Aktuelle Reality (AR)
Workshop, Intervention
48 Stunden Neukölln
Officina Neukölln, Berlin
- 2023
Aktuelle Reality (AR) was a workshop and public intervention project presented in the 2023 program of 48 Stunden Neukölln.
During each session of the project, members of the public were invited to create optical devices from cardboard using a fantastic yet under-acknowledged technology - Aktuelle Reality (AR). The devices made did not incorporate any real VR technology. Instead, we created, crafted, and built in such a way as to alter how we saw and moved around the city. After the designing and constructing stages were completed, we then conducted a short intervention in public space to test out our new devices in the urban wild. During this intervention, we walked together in the neighbourhood around Officina Neukölln and collectively discovered the city from a fresh perspective.
This project aimed to poke fun at VR technology (and our increasing fascination with it) by instead offering performance and imagination as tools for intervening in public space. In line with this year's festival theme - Play (Ground) - this combined workshop and group intervention challenged participants to playfully re-imagine city space and unplug.
Aktuelle Reality (AR) gratefully received funding from Bezirksamt Neukölln, Fachbereich Kultur.
