The uncanny valley – The virtual archive of yearning
Exhibition
Studio Reiner Riedler Seuttergasse 29, 1130 Wien
15.—19.10.2025
Artists: The virtual archive of yearning
Starting with the hypothesis that virtual spaces can be interpreted as places of longing, the artist collective The Virtual Archive of Yearning, consisting of Reiner Riedler and Leonard Weydemann, create a complex experimental procedure to examine the extent to which we can approach our ideal of a paradisical place by projecting scanned spaces. With the help of photographs of spaces and by using a complicated software workflow, we will impose the virtual shell of a space on a room in our artist space and simulate archetypical places of longing by means of sound collages. The motif of paradise as a projection surface for our desires—similar to the hypothesis of a virtual space as a place of longing—is the main content-related focus of our experiment. To this end, we “scan” landscapes that correspond to these longings—for example, sandy beaches, islands, and coastal or mountainous landscapes. This results in an immersive installation that is as interactive as possible, videos, and high-resolution digital photographs. In 1970 Masahiro Mori, a Japanese roboticist, coined “the uncanny valley” effect to describe the phenomenon that the acceptance of a technically simulated, humanlike entity does not correspond to the increase in a linear fashion in relation to the figure’s anthropomorphism but shows a sharp drop in the functional curve describing this phenomenon within a certain range. According to this theory, humans are more attracted to highly abstract and totally artificial figures than figures that are particularly humanlike or naturalistic. Following Mori’s theory, we will explore virtual spaces as described above and challenge these potential places of longing or havens; the technology, which is now being developed, creates annoyance and perturbation that monitors these places and our aspiration for surrogate worlds and havens of a digital sort. By creating digital copies of archetypical paradisical spaces, we confront viewers with their own longings and desires. In this installation, we investigate how our perception changes when—depending on the morphological complexity of the landscapes—imperfections and gaps occur and are magnified, more control is given to the algorithms, and errors are allowed or even encouraged.
Attention: For details on accessibility, please contact the program partner directly.
Attention: For details on accessibility, please contact the program partner directly.
free entry
Artists: The virtual archive of yearning
Starting with the hypothesis that virtual spaces can be interpreted as places of longing, the artist collective The Virtual Archive of Yearning, consisting of Reiner Riedler and Leonard Weydemann, create a complex experimental procedure to examine the extent to which we can approach our ideal of a paradisical place by projecting scanned spaces. With the help of photographs of spaces and by using a complicated software workflow, we will impose the virtual shell of a space on a room in our artist space and simulate archetypical places of longing by means of sound collages. The motif of paradise as a projection surface for our desires—similar to the hypothesis of a virtual space as a place of longing—is the main content-related focus of our experiment. To this end, we “scan” landscapes that correspond to these longings—for example, sandy beaches, islands, and coastal or mountainous landscapes. This results in an immersive installation that is as interactive as possible, videos, and high-resolution digital photographs. In 1970 Masahiro Mori, a Japanese roboticist, coined “the uncanny valley” effect to describe the phenomenon that the acceptance of a technically simulated, humanlike entity does not correspond to the increase in a linear fashion in relation to the figure’s anthropomorphism but shows a sharp drop in the functional curve describing this phenomenon within a certain range. According to this theory, humans are more attracted to highly abstract and totally artificial figures than figures that are particularly humanlike or naturalistic. Following Mori’s theory, we will explore virtual spaces as described above and challenge these potential places of longing or havens; the technology, which is now being developed, creates annoyance and perturbation that monitors these places and our aspiration for surrogate worlds and havens of a digital sort. By creating digital copies of archetypical paradisical spaces, we confront viewers with their own longings and desires. In this installation, we investigate how our perception changes when—depending on the morphological complexity of the landscapes—imperfections and gaps occur and are magnified, more control is given to the algorithms, and errors are allowed or even encouraged.
Attention: For details on accessibility, please contact the program partner directly.
Attention: For details on accessibility, please contact the program partner directly.
Events related to this exhibition:
| 18 Uhr
Starting with the hypothesis that virtual spaces can be interpreted as places of longing, the artist collective The Virtual Archive of Yearning, consisting of Reiner Riedler and Leonard Weydemann, create a complex experimental procedure to examine the extent to which...
Address:
Seuttergasse 29
1130 Wien
Seuttergasse 29
1130 Wien