Virtual Reality
New Spaces for Ideas

2005

Virtual worlds are computer-generated environments which people design based on their own ideas. Fantasies, visions and experiments which go beyond the usual boundaries of time and space – they can all become ‘real’ in virtual worlds. Unlimited possibilities make them spaces for future developments.

Contact with Virtual Reality

Immersing yourself in virtual reality means entering a world which has been created in the computer – a world in which you are not only able to look around and move about, but in which you can also act and trigger processes.

In virtual reality the entire environment is generated digitally, in augmented or mixed-reality environments, real surroundings are ‘enhanced’ or ‘expanded’ by means of virtual – computer-generated - elements.

The Media Art Laboratory – Ars Electronica Futurelab

In 1996, the Ars Electronica Futurelab was established as the research and development laboratory of Ars Electronica. With the installation of the first CAVE outside the USA, and in conjunction with the Electronic Visualization Laboratory, the foundations were laid for the Futurelab’s main field of research: virtual environments. For ten years now, the Futurelab, as one of the leading centers for interactive media solutions, has been implementing projects in which artistic and technological innovations intersect.

Virtual reality is used whenever real-world experiments are too expensive, dangerous or unfeasible in comparison to simulations. Through VR applications in industry, research and development, not only important resources like time, money and materials can be saved, but production and service quality improved!

Here we would like to show you a few examples which were realized on commission or in cooperation with partners of Ars Electronica Futurelab – this includes applications in many areas of society and the arts, as well as the technologies behind them.