Building Castles in the Cloud

We are constantly building castles in the cloud, always logged into digital space. The perfect world that contains our dreams and hopes is a romanticized version of the physical world we live in. Not only do we construct an artificial world, but also digital versions of ourselves inhabiting it. The paradigm shift in technology has changed social values as well as every aspect of our ways of perception. Whereas there used to be an obvious difference between reality and virtual reality, these boundaries have started to get blurry and eventually will make way to one big mixed reality. 

With smart technology having found its way into our homes and most intimate fields of our life, its overall role for society changed. In today’s world of constant connectedness, logging out has become an irregularity. We not only consume information and content but very actively participate. The user has become a participator. The exhibition puts the viewer in focus and visualizes the ubiquitous digital space. The app Refrakt enables the viewer to perceive alternate realities in a virtual space by scanning real-life objects. He gets confronted with his own digital alter ego embedded into artifacts of a hyperreal paradise.

AR exhibition, 2016
Refrakt Collective

Exhibited at:
2018: Babycastles, New York City, USA
Part of the group show Postdigital Ecosystems with exonemo
Curated by Helena Acosta, Andrea Wolf and Joe Salina

2019: Building Beau Rivage, Loutraki, GR
Part of the group show Iasis
Curated by TILT Platform