Press Release | 16. April 2025 Beyond Curiosity - Linz virtual tour

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Kokishin wo koete 好奇心を超えて - Linz Virtual Tour

Linz Tourism in collaboration with Ars Electronica Futurelab

Linz is everything you don't expect. So different.

Linz is located in the centre between historic Vienna and Mozart's Salzburg, in the middle of Upper Austria on the Danube. The city is unique, but very charming - if you take a look behind the facades. Festival site or empty car park? Two illuminated glass containers or vibrant hotspots for art and culture? Linz is a city that wants to be discovered - and surprises and delights on closer inspection. For the curious who are prepared to wander off the beaten track, Linz is a fascinating journey of discovery. The city reveals itself to be unexpected and diverse for those who dare to change their perspective.

The joint project of Linz Tourism and the Ars Electronica Futurelab ‘Beyond Curiosity’, a participatory virtual tour through the Upper Austrian capital of Linz, also opens up a new perspective. This artistic interpretation of the UNESCO City of Media Arts employs cutting-edge 3D Gaussian Splatting technology to create an unconventional journey through the city’s landmarks. The key highlight: visitors and residents of Linz can use this technology to explore the city in a new way and share their perspectives with the world. The virtual tour is set to premiere in the Austrian pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan.

With ‘Take a risk, visit Linz’, Linz Tourism has a new, strong brand identity and was developed as part of the new Destination Strategy 2030, which focuses on innovation, sustainability and networking. The new claim is not just about visiting the city, but about engaging in a different kind of travelling. At the same time, the claim is an invitation to discover - off the beaten track and a well-timed journey. Of course, surrendering to chance and not planning everything also harbours a risk. A risk with a twinkle in the eye that pays off. ‘Beyond Curiosity’ is based precisely on this philosophy, deliberately not showing everything and leaving room for the unknown.

Marie Louise Schnurpfeil und Kyoko Kunoh

“In keeping with our new brand identity ‘Take a risk, visit Linz’, Beyond Curiosity invites you to look at Linz from a different angle. The unique Gaussian Splatting technology shows the sights of the city on the one hand and leaves enough room for manoeuvre to arouse curiosity on the other. The project highlights the Ars Electronica Futurelab as one of Linz's most important partners as a UNESCO City of Media Arts”, says Linz Tourism Managing Director Marie-Louise Schnurpfeil.

A New Way to See the City

Beyond Curiosity redefines traditional city video tours by offering a dynamic visual experience composed of 3D scans created with “Gaussian Splatting”, a cutting-edge technology which turns photos into 3D data. A showcase video captures the spirit of Linz through fragmented yet recognizable cityscapes—inviting imagination and the joy of exploration. But Beyond Curiosity is more than a video tour; it welcomes everyone to

reimagine Linz using curiosity and modern technology. The website (www.linztourismus.at/expo) not only maps out where scans of Linz’s key sights were taken and provides details about each location: Users are also encouraged to create and share their own scans using the Scaniverse app, guided by a tutorial video.

The Art and Technology Behind the Experience

Gaussian Splatting generates highly detailed 3D representations by processing images into sparse point cloud data and layering thousands of tiny, overlapping Gaussian shapes—soft, blurry ellipses that blend together to form smooth and realistic surfaces, capturing depth, lighting, and perspective with remarkable accuracy. Typically, Gaussian Splatting is used to achieve high-fidelity 3D reconstructions—like a photograph, but in three dimensions. Most research and development in this field focus on enhancing realism, improving visual accuracy, and optimizing performance. However, Beyond Curiosity takes a different approach, using this technology in an interpreting way to deconstruct reality rather than replicate it. This shift from pure representation to artistic interpretation unlocks new creative possibilities, shaping a unique visual language, yet rarely explored in 3D imaging. For the virtual tour video, the Futurelab team created more than 200 individual “splats” along with additional processed 360-degree video footage to comprehensively yet enigmatically showcase Linz’s landmarks from multiple perspectives. The base material

was then carefully curated and digitally hand-stitched into a dreamlike sequence, with dynamic shots highlighting the city’s individual characteristics. The visual style of the virtual tour video echoes Impressionism, using fragmentation - i.e. breaking down and splitting visual elements into smaller parts - as a tool for futuristic reinterpretation. The sound design is based on Foley recordings captured from various districts of Linz. Foley refers to the art of creating and recording everyday sound effects—like footsteps, rustling fabric, or ambient textures—in a controlled environment.

Though human figures are absent from the scans, people remain at the heart of the project—they are the ones capturing and uncovering Linz’s hidden and familiar features. The true value of Beyond Curiosity lies in its innovative creation process and its mission to make new technologies for creative expression and exploration accessible to all – aligning it with Expo 2025 Osaka’s theme, “Designing Future Society for Our Lives”.

Beyond Expo 2025: A Vision for the Future

This initiative extends beyond its debut at Expo 2025 on April 16 in Osaka: The Ars Electronica Futurelab will host two family-friendly workshops during the Festival of Curiosity at Linz’s Tabakfabrik on May 24, where participants can scan inspiring elements to contribute to a collective showcase. Additionally, Beyond Curiosity will be featured at the Ars Electronica Festival and will continue to be shared through Linz Tourism’s channels—ensuring a lasting impact on how Linz is perceived and explored.

BEYOND CURIOSITY Concept: Maria Pfeifer, Denise Hirtenfelder, Nicolas Naveau, Johannes Pöll Design Lead: Johannes Pöll Scans & Videoproduction: Johannes Pöll, Raphael Schaumburg-Lippe, Nicolas Naveau Sound: Arno Deutschbauer Tutorial Video: Raphael Schaumburg-Lippe, Kerstin Blätterbinder Workshop: Johannes Pöll, Denise Hirtenfelder Project Management: Denise Hirtenfelder Artistic Consultance: Hideaki Ogawa

Press contact: David Retzer +43 732 7070 2925 david.retzer@linztourismus.at