On 5 September 2025, AIT was present in the Deep Space 8K at the Ars Electronica Festival: Tanja Kostic, Head of the Competence Unit Bioresources at the AIT Center for Health & Bioresources and Managing Director of the MicrobiomeSupport Association, delivered live commentary on the VR film “Secret Rulers of the World.” The “Connected Life” session guided the audience through three layers of nature, from the Rothwald as the last primeval forest in Central Europe, to microbiomes, and into the interior of a fungal cell, and showed how immersive formats can make complex content tangible.
Microbiome research is difficult to access for many outside the specialist community: the mechanisms are invisible, the evidence often multifaceted, and expectations for future applications high. This is precisely where “Connected Life” comes in, in Deep Space 8K, content is shown in 3D and on large-scale projections; the audience experiences research not only cognitively but spatially. Tanja Kostic’s live commentary on “Secret Rulers of the World” complemented the VR film with context and classification, an approach that sparked curiosity and prompted follow-up questions.
“For me, this underlines how important it is to share knowledge in a way that is both understandable and engaging—without exaggerating the positives or concealing the unknowns. Only in this way can expectations be managed and users prepared for the upcoming microbiome-based solutions,” says Tanja Kostic. The film originates from the EU-funded MicrobiomeSupport project, from which the recently founded MicrobiomeSupport association emerged—an international network that promotes the communication and application of microbiome knowledge.
As early as 25 April 2025, the topic was presented in Deep Space 8K with the participation of Tanja Kostic in a scientific session together with BOKU: a joint exploration from large ecosystems down to microscopic processes in cells. The festival screening in September built directly on this and once again presented the three “worlds” (primeval forest, microbiome, fungal cell) to a broad audience.
Bringing more science to the public
AIT and the MicrobiomeSupport Association rely on open formats for an interested public that convey complex research as understandable science. Immersive presentations, combined with expert classification, are well suited to communicate the realistic benefits of future microbiome-based solutions and to address expectations transparently. The fact that the festival selected the “Connected Life” session with its three layers (primeval forest–microbiome–fungal cell) shows the potential of such collaborations between research, science communication and cultural institutions.
More: https://ars.electronica.art/panic/en/view/connected-life-21c38ddb450c815ea69bc11387809ed5/
