You're all here. I'm very happy to talk to you about my projects and what I'm doing. So I'm Sarah. I'm from the Hamburg-based VR Nerds Collective. And you might have seen me also at the media convention

over there where we are doing a performance. So yesterday and today, we did a performance called Disconnected. It's just short slots, but we are staying in VR with our pink onesies on together with Thorsten. So yesterday was also the screening of our first performance in January

back at the Game Science Center in Berlin. But yeah, what we do. So as we are Nerds, we are doing a website news blog. It started in 2013. So we were actually the first one and still the biggest representers of VR for the German-speaking community.

So it's all German, so if you want to look something up there. Pretty informative. We also talk about events we are going to or projects we are starting, like also mixed reality streaming, things like that. And what we also do is some client's work.

For that, I got a very short video for you that looks like this. So this was a work for Biastock. Biastock is a German health company. And we kind of visualize the skin. So you can walk around the skin.

You can also go under the skin, look around, see everything, get informations. Yeah, that's something we do. So we are working a lot with the HTC Vive. We really love that room-scale model. We are also doing other things regarding very small local arcade projects.

One is called The Level. And you can also get more information if you come to our booth at the Disconnected booth. There are also two more people from VR Nerds and can tell you about what's going on there. Yeah, another thing we are doing is that we got a showroom in VR Nerds locally. So on two floors, we are showing off the latest VR

hardware. We are testing software. You can just come by, check out things, book a slot like online on our website, and then try out different things. So we got the HTC Vive there. And we also got an Oculus Rift like the newest one, CV1 there. And yeah, do a lot of testing with that.

And through that idea, we also got to another project we are doing, which is called Nearby VR. It's a small pla- it's not a small platform. It's a platform. It's a worldwide platform, which is kind of a mixture between a Airbnb concept, sharing economy, but then also high-quality VR experiences.

So you can guess not everyone has the room to set up a Vive at this home, and maybe also not can afford to buy a Vive and a computer, but still doesn't want to stay on the cardboard or give VR. So therefore, you can just go to the website and type in where you're based,

where you want to try out VR. So that will show up different locations where you can do that, all with a price, all with like, there are also people who do it for free, who just like to meet mind-like people and yeah, get in touch with them. So share their experiences.

And yeah, that's actually pretty neat. So you can try out VR Nearby. So you don't have to travel very far or something like that. Also mobile version. And yeah, that will come soon. But you can also inform yourself about that later. But I actually want to talk to you about,

and I guess that's why you're here, is more like art in relation to VR. So what is my passion project is Lucid Trips. It's an experimental VR game. And we do have a concept there.

So we go there and say like, art. Art is like super powerful. It's everywhere. And it takes like dimensions that are super big. It fills whole rooms. So it's not like only on a 2D plane, like as a painting or something. But art is more than that. And art is like, you can look like that on art.

And you can even see on that photo. So the girl who's sitting there, she looks at that painting. And we are looking at the photo from that painting. And it's not the same, but it's not too far away. So it's still like 2D and you can still see what she sees

and you're not missing anything too important. But then there's something else happening. So we also got art that is bigger than that frame that comes out of there, that has three dimensions that really has something which you can miss

when you're not right beside the art piece. So when I'm not standing there in that room and can walk like from left to right and look at it from all perspectives, I will definitely miss out something from that artwork. So then that's the idea. We got a medium right now which can make all that visible

and can project things into a three-dimensional space. And you can still walk around it, move around it, somehow get to notice all perspectives of a thing. And that's how the virtual reality art gallery arised to make that visible, to make all perspectives of three-dimensional objects which can exist either in the real world

or are already made in the virtual world. But then you can also not see it like only on a 2D screen, but from like all perspectives. So we do all that in LucidTrips. And just to give you a rough idea of what I'm talking about, if you might not have tried it before,

I will show you a quick video of that as well. That was not supposed to happen. There you go. It's still really early alpha stage,

but you get an idea of what you're doing. So you have that character controller which makes you completely free to move around in that world. So you can kind of float and fly. You have your two arms and you do every interaction and movement through these two arms. So they are full physic based

and you use them for every interaction. You also get some chat packs which make you fly and move around more easily. So you can find things, you can hide things and you can explore art.

These are very dream world planets. So it's not like an art gallery as it might be obvious to make a room. For example, Mona Lisa is a VR experience where you got the museum where Mona Lisa is actually hanging in

and you just walk through this regular museum which looks totally like the reality. And we stepped away from that and said, yeah, we wanna do an art gallery but we wanna live through art different, like in a different way. We don't wanna have it in a super wide room because that's anyway what's not really supporting the art. So it lets it stand free, that's super awesome but it's not like giving some extra content to that.

