A new project as part of the city partnership between Kiel and San Francisco enables exchange between the two cities despite corona and creates a transatlantic meeting place for citizensof the two cities in virtual reality (VR). The project "Sister City Life" offers two residents each in the pilot phasefrom both cities the opportunity to move into a virtual shared apartment and furnish this space themselves. "The real and fantastic objects reflect their respective everyday lives in times of the pandemic and thus offer the opportunity to exchange ideas about the changes for people on Kiel Fjord and in the Bay Area," says Deborah Passolat from the VR-artist duo Doppel Real.

These digital artefacts and the virtual space are created by the inhabitants.inside in 3D and will be open to the public from mid-December 2020. "Both residentsas well as guests from the USA and Germany can engage in a direct exchange about political, economic, social and cultural changes and learn from each other despite travel restrictions. Strength, resilience and solidarity between the partner cities and across borders are one of the aims of the project," says project manager Annika Hartmann.
On the Kiel side, dramaturge and project manager Annika Hartmann and the artist duo Doppel Real are organizing the project. In San Francisco, Kristine Severson and Jonathan Lowe are helping to organize and move in the first residentsinside the virtual transatlantic WG. Residentsfrom Kiel from the very beginning are the FH-student and VR-expert Ronja Brummack and photography artist Stina Kurzhöfer. Political action artist Rachel Sadd, The Crafty Avenger, and performer/author Mia Paschal are moving in from San Francisco.
"Sister City Life uses Mozilla Hubs as the basis for the project. Doppel Real conducts workshops to support residents in expressing themselves digitally and lifting their view of everyday life into the virtual world. Wherever possible, open source solutions such as Blender are used," explains UX-Developer Dennis Reinmüller from Doppel Real.

The project is part of the Town twinning program funded by the state capital of Kiel and additionally supported by Dataport with co-financing. Once the pilot phase has been completed, the project can be extended to other city partnerships.