“Extended realities can change how you look at the world”: Ulrich Schrauth on LFF Expanded

This year’s LFF Expanded exhibition at Oxo Tower Wharf showcases nine immersive experiences, running about four hours if you watched them back to back. They are thought-provoking works, some of which evoke profound moments from history and are unlike anything we’ve seen in virtual reality so far.

Highlights include Darren Emerson’s Letters from Drancy, a captivating re-enactment of the horrors of war experienced from the position of a child – Holocaust survivor Marion Deichmann who, after being forcefully separated from her mother, embarks on a journey of survival across the borders of northern Europe. Murals, created by Alex Topaller, Daniel Shapiro and Artem Ivanenko and featuring Banksy’s murals, is another haunting work, in this case illustrating the ongoing devastation of war in Ukraine. Shirin Neshat’s The Fury is a powerful two-part exhibition focusing on female vulnerability and abuse. And Pierre-Alain Giraud, Stéphane Foenkinos and Tania de Montaigne’s Colored is an augmented reality installation that positions the audience at the centre of 15-year-old Claudette Colvin’s fight against segregation laws in 1950s America.

We spoke to lead LFF Expanded programmer Ulrich Schrauth about the work behind this unique selection.

How long has LFF Expanded been running for?

We started LFF Expanded in 2020. That was the first year, and then the pandemic hit. So we had to operate a hybrid version for the first year with an exhibition using the Blue Room at BFI Southbank and a virtual venue, like a Metaverse. For two years from 2021, Leake Street near Waterloo Station was our main exhibition venue and this year we moved to Bargehouse at The Oxo Tower Wharf.

Can you tell us about the curatorial aspect of BFI Expanded and the research involved? How is it different from putting up an arts exhibition?

The interesting thing is that with XR or expanded realities, so many different genres collide or come together. So it’s very different to any other exhibition that you put up. It’s not a fine art show, it’s not a film curation. It is on the intersection of all of these. But for me it’s always about the stories that we tell or the urgency that the artists have to present their stories or projects. And also about the relation between the physical and the virtual space. We create full set designs, and we design different rooms for different experiences. In terms of research, I’m travelling around a lot. I see a lot of work on the intersection between film, new media, visual art, performance. And then every year we give out an open call for artists so they can submit their work. I review all the different works and then we decide which ones we want to pick.

Since 2020, have you seen any substantial developments in terms of how VR creators work with new technology?

There are different strands of developments that you can see. In terms of technological development, the headsets get much more live, they get better resolution, they’re more interactive. The rise of AI, generative machine learning – all of this is something that artists incorporate in their works. But for me it’s not at the core of what they’re doing. It’s the stories that they tell; the themes that interest them; the social, political and cultural relevance of the stories that they tell.

We have seen a push into more participative and more collective experiences than set design works. This is why we decided to have fewer works this year, but rather more complex physical installations that can also house more people at the same time. Because for us it’s all about the audience. We want as many people as possible to see all of these different wonderful projects that we invited and this is why we engaged with local communities to put on a lot of different access points throughout the city in different forms.

This year, I noticed an interest in works themed around powerful social engagement and immersing yourself in the subject matter, such as Darren Emerson’s virtual reality documentary about life during the Holocaust, Letters from Drancy. How would you explain this?

I would say there have always been these wonderful works out there, but sometimes technology gets in the way. The easier and more democratic the technology gets, the more artists and creators can focus on the story. Maybe that’s what you feel as an audience member, the vision gets clearer. Sometimes it was more clunky or more complicated. But with the developments in the technology, it gets more accessible.

What are your aspirations for the future of LFF Expanded?

If I can dream, I want the convergence of the different art forms to become as seamless as possible. Film crossing with visual arts, more performances with interesting new technology, to break down the barriers that often sit in the heads of the people and not in the medium or in the artworks. Because in my eyes it is an art form in which many creators from different genres work together to establish how we exhibit and how audiences interact with these works. So, to really make this its own art form, that’s something I’d be very excited about.

What would you like audiences to take away from this year’s exhibition?

I want them to get inspired. I want them to look at the world a little differently, because what extended realities can do is change the perspective in which you look at the world. We live in very troubled and very, very challenging times, and if the works can give you a little bit of guidance or a little surprise or a smile, just by looking at things a little differently, then I think we’ve achieved what we set out to do.

The LFF Expanded exhibition runs at The Oxo Tower Wharf until 22 October.