Hey Chris, nice you came around. So and also as I talked before, if you wanna inform yourself for all the other VR projects we're doing, there's also one guy with the camera walking around. You can ask him later. He's also from VR Nerds doing YouTube videos

from the side I just introduced to you. Awesome, so now I gotta find my presentation again and this is not happening, yeah. So the art gallery is called Whateverland and now I'm gonna talk a bit about the artists which are exhibiting there because the choice of the artists was quite important

for me. As you know, VR is quite a new medium and people are somehow also conservative about it and think like okay, yeah, I got art so which is like really a grounded medium which was there like for a really long time and now we got VR which is kind of fluffy

and not that grabbable for everyone. So I tried to get like really well-known artists in there to make a point that this is really cool and that people can do it and that also more or less known artists will jump on a train and get in there. So that was my first selection

and every one of them has his own reason to be there and now I will give you quite a few overview why every one of them should really be there. So that's my first artist. He's Phil Harold, he's from Munich

and he's completely, he has a very strong disability so he can only move one finger but he's doing 3D art with that finger and he's building shapes, he's building really pop artists shapes

and he's really close to a lot of celebrities especially in the US because they love his style, they love his things he's doing and also the way he's doing it and he said something which really touched my heart. So he said he wants to do these worlds and these paintings

because the worlds he's creating are the worlds he wants to live in and we're kind of also making our dream worlds become reality in lucid trips and that's what he should be able to actually. So we also thought about a movement for him with the mouse

so that mouse movement so that he can really be in there and also check out his art. Then there's another one, Gero. He was actually the first artist who came to us or who was working with us together.

He's also Berlin based. He has also a super awesome philosophy that art especially digital art is like really something special. His name for his art is called limbic nation which is a mixture between the limbic system

and imagination so that it's really uncertain and that everything can be different like every little piece, every little thing should be different. He's working also a lot with glitch like with moving elements with very glitchy animations. Yeah.

So that's how his art piece looks in lucid trips on the whatever land app, on the mobile app. I just like show you the things of the artists on the mobile app because for the PC version as I told you it's early after stage, we are not having all of them in there. Gero did a kind of spaceship and when you fly into it, then you activate it

and there are going to be fishes which just like fly around the art piece and it's getting colorful. So if you yourself interact with that art piece and come to it and do something with it like fly to it, then itself gets activated and it's also like shining for you, moving for you.

That's also a special one. He's very open to the technology. It's Ralph Bergmeier. He's creating wood sculptures covered with oil. That's real craft work and he did already scan one of his art pieces.

So that's a 3D scan of the art piece and we also transferred it again to lucid trips and his philosophy is that everything, every little thing in life, you have to look at it from different perspectives otherwise you will never get the core of it or never get the real idea of it

if you don't look at it from like every perspective you can. And that's why also when you fly to the art piece and you fly through it, it starts to get colored and it starts to turn. So it's all turning then. So if you interacted with it, flew through it, changed your perspective on it,

it will change the perspective always like continuously. Yeah, that's how it looks there and it's also it's floating that what really supports the idea of having to see it or that you can see it from every perspective.

So the art piece would actually only work in the real world if you hang it in the middle of a room and can walk around it and in the virtual world it's quite easy to position it. So then we also got another one, it's Dime. Maybe you know him, he's a graffiti artist and his works are already on two dimensions.

They're looking three dimensional because they got that like really strong deepness which is kind of genius. And this guy also always had the urge to make his artworks visible in all three dimensions for real. That's why he built a kind of a mud sculpture

because he really wanted to see, oh, how does that actually really look from behind? And that's why we could work together with him very perfectly because we just had a 3D modeling guy which made a model of this mud sculpture

and so we could transfer it to the planet very easily. And you also, you got it like that and he wanted to unfold the eye point because he always has that really strong sign. His eye point is always like kind of a flower. And when you fly it to that art piece, it unfolds its eye point.

So it's animating. So as soon as you get close to it, really explore it, really see every letter of it. It also starts to move and get colors. So also adding additional dimensions or features to the art piece

which might explain more than just to look at the normal tech. Yeah, we got another guy. He's awesome too. He does actually more paintings, but he's starting completely dream world and powerful worlds.

He's creating worlds which like don't fit at all into reality, but have like totally surreal colors, totally surreal people in there. And what we did there is he has this bronze sculpture which is one is in a museum and the other one is in his backyard.

And I just went to him and 3D scanned his model of the thing. And he was like really happy about the idea because he was always like, he just said to me like, wow, that's super awesome. Can I actually write on that when I'm in VR? So he was totally curious about the idea. And I was really happy that someone like, he's actually pretty well known in Germany,

also international, but he's totally open for these ideas. So I was really happy about that. Yeah, so his artwork looks like that. And the kind of intention or quest behind his thing is,

it's called Nachhut. It's the one which comes after the war. So when the war is over, when all the army hairs went through, then there's the Nachhut. And after the Nachhut, everything is getting enlightened again and getting green again and yeah, going to live again when they pass through.

And that's why you had to collect different lights. So you went to the front in front of him. And if you collected that light, which you can see right now, there's popping up another light like in the back, and then there's popping up another light. So you should really turn around him and then he's enlightened again, and you can fully see how that sculpture looks.

