The initiative “DIVE – Festival for Immersive Arts” focuses on Bochum’s core activity
“Hotspot of Immersive Live Culture”, a municipal strategic development focus,
which I conceived in 2018 and led over its duration from 2019 to 2021.

The aim of the measure was to share the technical possibilities for interactive control
to explore the content of experiential immersion from as diverse a perspective as possible.
The concept of “hotspot for immersive live culture” was therefore divided into different sub-projects
purely artistic measures such as a festival for immersive arts, university collaborations
and projects with an innovation-promoting character such as a joint project with the
Gelsenkirchen VR Festival “Places VR”.

The starting point of the core activity was the immersive ones, which are in rapid development
Trends in almost all cultural fields of activity as well as in the technology and economic sectors
Immersion (VR / AR) and the outstanding feature of the planetarium in this light as a
Collaboratively experienced immersion optimized demonstration operation.

The idea for the festival was an important part of the application to promote the strategic
development focus. It was concretized in a first-time cooperation with the
Schauspielhaus Bochum against the background of an exhibition series curated by Tobias Staab
on the topic of immersion.

My previous contributions to the “DIVE – Festival for Immersive Arts” include its initiation,
the development of the name and visual design as well as collaborative work
Development of the festival structure and selection of artists with Tobias Staab.
In addition, I was responsible for the organizational and technical support and implementation of the
as part of the festival in the planetarium by various artists and artist groups
presented works taken care of.

Artists who have performed at the DIVE Festival so far include Ulf Langheinrich,
Andrea Belfi, Chikashi Miyama, Kurt Hentschläger the Theater of Sounds and others

Festival website: www.divefest.de

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Digital immersion, virtual sound spaces and theater environments.
The “DIVE – Festival for Immersive Arts” marks the first collaboration between
Planetarium and theater in Bochum. Over several days,
DIVE immersive installations, surround concerts and 360° performances shown,
that invite you to immerse yourself in completely new worlds of experience.
After the successful start of the festival in November 2019, things got started
November 2021 in the second edition. The merger of an international
and top-class line-ups of immersive media art provide a forward-looking impulse
in the diverse cultural landscape of the Ruhr area.

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