»Stretching Materialities«: opening at Tieranatomisches Theater

September 19, 2021 - Last week came a big step into our experimental exhibition-as-research: the public opening, which unrolled as a final sprint, a hectic evening, and a sudden relief. Here on the picture our colleague Binru Yang is taking the VR elevator, a transporting epistemic device inspired by the novelist Roahl Dahl (1972) and by the iconic video “The powers of ten” (Charles and Ray Eames, 1977). Wearing our Haptic Hanbok, she is set to explore the “hidden activities of materials and spaces” which can be experienced interactively in a set of 6 different “levels.” The piece that Yoonha Kim and I have curated, researched and produced in collaboration with a fantastic team, is called “Virtual Sensing Knife and Haptic Hanbok.” They consist of a vitrine, a research-process image gallery, a VR experience, a garderobe of silky soft haptic wearables and a performative ceremonial to put them on. Few days before: Christian Stein, architect of the VR elevator, is taking a first try into the Haptic Hanbook. The crew is prepping the prototype: Mohammad Fardin Gholami, a macromolecular physicist & electrical engineer, and Yoonha Kim who is anthropologist and fashion designer.