So there's also another layer added to the message of this sculpture. Yeah, that's how the whole planet looks at the moment. That's the cardboard planet. So it's not like the really big planet for the HTC Vive. So as I told you before,

we are actually developing Lucid Trips for the PC version for the HTC Vive, which is much more, which can much more, can handle all the processing power. So it needs a lot of processing power to do VR. And that's the mobile version, which is a bit reduced because on a mobile,

it's clear you can't run that big things. Well, actually that was already it for like, most of it, but I would totally be happy to answer any questions you got and to get into a conversation with you,

because I guess you might be curious about other things regarding VR or how we did that connection. Or is it already time? That's okay. Okay, thank you. So if there are questions, there's a microphone.

Please take up your arms and then you can speak. Awesome. Are there any questions? Would you like to talk with her in private? Please speak into the microphone. Yes, it's on right now.

I was wondering, the art you're showing right now in the app, it's analog art, I think, mostly converted into the VR spaces, right? I was wondering, are you planning on making truly virtual art? And also, and the second addition to that question, can you perform as a person inside the app

as well with your arms and stuff? And so, first question. Some of the creations, for example, Gerodals creation, which I just showed, it's completely digitally created, but not in VR already. But we got a creation tool in Lucid Trips, which gives you the possibility to click triangles

to make different shapes, also quite complex shapes, but it's still low poly shapes. So you can still only click triangles, but that's coming. And another thing, which I totally forgot to tell you, we got actually a pretty neat feature still in there. So all the art pieces, when you explore the riddles around it,

like for example, setting it free, making it colorful, you also have the opportunity to 3D print that. So you can actually 3D print these art pieces. So I don't get the 3D prints with me right now, but there's the possibility to have, for example, the statue or also the wooden piece already. We printed them already. So it's not everything ready.

For example, the tag from Dime, we are still working on that. So we are actually in the middle of the process from like setting these things up, but we also already got some examples, which we also show off in Hamburg in our showroom, but that's kind of this connection from the real world to the virtual world. And then you take it back from your trip

in the virtual world to the real world again. So I'm getting this kind of circle. Yeah. This is perfect. Perfect. Hi. I love the game and the app. It seems like a good idea. One of the things I find about art to be true

throughout all mediums is the call to emotion. And I'm wondering how you translate emotion into VR and are there techniques to do that? And what emotions are you trying to convey? Emotions. So actually our game is about to let people free,

to put them in that world, in that avatar, in that another consciousness actually, which only has these two arms in a low gravity situation and let it just become what you want to. So you can experience everything which is in there. We kind of want to trigger positive emotions

with showing them like all that glowy glittery stuff, giving them a lot of feedback of moving around in the world. So as soon as you touch something, it starts to glow. It's a bit like an avatar. And also like when you fly around or when you touch something, there's sound coming. So we want to keep the player very comforted.

But we want to still let him free. So our locomotion method is actually very, very experimental. But we added a lot of things to it which makes you not feel motion sick very easily. So to have kind of this balance between having a comfort experience but still letting the player explore total freedom.

And he can decide himself. He can also just like not look at all at some art pieces but just try to fly around the planet the whole time. So it's totally up to him. We don't have any restrictions actually because it's a virtual world and we want to let him free. So there's no narrative to it.

Mike, oh, sorry. Hello. Thanks for the app because I think VR is about getting to know places that you can't go to. And if there are only two pieces of the piece of art, it's really wonderful to get to explore it. My question or my two questions are

how close did the artists work together with you concerning the game concept, the gameplay? And did they or were they aware of how you present their art in the lucid dream version? And what about the rights? Because you said that you also do 3D printing and is there, how is this legally?

Because I think it's quite difficult to get artists to lose the control of what happens next with their piece of art. Yeah, true. These were some questions. Just remind me if I forgot any of them. So I'm working very close together

with all of these artists. And what we first showed them is how lucid trips looks like. So that's what we do. This is the art gallery and you can be part of that. And I'm working very close with them regarding the appearance of their artwork in the virtual world if they like it, if they wanna change colors, if they wanna let it float or not or wanna be as realistic as possible.

But also with the interaction part. So I talk to them a lot. Some artists are more open to it or just like, yeah, we should do that and we should do this. And other artists are more like, yeah, actually I just wanna have it like that. It shouldn't change anything.

It should just be as it is. So it's totally different and that's also how we do it. So every artist is different, everything is different. And it's working very well like that. And regarding the 3D printing thing, so some of the artists already agreed to have that it's just possible to 3D print it

but they wanna charge something. And what we do is we are not having any 3D model like the actual scan model online. It's just textures. So we have a really rough low poly model of the actual art piece and then we put a texture around it, a shader which makes it look like the actual art piece.

So it's actually kind of a photograph. Yeah, so that's how we make it safe and make it the artist's decision if he wants to purchase them as a 3D print and for how much money. So they can give it away for free if they like to. We would be cool with that but they can also charge money.

So that's not our thing but we are just hosting the gallery, yeah. Okay, thank you Sarah. I have to interrupt at this point because her time is up but thank you. Warm applause for her, please again. Thank you.