For many of us, the concept of ‘Entering the Metaverse’ has this classic Alice in Wonderland-type feeling of falling down the rabbit hole. It’s a digital gateway into an alternate reality, detached from many of the physical laws and structures that our world is subject to. Anything is possible once you step through the gateway into this alternate realm. Together with Lara Lesmes and Fredik Hellberg from architecture and design studio Space Popular we explore how portals function and can help us create better infrastructures in our future virtual spaces.

It’s no shock to anyone that we’re spending more time in virtual spaces. Our online lives are becoming ever more entangled with the reality we live outside of our screens and as this happens the role of our geocultural institutions is changing. After all, for an artist in need of exposure, why should they exhibit their work in a gallery if they can reach more people digitally? Of course there is still a need for spaces that create experiences the Metaverse can’t and as we see more physical work translated into digital media we also see digital media translated into the physical space. This is where we begin this episode exploring these ideas with Merel van Helsdingen and Tina Lorenz.

Keiken is an interdisciplinary artist collective exploring our relationship to technology through immersive and sensorial experiences. Through their work, the group asks questions about how societal constructs are shaping the construction of virtual space and how we might better relate to an unfamiliar virtual environment. Together with Eva Fischer and Martina Menegon, curators of Vienna’s CIVA festival, we explore the work of Keiken and talk about how these experiences can equip us to build a more emancipatory future.

When thinking about digital innovation and policy around technology we often view it either through the lens of Silicon Valley surveillance capitalism or Chinese digital authoritarianism. We don’t often think about what a European approach to innovation might look like. Francesca Bria on the other hand spends most of her time thinking about just that. In our conversation, Francesca offered insight on Europe’s role in digital innovation, how culture informs technology and how citizens can get active in the area of digital innovation and policy.

3D printing has reached a level of quality and complexity that the boundaries of what’s possible with the technology feel almost limitless. We can create entirely new shapes, geometries and materials that would be otherwise impossible to manufacture and in many industries, it’s helping to make processes more efficient and more sustainable. Julia Koerner is an innovator in the use of 3D printing in the fashion space and that’s why we took the time to sit down with her to better understand how these processes and her work are continuing to evolve.

Blockchain Chicken Farm: And Other Stories of Tech in China’s Countryside is the most recent book from artist and technologist Xiaowei Wang. We sat down with Xiaowei to discuss innovations in China’s countryside, agency in the tech community and how reading tarot gave them a sense of connection during a disconnected pandemic.

Ben Kidd, one half of theatre production company Dead Centre, believes theatre must have relevance to modern-day society. Together with Stefanie Schmitt, a dramaturg and stage manager at Vienna’s Burgtheater, we sat down with him to find out exactly what that means.

This episode of the podcast features Cornelia Sollfrank, an early pioneer of Net Art and Cyberfeminism. Cornelia’s early work in the 1990s explored how the, recently introduced, World Wide Web could be used to do things in a different manner. Up until this day, her work explores many themes, which are still very relevant to this day; mostly digital cultures, self-organisation through new technologies and data as a tool that can be utilised to both positive and negative effects.

Greg Lynn has been at the forefront of architecture and design since the early 2000s but his current focus is around technology that encourages us to move and enables people the opportunity to be more active.

In this episode, we talk about just that as well as the ethics of technology, sustainability in architecture and the ins and outs of robot etiquette.

Until recently, spatial experiences have been resolutely material, taking place within cities, buildings, and rooms. Over the past year, however, the pandemic has moved museums, performances, and gatherings online, into virtual environments from games and video calls to VR hubs.

To get the lowdown on how technology is rebuilding our notions of space, Episode 6 invites two architects and curators, Bika Rebek and Agustin Schang to share their take on the shifting form of architecture within our emerging hybrid reality.