Bridging Worlds for Enhanced Engagement
Symposium:
- ISEA2011: 17th International Symposium on Electronic Art
- More presentations from ISEA2011:
Session Title:
- Variable Reality – Inter-formalities in Digital/Analogue Arts
Presentation Title:
- Bridging Worlds for Enhanced Engagement
Presenter(s):
Venue(s):
Abstract:
Panel: Variable Reality – Inter-formalities in Digital/Analogue Arts
The virtual worlds of the new century are the playgrounds for artists to explore space and time, the digital objects created here are experienced by avatar, without the full range of sensory perceptions we use when confronting the real world. To experience the virtual as a reality we need sensors connected to our physical bodies or to solid objects to simulate real-world sensations. In order to further engage viewers as participants in their work, contemporary artists are exploring ways of synthesizing the material physical real world with that of the virtual. This presentation will explore one of the projects currently underway at CADRE, University of Wolverhampton that example ways of presenting the virtual as an alternative real. Shift-Life, is a virtual world of Darwinian fantasy sweet-like creatures projected into a sand-pit box which respond to the physical actions of visitors causing real-time upheavals in their environment. Through directly pouring liquids, hammering and adjusting lights, when interacting with this hands-on installation, the real world encroaches upon the virtual causing a life-and-death struggle to an artificial life form. This project was directly influenced by earlier works concerning Marcel Duchamp’s Large Glass, where creature-like behaviors were given to Duchampian objects to amplify their familial relations.