What moves us at summaery2024? Part 4: Faculty of Media
VR Groovy – Experiencing Social Virtual Reality
In this project, students investigate the potential consequences that arise when social interactions are not synchronised and how to improve the sensation of shared synchronous experiences. All over Germany, you can find friends living far away from one another, couples in long-distance relationships and grandparents living far away from their grandchildren. And while it is possible to spend time together in video conferences, the extent to which this feels like a shared experience is limited due to the lack of synchronisation. As a result, activities such as singing, dancing or virtual games are not synchronous experiences and users feel literally out of sync.
Social Virtual Reality (VR) provides extended potential for these interactions. In the Virtual Reality Lab, visitors can experiment with the possibilities of Social Virtual Reality, such as taking a canoe trip together or a virtual group tour of Goethe House.
The Adventure of Social Engineering!
Amateurs hack systems, professionals hack people. This is now part of everyday life in our digital society. Professional cyber-attacks are nowadays often based on social engineering techniques. This includes impersonating authorities, writing phishing e-mails, and »dumpster diving«. The latter refers to combing through personal information or discarded professional data for useful information. Social engineering exploits certain character traits, such as respect for authority, willingness to help others, but also gullibility and laziness. Social engineering also exploits and triggers human emotions such as fear, curiosity, hope and guilt. Computer Science students have come up with a computer game that aims to raise awareness of the dangers of social engineering and the techniques it uses. Game players take on the role of a hacker and attempt to crack various IT systems using social engineering methods.
ILLUMULUS – Storytelling with AI
Being creative, telling stories and bringing them to life through vivid images — can a machine master these skills? This is the question researchers from the Department of Intelligent Information Systems want to examine with summaery visitors. The ILLUMULUS is a computer that acts as an anonymous author and uses generative neural networks to create works of writing: Visitors can interact ILLUMULUS and use their own prompts to generate individualised plots and images. These unique »stories« can be printed out and taken home by visitors. The ILLUMULUS is a interactive performance that aims at making AI’s impressive capabilities tangible for everyone.
A Guest at...
Medienkultur and Europäischen Medienkultur students have been exploring the idea of the university as more than just a place for teaching and learning, but also as a diverse social space in the work module »Zu Gast bei...«. Over the course of the semester, the students visited various places at the university, such as the »bauhäuschen« flexible childcare centre. They held their own events in these spaces, got to know new people and experimented with their own teaching formats. Impressions and experiences from these visits will be exhibited at summaery. The goal was to experience and rediscover the university, not just as an educational institute, but also as a culturally and socially diverse space. The accompanying exhibition, which takes the form of a large guest book, is intended to act as a presentation as well as a reciprocal invitation that invites visitors and any other interested parties to experience the diversity of the university on an individual level in this unique composition.
The Open Lab Night will take place on Friday, 12 July from 5 to 10 pm, at the Faculty of Media’s temporary campus at Schwanseestraße 143. In addition to bits and bytes, beats, beer and bratwursts will be available. The labs will also be open on Saturday, 13 July from noon until 3 pm. The location can be reached on both days via the shuttle bus that departs regularly from the university’s Main Building. More information on the Open Lab Night can be found here: www.uni-weimar.de/oln
All information on summaery2024 can found at: www.uni-weimar.de/ summaery.