The Motion Experience Lab is coming to St. Pölten! On 22 and 23 May, KISD will be represented at the LUCID DREAMS Festival with an extended student project programme from the Image & Motion department, led by Prof. Nina Juric.
Prof. Juric will be joined by 15 Integrated Design students, as well as MXL alumni Nima Hülshorst and Julian Spath, who are guest teaching this semester and further developing their KISD graduation projects specifically for the Lucid Dreams Festival.
Under the title Happy Palace, the LUCID DREAMS Festival creates a space of the ephemeral at Bühne im Hof. Following chapters on AI, [digital] fungi, and STONEAGE, a palace of perception emerges—a transitional zone between the precariousness of the real and the dreamlike nature of the virtual. A shimmering space of data, myths, and glitches that raises the question: who is allowed to enter this space—and what remains outside its luminous gates?
The Motion Experience Lab (MXL) follows an invitation from the curatorial lead, Prof. Mag. Markus Wintersberger, in collaboration with the Experimental Media masterclass at FH St. Pölten. The student MXL production team forms a central element of the contribution within the festival, developing the media superstructure of the exhibition space at Bühne im Hof both spatially and atmospherically. The team organises the visual and sonic presence, shaping the media staging as well as KISD’s external representation within the festival context. The festival presents over 50 international positions.
MXL is a hybrid research and experimental environment at the Köln International School of Design (TH Köln) in the field of Image & Motion. Since 2016, it has functioned as an audiovisual production, learning, and teaching space within Integrated Design, combining experimental practice with transdisciplinary media research and the field of Creative Technologies. Here, students develop prototypes and audiovisual artefacts across image, movement, sound, space, and code in both high- and low-tech environments. The lab positions itself as a structural platform for experience-based learning within networked production contexts. Its focus includes generative systems, real-time imaging, embodied interaction, and immersive scenarios, as well as the exploration of spatio-temporal complexities and so-called interface performances—and their critical dimension in relation to humans and machines.
As part of the programme, two experimental teaching formats will be presented:
#Happy Palace
A filmic scenario developed at the Motion Experience Lab, specifically conceived for the LUCID DREAMS Festival, becomes an experimental 3D animation. Within ten days, participants go through a dedicated production pipeline and a storytelling workshop led by Nima Hülshorst and Prof. Juric.
The film envisions a radically condensed digital present beyond physical reality: a virtual space in which attention becomes the sole currency, determining visibility, value, and existence. What happens when action turns into performance—and survival becomes tied to digital presence?
#Mnemo
An application and methodology where mnemonic techniques meet psychotherapy in the context of coping with depression.
Based on Julian Spath’s graduation project Mnemo, this research-based teaching project translates the “method of loci” as a spatial memory technique into a digital interface architecture. It creates an individual thought space in which memories are situated along navigable structures, expanding access to affective and sensory layers of recollection.
At its core lies the question of how memory can be designed and spatially organised—between mnemonic practice, therapeutic environments, and speculative digital spaces.
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Lucid Dreams Festival, St. Pölten, Austria
Dates: May 22–23, 2026
Venue: Bühne im Hof, St. Pölten
https://www.lucid-dreams.at
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Student Production Team:
Nele Oberbiermann, Lucie Wernecke, Lisa Marie Kneuper, Felix Klei, Paul Kimmerl
Student Project Teams:
Yannick Lethgau, Benedikt Bruchhausen, Anna Aptsiauri, Corinna Schwager, Marie Goldbach, Sofia Fellinger, Marie Kochs, Joscha Dammert, Vincent Johnson, Biyu Zhang, Davide Vignando, Greta Cesaris, Melis Kozak, Elena Savoldi, Leandro Ramirez
Initiated and creatively led by Prof. Nina Juric, responsible for the area of Image and Motion / head of the Motion Experience Lab, TH Köln supported alumni by Nima Hülshorst and Julian Spath
Links:
https://www.lucid-dreams.at/2026-projekte/projekt-041
https://www.lucid-dreams.at/2026-projekte/projekt-042
Bachelor Project Mnemo / Julian Spath:
https://julianspath.com/project-mnemo
Bachelor Project Broke Boys / Nima Hülshorst:
https://wecouldnotaffordourdomain.com
_____ Mehr über das MXL:
imageandmotion.xyz
@motionexperiencelab
timeinspaceintimeinspaceintimein.space/mxl