Team Vragments

Buil­ding vir­tu­al worlds made easy: Spot­light on our Start-up Lab Vragments

Sta­si inter­ro­ga­ti­on methods, sub­way escape, tra­vel­ling along a motor­way wit­hout a car: the Vrag­ments team of jour­na­lists, deve­lo­pers, gra­phic artists and sci­en­tists expands our rea­li­ty in vir­tu­al space. Ever­yo­ne can use their Fader pro­duct to tell their own sto­ry in a vir­tu­al and simp­le way wit­hout any com­plex tech­no­lo­gy - with text, sound, images, video and, of cour­se, in 360 degrees. We spo­ke in the Media­Tech Lab Lounge of Stu­dio Five with the company’s five foun­ders - Lin­da Rath-Wig­gins, Ste­phan Gensch, Rony Ester­luss, Tino Bred­din and Mar­cus Bösch - about house­boats in Copen­ha­gen, Deutsch­land­funk, the HPI and XR history.

As Vrag­ments’ five foun­ders, we are …

inte­res­ted in explai­ning com­plex topics through immersi­ve solu­ti­ons in the fields of AR and VR. We are buil­ding a plat­form cal­led Fader that makes it pos­si­ble to build and publish inter­ac­ti­ve VR sto­ries easi­ly and fast.

Our busi­ness idea was born …

becau­se we want to lower the tech­ni­cal hurd­les for crea­ti­ve peo­p­le, sto­rytel­lers and jour­na­lists so that they can offer their sto­ries in immersi­ve and inter­ac­ti­ve formats.

Fader is …

a web-based VR plat­form whe­re VR sto­ries can both be built as well as experienced.

I had my first VR experience …

on a space sta­ti­on. Some­whe­re in nowhe­re. A fri­end had fami­lia­ri­sed us with new VR tech­no­lo­gies and drawn our atten­ti­on to the first jour­na­li­stic VR sto­ries. Then it quick­ly beca­me clear: this is the medi­um of the future.

Best VR pro­duct ever / or best VR expe­ri­ence ever …

is our VR appli­ca­ti­on about the Sta­si inter­ro­ga­ti­on methods. We are very proud of this coope­ra­ti­on with Deutsch­land­funk Kul­tur and the jour­na­list Jana Wut­t­ke. As part of the expe­ri­ence, users can use ori­gi­nal audio and a com­pu­ter-gene­ra­ted inter­ro­ga­ti­on room to under­stand the inter­ro­ga­ti­on methods used by the Sta­si to extri­ca­te con­fes­si­ons. The ori­gi­nal audi­os are real­ly moving.

But the­re are also gre­at Fader sto­ries from our users. We’­ve alre­a­dy been in house­boats in Copen­ha­gen, in Eng­lish wind­mills, and on a moped in India.

Our cur­rent “baby” to try out …

is Fader. Just regis­ter, upload your own pic­tures or films, and off you go.

The five foun­ders – a woman and four men - got to know each other …

in dif­fe­rent places. The­se included the Helm­holtz-Gym­na­si­um in Pots­dam, in the pub, and in joint semi­nars held for the Uni­ver­si­ty of Pots­dam and the Has­so Platt­ner Institute.

In our opi­ni­on, Pots­dam is…

important! Three foun­ders come from Pots­dam or live in Pots­dam. Ber­lin is just a suburb 😀

In 2021, Fader will be…

THE go-to plat­form for XR stories.

We have many years of expe­ri­ence as…

Jour­na­lists, IT experts, desi­gners, lec­tu­r­ers, con­cept deve­lo­pers, con­sul­tants and storytellers.

We offer…

Cou­ra­ge, com­mit­ment and creativity.

Our favou­ri­te loca­ti­on for net­wor­king in Babels­berg is…

The mee­ting room at the Media Tech Hub. This is a place whe­re we can brain­storm, dis­cuss and meet with part­ners, cus­to­mers and inte­res­ted parties.

We recom­mend every startup…

To have a broad-based team, pas­si­on, room for error, room for suc­cess, and lots of patience.

You can find us…

at August-Bebel-Str. 26-53, 14482 Pots­dam - abo­ve Stu­dio Five, on the 3rd flo­or and here on our website.

About MTH Blog

The media technologies of the future are already being used today – not only in the entertainment sector, but also in a wide variety of industries. Christine Lentz meets up with tech enthusiasts, established companies and researchers for our monthly MediaTech Hub Potsdam blog to tell the stories behind the innovative business models.