Virtual Reality : enhancing, developing and protecting culture

Part 1 : Languages

Today over 7,000 languages are spoken worldwide. By the middle of the century, half of these voices will have fallen silent. At an unprecedented speed, faster than the extinction of most endangered species, we are losing our linguistic diversity—and the very means by which we know ourselves. By definition, it occurs in silence, since silence is the very form of this extinction.

Last Whispers: An Immersive Oratorio is an invocation of the languages that have gone extinct and an incantation of those that are endangered. In collaboration with VR pioneer Nonny de la Pena and her company, Emblematic Group, artist Lena Herzog has been working on an immersive VR oratorio in three parts. Each part will comprise its own stand-alone VR experience and embody three distinct expressions that viscerally answer the question of how to tell an extinction whoseform is silence.

The work is presented on the exhibition floor of WSIS and during this session Lena Herzog will raise our awareness and call for action.

Part 2 : Exploration

Whether it be in ancient Greek mythology or recent super hero movies, flying always seems to have been an obsession for humans. While we may have achieved the dream of flying with airplanes, some would point out that we are disconnected from the real experience of flight, as we are operating a machine, instead of truly flying ourselves and flapping our own wings. With recent developments in VR, Max Rheiner, a teacher at the ZHAW in Zurich, sought out to create an immersive flying machine to truly provide humans with the emotions and sensations of flying like a bird. And Birdly was born. It is today run by the company somniacs.

This year WSIS delegates will have for the first time the opportunity to experience Birdly, and through this talk Max Rheiner will explain how beyond entertainment the simulator is a fantastic educational platform.