UNCAGED was first exhibited at the V&A - National Museum of Childhood, London (UK) during Mai and June 2004. The choice of this museum reflects the project's aim to be accessible for adults and children alike.
UNCAGED is a series of six 'telesymbiotic' installations exploring interrelationships and transitions between screen-based digital environments and their physical surroundings.
The project is motivated by the idea to 'uncage' computer based realities from the confines of their digital existence and to bring the remote computer world closer to our human experience. In particular, UNCAGED is opposed to the notion of immersive Virtual Reality where the physical world is more or less excluded from the participants, but instead attempts to situate the virtual domain within the physical world.
At the same time, UNCAGED seems to highlight the distance between the two domains. The underlying absurdity of the exhibits - or to be more precise, the absurdity of the apparent fusion between their physical and digital components - hints at the fallacy of the initial motivation behind UNCAGED and, in a wider context, questions the idea to seek in virtual worlds a place for meaningful human exchange and experiences.
UNCAGED incorporates different electromechanical devices and automated sculptures which interact, visually and acoustically, with computer generated animations and video images. Most of the exhibits are reminiscent of familiar games or feature modified toys, and participants can playfully engage with the installations via touch screens and tangible custom-made interfaces.
An essential feature of UNCAGED is the relatively simple set-up of each installation. All the digital visuals are displayed on common computer (touch) screens, which interact with their physical surroundings in a very direct way. The idea behind this basic approach is to be particularly referential to our daily-life experiences with screen-based media, i.e. the computer and the television.

UNCAGED is created by Ralf Nuhn in artistic collaboration with Cecile Colle, Jey Malaiperuman and Richard Thomas and with technical support by Magnus Moar, Martin Robinson, John Wale and Williams Ridout.

With kind support by: Arts Council of England, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts, London, V&A National Museum of Childhood, London.