Spatial Affairs

The project is a two-year, joint program between the cultural institutions House of Electronic Arts (HEK) in Basel, Switzerland, Museum of Art & Photography in Bangalore, India, and Tabakalera International Center for Contemporary Culture in San Sebastián, Spain, in collaboration with the technological partners iart, studio for media architectures, and TEKNIKER in Eibar in the Basque Country in Spain, as well as research partner metaLAB (at) Basel, Switzerland.
The SPATIAL AFFAIRS. Extended Reality Experiences project brings together an international team of artists, art directors, curators, researchers, and technological experts. The Spatial Affairs team fosters collective lived experiences through performances in physical space that interweave body, space, technology in synergetic ways beyond the threshold of materiality. Developing prototypes and performances based on the new XR platform AIRE from iart, based on a game engine that uses location tracking to design hybrid experiences in real time, we explore possibilities of virtual choreographies and movement experiences with the interlacing of physical and extended spaces. Audience members become performers as they write new realities through the social interaction with other bodies and technologies.
A substantial part of the project supports the creation of prototypes that were developed in the residencies in the three locations and explored together with local communities.