BLACKBOX AR

Workshop Series

Dates and registration information: 23.10.21, 10am–2pm 28.10.21, 10am–2pm 29.10.21, 10am–4pm In German Location: KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Studio; not freely accessible

This workshop is for anyone interested in technology and art, and in the way these interact in formats that combine both. No previous knowledge is necessary. Each session builds on the last. We therefore recommend that you attend all of them. Participation is free of charge. To register for the workshop, please send an email to mediation@kw-berlin.de with a short description about your interest in the workshop.   About Similar to a trompe l’œil, Augmented Reality plays with (visual) perception and shows us how deceptive we are. At the same time, AR technology facilitates access to digital information and can make the hidden tangible through various senses. It is therefore not surprising that this technology is also becoming increasingly important in art education. But what exactly does a black box such as AR contain—how does the technology function? In order to illuminate this topic, KW, in cooperation with the EU-funded research project AURORA School for Artists, conducts a three-part workshop series for artists and art educators with no prior knowledge of AR. In alternating theory and practice phases, participants will gain insight into the individual steps from concept to publication of an AR application and develop a first digital application themselves.

The workshops will be accompanied by short lectures by various guests to discuss some of the central topics of Open Secret in further detail. Together with AR experts from the AURORA School for ARtists, participants will also develop and discuss their own concepts and receive recommendations on planning one’s own AR projects.

Bios

Maja Stark is an art historian with a focus on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality. Since 2018 she has coordinated the project AURORA School for ARrtists, and since 2020, also the project XR_Unites at HTW—University of Applied Science, Berlin. She gives lectures, publishes, designs and moderates events at the intersection of art, culture, and computer science.

Dagmar Schürrer is a media artist working with the moving image, 3D animation and augmented realities. Her work has been exhibited internationally, among others at ICA London; Moscow Biennale for Young Art; Diagonale, Graz (AU); Museum of Waste, Changsha (CN); and at the Auditorium of the Louvre, Paris. As a board member of mkv – medienkunst e.V., she is committed to new forms of presentation of contemporary media art. At the AURORA School for ARtists, she works in the field of digital media production.

Leonid Barsht is a digital media scientist. He teaches augmented reality application development at the AURORA School for ARtists and in seminars at the HTW Berlin and the Bielefeld FH, and he develops applications at AURORA together with art and culture professionals. He is particularly interested in the persistence of augmented reality content in the real world and real-time collaboration using various extended reality devices.

Ariane Stamatescu is a stage and costume designer. Her work takes the form of video installations and photography, concerts, performances and collectively developed pieces. As part of a working fellowship at the production lab of the AURORA School for Artists at HTW Berlin, she developed the AR application Heidenrose, which critically examines the poem Heidenröslein by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe using scenic and informative augmentations and revealing the unspoken. In the context of Blackbox AR Stamatescu presents the project and its development process.

Ramak Molavi Vasse’i is a digital rights lawyer and policy advisor. She is a visiting lecturer at the University of Potsdam and IE Law School in Madrid. Her research includes privacy and data protection, Artificial Intelligence, algorithmic systems and ethics, and the regulation of technology. Her interdisciplinary work is dedicated to sustainable and public service-oriented technology.

Maithu Bùi is a việt-German philosopher, research activist and artist. After studying philosophy of language, logic and literature at LMU Munich, Maithu Bùi has been studying art at University of the Arts Berlin in the Lensbased Class since 2017. Their research and work focuses on Creative Technologies, Ethics of Technology, Memory Culture, War History, (Digital) Colonialism, Context Sensitivity, Truth and Belief Systems, Education Policy and Anti-discrimination. As part of Blackbox AR Bùi will present the current state of the AR/VR application Maithuật – MMRBX (2019-ongoing), which is an archive of personal memories and transgenerational traumas. Stories begin and end where ghosts can be encountered in a virtual việt-german diaspora.

The AURORA School for ARtists receives funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the “Program for Strengthening Innovation Potential in Culture II”.