HTW Berlin / Cruising

Cruising – A VR Installation on Queer Encounter Culture: Between Fear, Shame, and Freedom

The focus is on a practice that is simultaneously invisible yet always present, fleeting, risky, and full of possibilities. Cruising moves between attraction and danger, between shame and lust, between concealment and freedom. The installation makes these tensions tangible in a sensual way. Visitors enter a virtual environment that does not prescribe any clear paths. Instead of orientation through structure, atmospheres are created in which gestures, glances, and traces shape the space. Encounters happen in passing, brief and intense, without names and without certainty. Every movement has the potential to open something up or to pass unnoticed. “Cruising” combines historical, social, and spatial-theoretical perspectives with an immersive experience. The work invites visitors to embark on a search in which nothing is predetermined: no destination, no exit, no clear direction. You never know where you will end up. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)