual worlds and reproduces the themes of power and powerlessness vis-à-vis an omnipresent intelligent machine.

The works, all created during the Corona Pandemic in Distance Learning, address relevant social issues raised by digital transformation processes: ARTIFICIAL REALITY, BIG ART, GENERATIVE DATA and VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE.