“The water level may well rise in the virtual studio.”

ETH Zurich promotes the transfer of knowl­edge and the commer­cial imple­men­ta­tion of research. The promo­tion of inno­va­tion includes close coop­er­a­tion with indus­trial and busi­ness part­ners. The coop­er­a­tion with the Design Prize Switzer­land also springs from this goal. Both are committed to ensuring that design is applied as a holistic design and devel­op­ment process. As part of the “RETHINKING” series of events, ETH Zurich launched a new series in the virtual studio on 27 May 2021 with a focus on the topic of “RETHINKING LIVING”.

www.ovimages.ch

How can one sit under the dome of ETH Zurich and on a moun­tain peak at the same time? People from all over the world meet in the virtual studio of ETH Zurich to ponder the major ques­tions of life: RETHINKING LIVING.

The view from the ETH Pavilion of the breath­taking moun­tain land­scape and the Lake of Lucerne invites you to consider and discuss life’s essen­tial ques­tions: What is life? How do we want to live? How is our life changing?

In the back­ground, a solar-powered plane is flying over the lake, a power plant on a cliff gener­ates fuel from sunlight and air, and what is gliding through the air like a flock of Alpine choughs in an elegant chore­og­raphy is actu­ally a swarm of autonomous drones: in the virtual 3D land­scape of the studio, Central Switzer­land discreetly connects with the latest tech­nolo­gies – all research projects from ETH Zurich.

“The water level may well rise some­times in the back­ground during a conver­sa­tion, or suddenly two- or four-legged robots will frolic in a meadow,” explains the creator and manager of the RETHINKING LIVING studio project, Simone Bucher van Ligten with a smile. “We can animate the land­scape in the back­ground, depending on the topic of conver­sa­tion.” It is also possible to incor­po­rate researchers’ 3‑D models virtu­ally into a conver­sa­tion.

Simone Bucher van Ligten, a member of ETH Zurich’s Office of the Pres­i­dent, designs and develops plat­forms for dialogue between science and society. The virtual RETHINKING LIVING studio now follows on from a series of phys­ical exhi­bi­tions on RETHINKING INTELLIGENCE, RETHINKING DESIGN and RETHINKING CREATIVITY. It was created as part of the virtu­al­i­sa­tion of events, such as discus­sion forums which take place online due to the pandemic. The RETHINKING LIVING studio was devel­oped together with the OVI Images visu­al­i­sa­tion studio, designing the virtual world, and with OnStage show tech­nology, inte­grating the land­scape in a phys­ical studio. “I gave OVI Images a photo my parents took on a hike on Mt. Rigi. On the basis of the coor­di­nates, they were able to create a true-to-life model of the terrain using geodata,” says Bucher van Ligten. As a place of encounter, the virtual ETH Pavilion is a reduced form of the ETH main building, with the iconic dome as a roof. By using Green Screen, partic­i­pants in the discus­sion from Singa­pore, New York and Accra can virtu­ally inte­grate them­selves under the ETH dome.

www.ovimages.ch
www.ovimages.ch

The RETHINKING LIVING event series

On Swiss National Climate Day on 27 May 2021, the RETHINKING LIVING studio starts its first broad­cast: The Fate of Forests. The partic­i­pants debate on the future of the forests — ETH Professor Tom Crowther, ETH Professor Rachael Garrett, Clara Rowe, CEO of Restor and host Chris Luebkeman: how do we protect the forests, biodi­ver­sity, how do we prevent defor­esta­tion, and how can we restore the enor­mous areas of forest which have been lost? Students from the climate gener­a­tion ask them ques­tions on these topics.

The discus­sion is streamed on the ETH YouTube channel and the websites of National Climate Day and Fate of Forests and kicks off the RETHINKING LIVING campaign. “It’s about the funda­mental ques­tions of life – where and how do we have to adjust or change? How can we deal with climate change? How do we use tech­nolo­gies, and how do we use them to create a more sustain­able, more resilient and fairer world?” says Jürg Brunnschweiler, Manager of the Office of the Pres­i­dent and initiator of the campaign.

The fact that ETH Zurich debates these ques­tions on a Swiss moun­tain of all places, is very appro­priate: it is the place where tran­quil­lity and vision come together.