IMMERSIVIA stands for immersive interactive digital art explored in walkable environments. You walk, you chat, you eat, you dance, you create, you cooperate, you live as an avatar inside such worlds. You exist -- maybe forever recognized in a way you truly are. Art and technology come together to form a new way of recognition and participation. You may see it as a social experience, a kind of social art. What was treated as virtual is seen as real.

Right now look at facebook. Facebook is made as the terms of service states "for real friends". I have over 1,000 friends there, about 50 I know in person. Some have names that exist only in virtual realms, like Cyberphoria Resident. She is an avatar. You could be her. As soon a Cyberphoria will have reached a threshold of 100 friends the robots of facebook will suspend this account and ask for "reality proof". Cyberphoria will continue to live outside facebook – or inside with an alias name the robots don´t catch. I spoke with Prof. Sims Bainbridge at the NSF in Washington to share data of her – to be precise over 40,000 personality items – collected by one my students in a self-exploratory study who wants to have recognized Cyberphoria as her – even by her future grandkids. The book Personality Capture and Emulation, Springer Science (2014), by Sims Bainbridge shows the ways.

Cyberphoria made it into galleries and was featured in art magazines. In interviews it was questioned if she is Lana Newstrom, creator of INVISIBLE ART for which collectors are paying millions (CBC). Quite understandable as my student comes from Las Vegas and she knows gaming.

IMMERSIVIA is reality. I show how art made in virtual realms comes to the surface by using outstanding examples. IMMERSIVIA is a reality first presented in public at the 3rd edition of Santorini Biennale in Santorini, Greece. Over 60 artists from 20 countries sent in -- 12 have been selected: Gem Preiz (France), Moewe Winkler (Germany), Art Eames (Germany), Juliette (USA), Molly Bloom (USA), WizardOz Chrome (Italy), Cherry Manga (France), Ink and Stem van Helsinki (Denmark), Venus Adored (Denmark), Eugen Krieger (Germany), Navah Dreams (Greece), Exy Atreides (UK).

You will get a full picture of this class of art. I will guide you inside and show you a selection of the most known artists of this kind and combine it with the roots. Then I will point out to the future, a future that is real, not a fantasy.

IMMERSIVIA will expand and will be embedded in other real art showings, not limited to Santorini. Digital art works will be conserved for future generations. I guide you to use the technology to explore it -- live via the Hypergrid network.