XR Ausstellung: Oneironautica III–V / We are nature

The Oneironautica Series

Concept and Production: Laurenz Ulrich x MIREVI

Content Concept: Christian Geiger

Development: Leon Repp, Christian Zimmer, Laurenz Ulrich

Sound Design: Laurenz Ulrich

Consulting: Ivana Družetić-Vogel, Sven Schlötcke

• Oneironautica III: Alienation

  Texts: Franz Kafka

  Voices: Steffen Reuber (“The Bridge, ” “Homecoming”), Dagmar Geppert (“The Vulture,” “Community”)

• Oneironautica IV: Transformation

  Voices: Steffen Reuber (Intro, Outro), AI-generated voice (poems)

  Text Source / Inspiration: Zhuangzi, The Butterfly Dream (trans. Richard Wilhelm, 1912); Edgar Allan Poe, A Dream Within a Dream (1849)

  Germany 2026, 8’

• Oneironautica V: Catalyst

  Text Source / Inspiration: Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man” (1877); Charlie Chaplin, “The Great Dictator” (1940)

  Germany 2026, 8’

We are nature!

Concept and Choreography: Anja Neubecker

Germany 2026

The Pulheim-based artist writes: The Earth to which we return is the Earth on which we dance. Everything is transient. How do we want to treat it? If we destroy nature, we destroy ourselves. We exist only in coexistence with it. As we immerse ourselves in this complex interconnectedness, all our senses awaken, and we recognize the beauty of all species and of creation. Intuition and creativity open up spaces for the new and allow us to interact playfully with nature, with ourselves, and with other people. Through this connection, we live in space and time. The memory of remembering is rewritten anew every day. Games to experience global healing through togetherness!

The Oneironautica Series

At the Dance Museum, you’ll encounter the final three episodes of the Oneironautica series: Alienation, Transformation, and Catalyst.

The series consists of interactive virtual reality (VR) installations developed by MIREVI in collaboration with Laurenz Ulrich and the Theater an der Ruhr as part of the project “Theater of Expanded Realities.” The series explores the intersections between theater and digital space and expands narrative forms and aesthetic experiences beyond traditional stage formats. Representation, perception, and participation are reexamined.

Five episodes were created between 2023 and 2026. They depict the same, recurring virtual environment: a three-dimensionally scanned theater that has been transformed through point-cloud aesthetics into a shifting architecture of memory and perception. Point-cloud data possesses dreamlike qualities; the episodes harness these by evoking the sensation of waking from a lucid dream. The series was conceived based on the theater’s seasonal themes and inspired by literary and philosophical texts. It translates these into sound, movement, and interaction. How can consciousness, identity, social relationships, and imagination be experienced through VR?

The Oneironautica series is a production by the MIREVI team (Mixed Reality and Visualization, University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf) and the Theater an der Ruhr in Mülheim an der Ruhr as part of the research project “Theater of Extended Realities.” Funding: Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia as part of NEUE WEGE in collaboration with the NRW KULTURsekretariat

Oneironautica III: Alienation

Texts: Franz Kafka

Voices: Steffen Reuber (“The Bridge, ” “Homecoming”), Dagmar Geppert (“The Vulture,” “The Community”)

The focus is on four parables by Franz Kafka (1883–1924): “Homecoming,” “The Bridge,” “The Vulture,” and “The Community.” They are staged as audiovisual sculptures, blending literature, sound, and spatial abstraction. Four mysterious forms beckon the viewer to draw closer—only up close do they reveal their true form.

Kafka’s concise, dense narratives revolve around alienation, identity, and the tension between the self and others, blending seamlessly into the dreamlike, introspective atmosphere of the virtual space. The result is a meditative journey into the depths of human existence; the complex and often painful nature of interpersonal relationships becomes tangible.

Oneironautica IV: Transformation

Voices: Steffen Reuber (Intro, Outro), AI-generated voice (poems)

Text Source / Inspiration: Zhuangzi, “The Butterfly Dream” (trans. Richard Wilhelm, 1912); Edgar Allan Poe, “A Dream Within a Dream” (1849)

Germany 2026, 8’

Inspired by the “Butterfly Dream” of the Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi (4th century BCE), the installation explores the shimmering boundary where identity dissolves and is reborn.

Is it I who am dreaming? Or is something else dreaming through me?

The butterfly paradox is reimagined: What form does a beautiful dream take when it is passed on?

A spoken narrative introduces the butterfly dream and opens up an in-between state in which visitors are invited to voice motifs from a beautiful dream. These detach from their source and merge with the traces left by those who came before. On the stage of the virtual theater, the collected dream images appear to float: words give rise to forms, forms to verses, and verses to a tapestry. Drawing on the Japanese tanka-renga tradition, individual contributions come together to form a shared, growing poetic chain.

It is an invitation to share your own beautiful dream—and to find yourself reflected in the visions of others.

Oneironautica V: Catalyst

Text Basis / Inspiration: Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man” (1877); Charlie Chaplin, “The Great Dictator” (1940)

Germany 2026, 8’

The final installment of the Oneironautica series explores the relationship between individual action and collective behavior through embodied interaction. The viewer enters a crowd of abstract humanoid figures whose movements reorganize themselves depending on proximity and distance.

In the first phase, the interaction leads to the emergence of an increasingly hostile and unified mass that evokes conformity and authoritarian escalation. At a turning point, a light source initiates a second phase. Individual figures gradually regain openness and benevolent behavior. Participants can influence this positive transformation through movement and presence.

Inspired by works by Dostoevsky and Chaplin, the installation invites participants to experience how fragile collective systems are and how even small gestures can generate both horror and hope.