Last Friday, 17 May 2019, we launched our DigitAS project with the symposium and kick-off event “The Digital, Affects and Space (DigitAS): Reflections on the Societal Consequences of a Future in Mixed Realities” at University of Innsbruck. Petra Missomelius of the Department of Media, Society and Communication, University of Innsbruck opened the symposium. After that, Tabea Bork-Hüffer and Martin Rutzinger, both part of the DigitAS team, presented the DigitAS project outline. Keynote speaker Arzu Çöltekin (Institute for Interactive Technologies, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland) subsequently gave a detailed overview of recent developments in virtual and mixed reality related to cognition studies. Finally, an interdisciplinary discussion panel on societal consequences of mixed realities brought together views from sociology, philosophy, and technology development (panellists besides keynote speaker Arzu Çöltekin: Andreas Beinsteiner, Philosophy, University of Vienna; Manfred Faßler, Institut für Kulturanthropologie und Europäische Ethnologie, University of Frankfurt; Christian Kray, Head of sitcom Lab, Institute for Geoinformatics, University of Münster). The symposium – followed by an internal meeting with our scientific advisory board – was a successful kick-off event and established a promising platform for an open and fruitful interdisciplinary dialogue on research on mixed realities.
