Realities in Transition 2

Realities in Transition 2 (RiT2), also known by its open call title "The Reciprocal Trap" and its residency theme "Unwritten Worlds", is the second edition of the EU-co-funded Realities in Transition project researching the impact of extended reality (XR). V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media (Rotterdam) is one of the partner organisations hosting the residency.

About

Realities in Transition 2 (RiT2) is a residency hosted at V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam, run as part of the second, EU-co-funded edition of the international Realities in Transition programme. The V2_ leg of the residency is titled "The Reciprocal Trap", within the broader RiT2 theme "Unwritten Worlds". This page documents the residency itself: who took part, what was made, materials and methods used, and where the outputs live — not the original open call.

Residency brief

Residents co-created a single shared XR artwork exploring the feedback loop between human behaviour and AI-driven world-building — how gestures, choices and "common sense" actions can be captured as training data for autonomous agents that generate simulated worlds in real time. The residency was structured as a hybrid, communal production process rather than individual commissions.

Timeline

• 1st online phase: June–July 2026
• In-person residency at V2_, Rotterdam: August–September 2026
• 2nd online phase: October–November 2026
• Final presentation: February 2027, V2_, Rotterdam

Participants

To be filled in — resident artists, creative technologist(s), and V2_ staff/mentors involved.

Process & materials

Document tools, software, hardware, datasets and techniques used during the residency here as work progresses (e.g. XR/game engines, sensors, AI models, fabrication).

Outputs

Document the resulting artwork(s) here once produced.

• Test_Lab work-in-progress showing —
• Final showcase presentation (Feb 2027) —
• Documentation / media (photos, video, code, writeups) —

Related

• Realities in Transition — overall EU-funded programme (consortium: Seconde Nature, L.E.V., Meet, Nova Iskra, V2_ Lab, Beta Festival)
• Original open call (background reference): v2.nl — Open Call: Realities in Transition 2, The Reciprocal TrapIn the age of agentic AI, Extended Reality shifts from a space of immersion into a system of extraction. RiT2 invites artists and designers to co-create a shared artwork during a residency exploring the hidden loop between human labour and machine world-building. Drawing inspiration from Greg Egan's Permutation City, the project explores how human behaviour — gestures, choices, "common sense" actions — can serve as data to train autonomous AI agents, generating dynamic, shifting simulated worlds in real time.

The hybrid production residency is designed as a communal creation process for a single joint artwork, with all residents contributing according to their individual expertise and vision.

Timeline

• Open call: 4 March – 12 April 2026 (deadline extended)
• 1st online phase: June–July 2026
• In-person residency at V2_: August–September 2026
• 2nd online phase: October–November 2026
• Final presentation: February 2027, V2_, Rotterdam

Consortium

Realities in Transition 2 is co-funded by the European Union and consists of:

• Seconde Nature (France)
• L.E.V. (Spain)
• Meet (Italy)
• Nova Iskra (Serbia)
• V2_ Lab (The Netherlands)
• Beta Festival (Ireland)

External links

• Open Call: Realities in Transition 2, The Reciprocal Trap (v2.nl)
• Realities in Transition project website