Talks, Demos and Live Performance of »Phygital Intimacy« on 25.09.2025 at the Kulturforum Berlin
On September 25–26, 2025, the XXII. International Conference KUI – Culture and Computer Science will take place at the Kulturforum Berlin.
As the final networking event of our current project funding, we warmly invite Berlin’s independent arts and culture scene to join us for the public Conference Session III »Hybrid Encounters« from 3:30–4:40 pm! Look forward to exciting talks on current research in art, XR, AI, and robotics. Full details can be found in the conference program.
At 5:00 pm, we will open the highly anticipated poster and demo exhibition of the conference. To conclude the exhibition, don’t miss the live performance of »Phygital Intimacy« starting at 6:15 pm.
»Phygital Intimacy« blends mixed reality and gaming with contemporary dance and generative music production. This participatory performance is the result of a nine-month collaboration between the AURORA team and artists Lisa Kaschuabat, Tasha Hess-Neustedt, and Jane Arnison.
Admission to the talks, exhibition, and performance is free of charge. To help us with planning, we kindly ask for a short registration.
Speaking of Conferences
In 2025, we are involved in the conception and organisation of two international conferences at the interface of computer science and art & culture:
XXII International Conference »KUI – Culture and Computer Science«
Where: Kulturforum Berlin
When: 25–26 September 2025
>> Link to the conference
XXIV International Conference »IVA – Intelligent Virtual Agents«
Cooperation with DFKI – German Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence with the special topic »Aesthetics & Culture«.
Where: Research Centre for Culture and Computer Science, HTW Berlin
When: 16–19 September 2025
>> Link to the conference
Continuously
Individual XR consultation hour by appointment, more info here!
AURORA fellowship 2025
The AURORA XR Fellowship 2024/25 goes to Lisa Kaschubat, Tasha Hess-Neustadt and Jane Arnison with their concept for PHYGITAL INTIMACY!
PHYGITAL INTIMACY (AT) is a speculative vision of the future that combines live performance, mixed reality (MR), gaming and AI with contemporary dance, performance and generative music production.
Performers and the participating audience enter a multiplayer MR environment where they interact with both AI-driven digital content and a generative sound layer. Inspired esp. by Sophie K. Rosa’s concept of radical intimacy – care and community are emphasized as political fields of resistance – the aim is to create connection and intimacy between the users, but also between humans and machines.
A big thank you goes to our expert jury – Pablo Dornhege, Sebastian Keppler and Peggy Schoenegge – and to the many artists and cultural professionals for their submissions to our annual XR Open Call!
NEW: Open source code and instructions
From 2023 to 2025, we are developing three innovative XR projects with Berlin artists – for each of them, we are making useful features freely available that you can reuse for your own projects.
The first open source package from the WebAR experience »from hostile to hospitable« with artist Martin Binder is now online! More information, code and detailed instructions are available at this link.
