Photograph: Emily Godden &
Audit Chaos, Rhizome 2.0, SPILL Festival of Performance 2016, produced by
Pacitti Company. Photo by Guido Mencari.
Within Virtual
Reality (VR) anything is possible, the rules of physics can be defied and the
world literally turned on its head. Instead of operating within a traditional
orientation of printmaking I have been exploring the application of new digital
technologies with a focus on VR to transpose traditional print techniques. My
initial proposal outlines my intentions to explore the notion of the melted
matrix and how our reality is blended between the actual and virtual.
By framing
print within a digital context the definition of the matrix is transformed from
the print definition[1] of “to the computerised or
data definition[2]:
During a residency at Aldeburgh Beach Lookout (3-8 October 2016) I began
exploring how Etching and VR could operate harmoniously in a multi-level
installation of works in response to both the location and history of the space
influenced by Virginia Woolf’s 1928 text A
Room of One’s Own. Through my research I discovered a quote of particular
pertinence:
…the
body seemed contained in a miraculous glass cabinet through which no sound
could penetrate, and the mind, freed from any contact with facts (unless one
trespassed on the turf again), was at liberty to settle down upon whatever
meditation was in harmony with the moment.
(Woolf,
1928, p.7)
The notion of
the body being contained in a miraculous
glass cabinet echoed that of the presence of the body in a virtual
environment. We exist as people of pixels and as Sociologist Jean Baudrillard
alludes to in Ecstasy of Communication
we exist as a reflective self:
But
today the scene and mirror no longer exist; instead, there is a screen and
network. In place of the reflexive transcendence of mirror and scene, there is
a non-reflecting surface, an immanent surface where operations unfold- the
smooth operational surface of communication.
(Baudrillard,
1998, p.12)
With this in
mind it could be perceived that each of our bodies is being situated with a
much larger network of connected bodies communicating the ideal self thus allowing us to exist in a multitude of
virtualities. We exist as people of pixels and as Sociologist Jean Baudrillard
alludes to in the text Ecstasy of
Communication we exist as a reflective self:
But
today the scene and mirror no longer exist; instead, there is a screen and
network. In place of the reflexive transcendence of mirror and scene, there is
a non-reflecting surface, an immanent surface where operations unfold- the
smooth operational surface of communication.
(Baudrillard,
1998, p.12)
Baudrillard further argues
that the subject is always close to instant information as we are always in
close relation to some sort of information network as the subject; “becomes a
pure screen a pure absorption and re-absorption surface of the influent
networks” (Baudrillard, 1998, p.30). This suggests that we have become a
number, an extension to the binary 0s and 1s and chained to the code we have
programmed to serve us. Our bodies are now swimming in an information flow as
the screen functions as a hyperreal simulatory mirror not representing our
reflection as a standard mirror but acting as a gateway to connect the self
within a teleological theatre.
I originally
set out in my initial proposal to work with Deleuze’s concept of the Rhizome
however this expanded to allow for the works created to be informed by Gilles
Deleuze’s concept of Deterritorialization. The actualization of the virtual
proceeds by way of intensive processes and is described in relation to the
codification of the virtual reality print. The Deleuzean virtual is thus not
the condition of possibility of any rational experience, but the condition of
genesis of real experience. (Deleuze, 2004)
Operating
within the frame of Live Art as defined by LADA[3] below enabled me to truly
work with printmaking in a post-digital landscape working with print in an expanded
virtual field:
The term Live Art
is not a description of an artform or discipline, but a cultural strategy to
include experimental processes and experiential practices that might otherwise
be excluded from established curatorial, cultural and critical frameworks. Live
Art is a framing device for a catalogue of approaches to the possibilities of
liveness by artists who chose to work across, in between, and at the edges of
more traditional artistic forms.
Working with
digital technology, Live Art and Printmaking led me to generate and coin the
term Live Print in order to articulate my print process. Using new digital
technologies including virtual reality on October 20th, 21st
and 22nd I presented my debut durational performance Rhizome 2.0 at SPILL Festival of
Performance 2016. Rhizome 2.0 explores the notion of the melted matrix within
printmaking to develop a durational work which situates the body between the
print and the screen. Working with the body as both a source of data and means
of data capture, leads to the creation of a Live Print where I
immersed myself in a virtual forest to uphold a suspension of disbelief
to trick myself that the forest is not virtual but actual.
In a dialogue
with Critic Helena Blaker Photographer Manual Vason states: “I always had the
presumption that the image was a space, a sort of parallel space.” (2015, p.15)
Placed within the frame of VR notions of new image spaces are evoked which is
further exemplified by the idea that that the body itself exists in a
multiplicity. Within traditional print processes registration is a significant
part of the process of the genesis of a print. I am deliberately exploiting
this, examining and researching how the body can be registered within the print
process within a performance orientated context. I have coined the term Live
Print to offer a fluid exchange between the actual and virtual to explore both
virtual and actual forms of embodiment of print, below is a breakdown of the
layers present within Rhizome 2.0 with the Green boxes outlining the each
layer:
Emily Godden (2016) Image breaking down layers of registration in Rhizome 2.0
Theorist
Katherine Hayles raises the notion of virtual reality as a means of creating a
prosthetic electronic self with regards to the application of virtual reality
as a means of not disembodiment but a re-embodiment of the physical self in a
virtual landscape:
Katherine
Hayles remark vis a vis virtual reality (VR) technologies applies in a broader
sense too: “It is never (…) a matter of “leaving the body behind.” Instead, the
technologies of telepresence and VR are about ‘extending embodied awareness;
highly specific local material ways that would be impossible without electronic
prostheses.
