Artwork
Against all odds our groups were able to meet again in Seelze in November 2008. During this workshop, 26 students worked on the topic of virtuality. An initial presentation introduced them both to the philosophical concept as well as everyday implications of this issue.
All the participating students use and roam in virtual worlds and thus found many similarities in their experiences with websites such as facebook or myspace. Virtuality as a concept however also questions our conception of reality. We all live increasingly virtual lives, inventing and creating new identities, even entire worlds. Also, we often are no longer able to distinguish between virtual and real events or rather images of events.
And still the virtual (simulated, possible, imaginable) has always been an essential part of mankind's ability to create works of art. Thus the starting point of their creations was the question how virtuality might be represented in a real form - a painting, an object, a scultpure or installation. During the process, so we hoped, the students would question virtual realities and find ways of expressing both the positive as well as the negative implications of the virtuality.
The mixed groups then engaged in an artistic journey which involved not only traditional materials but also exceptional items such as model skeletons or powdered sugar. As with all of our projects so far, the participating teachers were highly surprised by the variety of their students' ideas.
