New Realities: Design – Arts – Technology

With digitally produced objects, the industrial design students at the ZHdK invite to an amazingly analog gaming experience. The objects, which can be adapted on site, create a gaming community beyond flickering screens and allow a critical and pleasurable look at our constant connection to electronic devices.

Virtual worlds are becoming more and more realistic and are becoming more and more important in our lives. Some digital game environments are already so real today that you can immerse yourself completely in them and lose yourself. The corresponding communities are better connected than ever before. But can «real» and «virtual» life still be distinguished at all? The industrial design students of the ZHdK dealt with this question and transformed virtual realities into analog game objects. Using portable game extensions, visitors explore on their own bodies how the seemingly separate spheres begin to penetrate each other. The students designed these objects in the best virtual manner via an online co-design platform and produced them especially for the exhibition. They were inspired by digital worlds, networks and services and gave them a new form, feel and acoustics. For the individually adapted production on site, visitors have access to novel smart handheld devices and digital manufacturing processes. Equipped with their individual game objects, the guests immerse themselves in an experience of their own kind and become a «Virtual Absurdity» community themselves.

Designers:
Roman Jurt, David Flagmeier & Vasili Skoromnik

Scenography:
Aleksandra Szewc, Laurin Schaffner

Project Type:
Speculative Design

Website:
industrialdesign.zhdk.ch