OPERA XXI / HRZSCHMRZ

Today we live largely virtually. We ‘share’ our most intimate stirrings through social media like Facebook for our ‘virtual’ friends to view and enjoy. For some, their internet existence goes even further: the Hikikomori, an ever-growing group of Japanese gamers, even refuse to leave their rooms. After all, all their needs are being met through the Internet: from 3D sex games that feed the libido, to the ardent desire to marry Hatsune Miku, a virtual female manga singer. Is this virtual love a modern version of medieval courtly love? And are the Hikikomori the knights of our modern times? In the virtual world, space and time, past and future are interwoven to form a whole.