About Virtuality and Corporeality
Symposium:
Session Title:
- An Alembic of Transformation: Virtual Reality as Agent of Change
Presentation Title:
- About Virtuality and Corporeality
Presenter(s):
Venue(s):
Abstract:
Panel: An Alembic of Transformation: Virtual Reality as Agent of Change
Computerized/Virtual reality (VR) technologies allow us to manipulate, extend, distort and deform information as well as experience of the outer and inner body/world. They are vehicles that enable us to extend and color work in many different ways, some of which are not possible in the physical realm and/or by any traditional means. They offer a way to augment and expand the magic of performance, thus introducing new possibilities creatively, experientially, spatially, visually, sonically, and cognitively.
VR technologies tend to blur disciplinary boundaries by changing the nature of what and how artworks are created, realized, and performed. Because one must create a computerized ‘world,’ open to user intervention and experience, the work necessitates a non-linear, open-ended, almost fragmented like compositions.
The process of creating a work in VR led my collaborator Diane Gromala and myself to far more questions, and opened a great deal of artistic possibilities. For instance in such an interactive environment that is contingent upon the interaction and preferences of others, how is the notions of creator and audience blur? Is the very nature of art, design and dance altered by these new possibilities? Just where does the performance occur — within VR itself, in distributed sites, in cyberspace? Is some of the participants relegated to being passive audience members and others took on the challenge of becoming ‘co-creators’? How does one determine who gets represented in the VR environment? How can this technology be accessible to larger audiences capable of interacting directly with the simulation? When do the multiple cause-and-effects of user participation become mere chaos?
