BERLIN-CYBER CITY - VIRTUAL WALKS THROUGH REUNITED BERLIN (1989–90)
Berlin-Cyber City was created in response to the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. The work reveals the historical upheaval through virtual walks and initiates a collective reflection on the reunited city of Berlin. The intention is to evoke memories, encourage debate about the future of the reunified city, and create interaction that supports discourse.
For the Berlin-Cyber City, Jaron Lanier's VR system was dismantled and replaced by a table, using only the dataglove's tiny Polhemus position and motion sensor for electromagnetic tracking. This allowed to develop a more dialogic interface, such as this interactive table. Visitors gather around this table, which displays an aerial view of Berlin in 1970, at the height of the Cold War. The Berlin Wall, which divided Berliners for twenty-eight years (1961-1989), cut the city roughly in half. It was a political, ideological, and physical separation of communist East Berlin from democratic West Berlin. In this tense time, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the interactive table was an invitation for conversation. The intention of Berlin-Cyber City was to get people talking about the past and about the future of the new Berlin.
With the Polhemus sensor in hand, visitors to Berlin-Cyber City quickly grasp the interface metaphor of a virtual walk on an interactive table with a mounted map of Berlin. Like "traveling with a finger on a map", the sometimes unknown terrain is explored virtually. Navigating the map recalls individual memories. Conversations around the table focus on personal experiences of living in the divided city. People who until a few months ago were treated as enemies now want to introduce each other to their side of the city. Visitors will explore the historical area around the Wall and take individual memorial walks through downtown Berlin along the infamous "death strip" where the Wall was impassable. In this temporary mental space, a kind of performance will take place at the table between the visitors. This is how the idea of a Thinking Space was born.
The image of the virtual city is projected on a screen and becomes a canvas for reflection. People project their memories onto it. The 3D environment, shared conversations and actions create a sense of immersion. Simple gray 3D blocks bring to life famous buildings, streets and neighborhoods of East and West Berlin. The spatial montage of vertical and horizontal displays creates a performative interface environment that combines action and perception. The horizontal two-dimensional interactive tabletop and the combined vertical floor-to-ceiling 3D projection of the virtual cityscape are haptically and visually connected to the movement on the map in real time. It provides both overview and insight. The interactive table turned out to be a place where people started to talk about their memories and feelings, to find out what separates them and what they have in common.
Remarkably, the installation took place in an experimental area of the famous 1991 Berlin Funkausstellung, a product show. Berlin-Cyber City visitors were ordinary Berliners who were encouraged to share what they remembered and what they wanted to see in a reunited Berlin.
Software: VPL Body Electric, Star UX, Alias Wavefront, Inhouse Radiosity.