Artlink Author Contract

Recently the world of Virtual Reality (VR) has become accessible and affordable with artists taking interest in the potential of immersive and multi-layered spaces. Is it a medium that will truly transport viewers into the depths and nuances of a new way of seeing, as an enhanced or altered view of reality? Can VR be a positively disruptive force for change? What challenges and new opportunities does it offer the cultural producer in the creation of speculative world-building? And how does the medium facilitate opening up collaborative and connective spaces for museum and gallery audiences?

This project will research the following: Contemporary filmmakers and visual artists alike are embracing the potential of immersive digital technology to tell stories in powerful, new and affective ways. But the issues associated with presenting VR as location-based experiences in museums and galleries remains a relatively uncharted territory. While effectively breaking the dictatorship of the frame that has defined the representational form of the moving image for the past 150 years, VR also introduces a new paradigm for cinematic spectatorship. Drawing on an exhibition-based encounter with filmmaker Alejandro Iñárritu at Fondazione Prada re-enacting the plight of immigrants and their harrowing journey across the US-Mexican border to consider virtuous politics.