Virtual Walks
Details on how to participate will be announced after the opening ceremony of the conference!
Congress Artwork
Unexpected Territories — Virtual Reality
Unexpected Territories – the Congress Artwork
Virtual reality born from the intersection of graphic drawing and digital space
Silent, strange gardens, grey-blue noise, fluorescent lights, unexpected territories. This is a brief description of the new VR artwork created through the collaboration of visual artist Ondřej Michálek and Lunchmeat Studio, a respected team working at the intersection of visual art, music, and new media. This meeting of two seemingly distinct artistic approaches – drawing (transformed into a graphic matrix and then an imprint) and immersive digital environments – gives rise to a subtle yet powerful space for contemplation and imagination.
When the viewer puts on a VR headset, they enter a space that seems suspended between dream and tangible structure. Before them emerges a dreamlike scene: an object resembling a floating form – a tangle of branches, constructions, wires. Several luminous shoots extend from the object, reaching upward. Instead of sound, there are quiet murmurs. Instead of instructions – space. This immersive experience is brought to life in the new VR work by Ondřej Michálek and Lunchmeat Studio, created for the 2025 InSEA World Congress and building on the retrospective publication Ondřej Michálek: Práce 1969–2024 [Ondřej Michálek: Works 1969–2024].
A space that doesn’t move – yet is alive
The visuality of the VR scene draws on Ondřej Michálek’s distinctive graphic style – his quiet structures that reflect landscapes, organic elements, and the unrest and artificiality of the contemporary world. In the space created by Lunchmeat Studio, these motifs transform into almost living objects – levitating bodies made of “branch-like networks,” emerging in a misty dusk. Some parts glow faintly, others remain in shadow. The whole evokes architecture, a relic, a natural artifact, or a strange life form.
A meeting of two languages
Michálek’s drawings provide content – expressive and symbolic, deeply rooted in the world of printmaking. Lunchmeat Studio, by contrast, works with moving images and intermediality – sound, light, 3D space. In their joint VR work, these approaches don’t cancel each other out but rather complement one another: the silence of the line becomes the soft murmur of space, the drawing becomes structure, metaphor becomes landscape.
An experience of otherness
This virtual work does not have a story in the traditional sense. It lacks game mechanics, levels, or goals in the gaming sense. Instead, it functions as a zone of otherness – a brief transition into another mode of perception. In this unexpected territory, there are no missions to complete, no decisions to make. One simply is – perceiving, entering, and exiting. During the congress, the piece will be accessible in a relaxation area – offering visitors a few minutes of an alternate reality, light, and space on a hot summer day. Entering it means leaving behind familiar coordinates. It is a chance to be elsewhere for a moment – in unexpected territories.
This work demonstrates that virtual reality need not be loud, action-packed, or aggressive. It need not offer adrenaline or entertainment. Instead, it can open unexpected spaces – to inhabit, to contemplate, and to imagine. The virtual reality experience is designed to be short but intense – just a few minutes, without any demands or expectations. Here, virtual reality is not an escape, but a return – to silence, to images, to oneself.
The work is being created for a special international event – the 2025 InSEA World Congress, hosted by the Faculty of Education at Palacký University Olomouc and the Czech Section of InSEA. It is the work of one of the university’s prominent artist-educators, Ondřej Michálek, that has inspired the theme of “unexpected territories” in both art and education, and served as the foundation for this virtual intervention.
Authors of the work:
Director: Agáta Nowaková
Screenwriters: Agáta Nowaková, Jakub Pešek
Author of original artworks: Ondřej Michálek
Producer: Petra Šobáňová; Palacký University Olomouc, Faculty of Education, Department of Art Education
Animator: Michal Nárovec
Sound designer: Aid Kid
Editor: Jakub Pešek
Production: Agáta Nowaková
2025
More about the authors:
Michálek’s prints, which form the visual foundation of the congress, bring forth motifs of unexpected landscapes, strange fruits, timeless gardens, and the subtle tension between natural and artificial, familiar and unknown. Lunchmeat Studio transforms these visuals into 3D environments – through movement, light, and sound. The result is a kind of otherness that cannot be precisely defined but can be experienced.
Ondřej Michálek is a significant figure in the Czech graphic art scene. His work, spanning from the 1970s to the present, is characterized by precise draftsmanship, structural clarity, and conceptual depth (more about the artist below). Lunchmeat Studio, based in the Czech Republic, works in the language of digital media. Their multimedia projects include audiovisual artworks, light architecture, media design and interactive installations (more about the studio below). Together, they create a space where drawing does not become animation but a place to inhabit.
This work is part of the project Immersive Technologies in the Context of New Media Art and Art Education, IGA_PdF_2025_031, led by principal researcher Petra Šobáňová. The project is supported by the Faculty of Education, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic.
Text by: Petra Šobáňová
VR Experience (no booking is necessary from now) – NEWS OF TODAY (FRIDAY): Congress VR Experience Available at Konvikt
Dear participants,
Based on your requests, we’re happy to inform you that we have moved the VR experience to the main venue – Arts Center – Konvikt to the ATTIC FLOOR for TODAY (Thursday) only. Tomorrow (Friday) it is back to Mozarteum. There is NO NEED TO REGISTER, you can just come and enjoy it.
You’ll now find the VR headsets in the attic (4th floor), right in the hallway next to the coffee point.
The space is calm and quiet – perfect for a moment of immersion.
Friday 10:00–18:00 Mozarteum, 1st floor hall, Archdiocesan Museum Olomouc, Václavské náměstí 3
About:
Lunchmeat Studio is a multidisciplinary creative studio specializing in digital media, media design, interactivity, and the creation of immersive visitor experiences. They are known for their ability to blend cutting-edge technology with artistic vision, crafting environments and narratives that captivate and inspire.
Based in the Czech Republic, Lunchmeat Studio works at the intersection of art, design, and technology, and collaborates with cultural institutions, festivals, brands, and artists from around the world. Their portfolio includes a wide range of projects – from audiovisual artworks and interactive installations to live performances and multimedia scenography.
Driven by innovation, experimentation, and a deep understanding of audience engagement, they consistently push the boundaries of digital media to explore new modes of expression and connection. Whether developing large-scale projection mapping, designing custom interactive systems, or curating sensory experiences, Lunchmeat Studio brings imagination and technical expertise to every project they undertake.
