- Convenors:
-
Max Friedrich
(University College London (UCL))
Raffaella Fryer-Moreira (University College London (UCL))
Send message to Convenors
- Format:
- Panel
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 8 March, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Can ontological encounters in VR lead us to rethink the real? VR projects which are participatory and collaboratively designed reposition communities as agents in the creation of immersive virtual environments. How do these multi-modal encounters with alterity redefine what it means to be real?
Long Abstract:
Can ontological encounters in VR lead us to rethink the real? VR projects which are participatory and collaboratively designed reposition communities as agents in the creation of immersive virtual environments. As these VR worlds are encountered by others, the ontological specificity of the people who made them can be experienced holistically, leading to visceral encounters with other worlds, and other concepts of reality. How do these multi-modal encounters with alterity redefine what it means to be real, and help us imagine other possible futures?
As the contemporary ecological crisis has left planetary futures increasingly uncertain, it has become particularly important to conceive of other possible worlds - and the other futures they entail. With more diverse communities around the world gaining access to the technologies of (virtual) world-building, the worlds they choose to build open new possibilities for conceptualising Virtual metaphysics, and what it means to perceive reality. As the ontological status of virtual environments and 3D models becomes open to dispute, new concepts emerge to redefine the virtual, the real, and the possible future(s). This panel invites contributions from VR creators and world-builders who have engaged in collaborative and community-led processes of VR environment design which have challenged existing concepts of the real. Exploring how different approaches to virtual representation have led to other concepts of the real, this panel investigates alternative visions of the future. How can such multi-modal authorship also help to extend definitions of reality?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 8 March, 2023, -Paper short abstract:
The stretching senses school explores the more-than-human world through collectively crafting immersive media with creative coders. Such playful VR projects can act as experimental devices for sensorial engagement with the planetary beyond knowledge.
Paper long abstract:
The stretching senses school is a Berlin-based learning community and a knowledge intervention on more-than-human perceptions stemming from the exhibition Stretching Materialities (Berlin, Sept 2021-Apr 2022). Young professionals and more experienced mentors were invited to become members of the “school,” bridging immersive arts, creative coding, and speculative ethnography to environmental concerns. Through fieldwork and learning activities, three VR experiences were crafted: the multi-scalar liveliness of limestone (Subterreanean Matters); the perpetual and atmospheric exchanges of the organic world (Leaking Bodies); the willow fibers as perceptive extension device (Antenna). The collaboration culminated into a festival with invited keynotes by anthropologists, philosophers and historian of science, during which the participants presented site-specific installations to the public.
The school has been ingrained into the “patchy hope” which Anna Tsing and others have found as a fragmented mode of optimistic reflexivity within the Anthropocene. Rather than heroic actions, the school takes playful and humble approaches, affecting their sensory faculties through coding and storytelling, redefining the real beyond the realm of power and knowledge. This paper will present the “patchy paths” of the collaborative aspects of our inquiry, which we understand a doubling-down investigation. The first level is a methodological one in the realm of the more-than-visual anthropology, experimenting through a collective investigation that doubles as creative process. The second level is a careful probing and patching of the creative coding scene with the environmental thinkers in Berlin.
See documentation of the project: https://stretchingmaterialities.pubpub.org/stretchingsensesschool
Paper short abstract:
The research combines visual autoethnography, self-reflected-empirical, pragmatic, philosophical and practice-based approach. It takes and examines as a paradigm, an immersive 360-degree VR video storytelling, that illustrates feminine aspects and examines its creative, social and emotional impact.
Paper long abstract:
The research is emerged from my self-reflection and empirical perspective as a Greek Cypriot female academic and artist, the island’s ethnography and the current time. Consideration is given to the methodology through qualitative enquiry and to the combination of a visual autoethnography, self-reflected-empirical, pragmatic, philosophical and practice-based approach.
The paper takes practical research as a paradigm to discuss its creative, social and emotional impact. More specifically the research examines the project “Women’s stories” which is an immersive 360-degree VR video storytelling that illustrates in an experimental way the Ancient Greek drama stories of Helen and Antigone, along with modern women’s stories. The now connects with the past and outlines the future through a magical digital journey in an immersive environment where space, time and human senses are redefined, evolved and challenged. The project was experienced via QR codes and VR headsets in a gallery space within the presence of performers, that interacted with participants and gave a gleam of theatrical atmosphere.
The research question is redefining conversional narratives and contributes through artistic research practices that focus on feminine aspects. It invites feminine aspects that aim to create a plethora of emotions.
The research aims to offer the practice research as a paradigm that is a synthesis of variables that include strong emotions and qualities such as spirituality, empathy awareness and catharsis. Additionally, it aims to offer it as an example that invites digital approaches that not only documents feminine aspects but also challenges artistic methodologies during critical times.