Motion designer and computer graphics generalist Moritz Reichartz has created a surreal virtual reality world with Ai Weiwei's art at its centre.

When pre-eminent contemporary artist, political activist and all round cultural icon Ai Weiwei exhibited in the Royal Academy, the resulting queues extended into the courtyard and successively swamped the exhibition.

Amongst the most impactful pieces in the show are Ai Weiwei’s oscillating Stools. Now, German motion designer and computer graphics generalist Moritz Reichartz has heightened their effect by incorporating them into a virtual reality experience.

The video, entitled "Mashup Between the Clouds", was Moritz Reichartz entry into rendering software company Otoy’s "Render the Metaverse" competition. The dreamlike six-minute movie transplants the viewer into a saturated world of aqua green grass, suspended blocks and boundless sky, with Ai Weiwei’s infamous Stools sculpture at its centre. The video is realised fully with the aid of a VR headset, but is no less impressive without.

I wanted to create a colourful and fun spatial mashup of my favourite 3D objects that I was creating. I can’t really remember what happened... Everything started lifting off the ground and got mixed up in a colourful space floating between clouds  - Moritz Reichartz

This isn’t the first time Ai Weiwei’s art has been married with contemporary technological advancements. The RA created a multi-sensory 360-degree video of the exhibition which was made available online. Read more about it here.