Contemplating the virtual. Altogether another approach characterized instead some of the most interesting interactive art works and video-installations present in other venues at the festival: the exhibition “Cyber Arts Allestita” at the OK Centrum, the permanent exhibition at the Ars Electronica Center and the exhibition “Campus” which brought together work by students from the Kunsthochschule fur Medien in Cologne.

GesichtRaum by Jonathan Deusch. The interaction is on a purely playful level: the author brings visitors to explore a world of pure emotions and sensations

In many cases the work left behind a foreboding sense of return to the purely contemplative dimension of art, with an approach which can be integrated with the dynamics of interaction, such as in the work “GesichtRaum” of Jonathan Deusch shown inside a CAVE, a system of virtual realities made up of a room with back projections on the walls which allow a number of people to share the same artificial world. The visitor is immersed in an imaginary cube where they can explore a space made up of abstract forms featuring a human face and confront themselves with the movement of colors and various elements. The visual impact of the piece is notable and the interaction is on a purely playful level, which integrates well with the intention of the author, to bring visitors to explore a world of pure emotions and sensations.

The refined use of the screen is the most interesting element in Name einfugen, by Lithuanian student Neringa Naujokaite. Observing the video from one perspective the white woman is seen to be speaking, from another point of view it is instead the black woman saying the same things

The use of the screen is refined – a threshold which separates but is also the instrument of connection – the most interesting element in “Name einfugen”, an installation by Lithuanian student Neringa Naujokaite which consists of video images of a white and a black woman with a perfectly synchronized soundtrack, projected on different portions of the same screen set up as a kind of tent folded in parts. Observing the video from one perspective the white woman is seen to be speaking, from another point of view it is instead the black woman saying the same things.

Say hello to peace and tranquillity by Dagmar Keller and Martin Wittwer: a journey in a world “behind glass”, without peril but lifeless, voluntarily and desperately

Also highly evocative is the video-installation “Say hello to peace and tranquillity” by Dagmar Keller and Martin Wittwer, one of the best works on show. It consists of a journey made at a slow, vaguely hypnotic pace, within a miniature model of a town with neat houses and tree lined roads, accompanied by music interspersed with sounds which resemble a telephone ring or the sound of a modem. Peace and tranquillity, the two artists seem to be saying, are in the free exploration of a world “behind glass”, without peril but lifeless, static and closed in on itself, voluntarily and desperately “offline”.

Rethinking Interaction. Ars Electronica this year also offers some interesting experimentation regarding interaction between man and computer. The exhibition “Hidden Worlds” for example, at the Ars Electronica Center, was dedicated to “Augmented Reality” (AR). It presented alternative ways of relating between the real and virtual world.

Tool’s life, the work by Japanese artists Motoshi Chikamori and Kyoko Kunoh: by touching everyday objects their shadow changes and becomes a brief animation, a kind of dream

Alongside the visualization, inside a helmet, of sounds emitted by the various participants in “The Hidden world of noise and voice”, by Golan Levin, worth mentioning is the work by Japanese artists Motoshi Chikamori and Kyoko Kunoh: “Tool’s life”. Various everyday objects are placed on a circular surface: touching them, their shadow changes and becomes a brief animation, a kind of dream. As such the hammer becomes the branch of a tree full of birds and an anonymous bottle of perfume becomes a lamp which radiates light over the whole surface.