(Hayles,
1999 in Pelzer, R, 2012 p.56)
This notion of
an electronic prostheses led me to research Artists such as Stelarc (1946-). In
works such as 1992 piece The Third Hand, Stelarc
a mechanical human-like hand is attached to Stelarc’s right arm, this idea of
the body and machine being at one led me to work with the Leap Motion sensor to
integrate haptic control in virtual spaces and aroused some intrigue in the relationships
and dichotomy’s that sit between subject and object and how I can integrate the
actual alongside the virtual to elicit dual realities and mixed reality
environments.
Stelarc (1992) The Third Hand [Mechanical Human Hand] Available at: http://criticalresponse.wikispaces.com/file/view/the_third_hand_Stelarc_copy.png/222028178/800x573/the_third_hand_Stelarc_copy.png
Emily Godden (2016) Experimenting with
Leap Motion Sensor [Leap Motion Sensor]
I had picked up
on some anxiety when presenting Rhizome
2.0 as the fear of the unknown was present.
Although I project a live feed from the virtual reality Head Mounted Device
(HMD) on the wall there is still some anxiety when first entering the VR.
Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is often cited as laying the foundations for
Existentialism[4],
it could be perceived that the new digital technologies which surround us with
their increasingly sleek screens are the monsters we fight with: “He who fights
with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And
when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. (Nietzsche,
1886, p.102) Virtual reality could be interpreted as being an abyss, 21st
century technology is the monster that gazes at us and we at it, we follow each
other’s moves and with virtual reality the absorption of the self into the
screen is complete.
When framed
around ideas and philosophies such as Phenomenology[5] VR opens up an entire can
of worms regarding the existence of print
and into the realms of what Film maker Hito Steyerl refers to as audiovisual capitalism in allusion to
how distinctions between consumers, producers, audiences and authors are
becoming increasingly blurred by the digital (Steyerl, 2010). Philosopher
Merleau-Ponty evokes the idea that the body exists within a spectacle when in a
virtual state:
This
virtual body ousts the real one to such an extent that the subject no longer
has the feeling of being in the world where he actually is, and that instead of
his real legs and arms, he feels that he has the legs and arms he would need to
walk and act in the reflected room: he inhabits a spectacle.
(Merleau-Ponty,
1945, p.291)
From my initial
proposal I desired to explore how the presence of the body of either producer
or consumer animated a print, working with VR appeared to open up virtual
bodies in virtual spaces.
After reading
Guy Debord’s text The Society Of The
Spectacle I began to explore VR as a spectacle in its self. I have created
my VR environments utilising 360 ° filming and post production therefore it could be perceived that I am actualizing a physical
environment into a virtual one. According to Debord:
The
spectacle cannot be understood either as a deliberate distortion of the visual
world or as a product of the technology of the mass dissemination of images. It
is far better viewed as a weltanschauung[6] that has been actualized,
translated into the material realm a world view transformed into an objective
force.
(Debord,
1992, p.5)
There
is no escaping the material nature of print even when in a digital context, this
is perhaps something I underestimated in my original proposal. In order to
continue the development of Rhizome 2.0 I
plan to further investigate the materialisation of print with a focus on both
actual and virtual materialities and how the process of putting on the VR Head
Mounted Device (HMD) could be a symbolic gateway from the actual to the virtual.
During
the past few months I have discovered that there is the capacity for VR to be utilised
as a device to create behaviour change is an exciting proposition. My next
iteration of Rhizome 2.0 will be
shown as part performance part workshop as part of Space to Breathe a weekend of installations,
performances, talks and workshops highlighting the impact of air pollution on
our health at Somerset House which is part of which is part of year long a
series of events under the title Utopia 2016. This is for me the ideal next place to
present Rhizome 2.0, I am currently
intrigued by how virtual reality can be used as a tool to improve our health
and wellbeing and how virtual reality can illicit behaviour change. I propose
to further investigate the psychology behind virtual reality.
[1] A mould in which something, such as a
record or printing type, is cast or shaped https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/matrix [Accessed 2 January 2017]
[2] An organizational structure in which two
or more lines of command, responsibility, or communication may run through the
same individual. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/matrix [Accessed 2 January 2017]
[3] LADA is the acronym for Live Art
Development Agency
[4]
A philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of the
individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own
development through acts of the will. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095804537
[Accessed 3 January 2017]
[5]
An approach that concentrates on the study of consciousness and the objects of
direct experience. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/phenomenology
[Accessed 3 January 2017]
[6]
A particular philosophy or view of life; the world view of an individual or
group. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/weltanschauung
[Accessed 3 January 2017]
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