She studied philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilian University from 1983–1985 and painting and applied graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts from 1985-1991 in Munich.
[1] Perceptual Arena is an interactive and immersive Virtual Reality installation developed by Ulrike Gabriel and otherspace in 1993 for the exhibition Artlab3, Hillside Plaza, Tokyo.
The interaction is simply to be in the space, to distinguish it and to move around and to grab on to the resulting virtual clay.
To be involved and possibly mess up in this process can transform the world, but can also push it out of balance and therefore destroy.
The complexity of the arena world results out of the total interrelation of all its factors which in the end all depend on the users input data.
Ulrike Gabriel creates a complicated system of biofeedback that goes beyond normal relationships between action and reaction.
So to start out a participant stands in front of a big screen wearing a sensor belt around the waist.
When it first starts out regularly grid-shaped CG polygons, subdivided in small pieces, are projected on the screen.
Gabriel created Terrain, a series of installations where the motion of a colony of solar-powered robots is controlled by the viewer's brain waves.