Violet tentacles stretch outwards, turquoise protuberances pulsate, mushroom-shaped formations cluster under a sky that shifts between various colours. A mini-armada of brain-like spherical creatures heads for the unknown. The mysterious landscape in which this all takes place isn’t part of an acid trip – it is from our ˈʊmˌvɛltn̩ app. First we developed it as a virtual reality application for the Konzerthaus. Now you can download a free augmented reality app for your smartphone and tablet, and can dive into the ˈʊmˌvɛltn̩ game anywhere. Visual artist Julian Bonequi created the unique visuals, composer Mark Barden came up with the sounds, and then they were recorded by the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. And now? It’s your turn!

The photo above shows a user of the VR version in the Konzerthaus. For the AR version at home, you need neither glasses nor a controller.

Simply download the “Umwelten” app, put on your headphones and find a spot with plenty of room on the floor. Then you’ll be right in the thick of things: discover and open secret portals, collect 30 different creatures and plants, discern their various sounds – recorded by the Konzerthausorchester – by tapping on them and combine these into your own compositions. These can then be recorded and shared.

In addition to having fun with strange creatures and their sounds, the Konzerthaus Berlin naturally also wants to provide access to music – in this case, a low-threshold interactive approach to contemporary music, which is often thought of as particularly difficult to access. Incidentally, we have been committed to innovative mediation approaches to classical music in the digital space since 2016 with changing projects such as the digital exhibition on site at the Konzerthaus and the Konzerthaus app.

The VR application was developed in cooperation with the HTW Berlin University of Applied Sciences. The development of both apps was funded by the Aventis Foundation as part of the #experimenteDigital programme.