Above Human // epidemicspheres

A Real Time Data Visualization of COVID-19

Genre:Interactive VR Experience, 3D Projection Mapping Installation

Medium: VR, AR, CGI, Real Time Data

Creative Directors:Anna Pompermaier & Cenk Güzelis

Medium: Mapping, Real-Time Data,Motion Tracking, Augmented Reality

Gameplay Area: min.50 m2

Production: Espronceda Center for Art and Culture, Barcelona

Production Year: 2020

Length: Open End

Text: Marco Russo

NARRATOR: Will Stafford

MUSIC: YAMAN

Sound Design: Kristaps Austers

The pandemic generates a diffuse feeling of affiliation. China-Japan – USA – South Korea – Thailand – Vietnam – Nepal – Singapore – Taiwan – Australia – Iran – Turkey – Italy – Germany – Austria – Great Britain – Norway – Spain – Iceland – Brazil – Peru … The virus spreads, take territories, and leave traces. It pulsates, vibrates, interacts in and with the various spheres: private-sphere, public-sphere, economic-sphere, techno-capital sphere, info-sphere, psycho-sphere. It is already post-digital if we consider it “Being global, Being big and small, Being prime, Being equal, Being unterritorial”.

Above Human is an interactive spherical projection mapping installation that displays the real-time data of COVID-19 inside an epidemic-sphere. It makes the invisible visible, the immaterial material. It is not just an audio-visual experience, but rather an active and communicative act: the global outside flows into the local inside and merges into a space of coexistence. In line with Peter Sloterdijk, the “sphere” becomes a symbol for “spaces of coexistence” as spaces that deal with crucial information to develop a better understanding of humanity. When visiting the Above Human installation, the encapsulated spherical entity of the virus occupies the human body via tracking cameras to display its existence.