It is not yet clear whether the brave new digital world that is increasingly permeating our lives at breathtaking speed will have a dystopian or utopian character. It is undeniable that algorithms can reinforce discrimination and prejudice, that digital filter bubbles are also manipulative spaces and that the development of artificial intelligence could elude understanding and control and dominate people in the future. The installations of the Theatre of Augmented Realities always reflect this in a playful way and at the same time formulate opportunities. Fascination and discomfort. How do bots, for example, create the illusion of interpersonal closeness? How does this dialogue influence our self-image and the perception of others? And can a bot or avatar be designed in such a way that it challenges our prejudices and arouses our curiosity? It's about our self-image and our view of the world.

In the immersive video work Portals, doors open to an alternative, virtual nature. In Tore Knabe's fascinating VR AI installation The Reverse Turing Test, you communicate in a train compartment with AI personalities who want to find out who is the human in the compartment. In the VR work Oneironautica by Laurenz Ulrich and MIREVI, we float through interactive dream spaces, while the interactive AI video installation Relate - Talk with Me invites us to converse with a voice bot represented by an avatar. Like a random encounter on a park bench, the conversation can be friendly or banal, unsettling or thought-provoking. Finally, the interactive mixed-reality installation Proxemics: May I hold your hand? encourages us to rethink the ways in which we connect with each other and with the elemental forces that shape our world.

The opening of the exhibition will take place on Thursday, 28 August at 8 pm. On Saturday, 30 August, we will be offering guided tours at 3 pm and 5 pm.