Our everyday lives are embellished by pervasive technology. We’re always on our phones, or playing videogames, or doing something of the like. It’s hard to find aspects of our lives that are not plagued by technology. Virtual reality in particular presents a new phase of technology—technology that we can’t escape from in the moment-to-moment experience. As interpreted by the Digital Museum of Modern Art (DiMoDA), “virtual” represents potential, while “reality” regards the real shapes, objects, and events that exist beside us.
“Despite the premise that reality may not be fully, or actually, represented by these technologies, virtual reality can influence direct experience quite literally by influencing physical virtues or capabilities,” reads DiMoDA’s latest press release. Direct experiences in this case meaning that VR prompts a very particular reaction compared to other technology. Something blunt and unique.
Starting September 9th in Brooklyn, New York, DiMoDA’s latest virtual reality exhibit, entitled DiMoDA 2.0: Morphḗ Presence, will be on display for all to experience. With works curated by artist Eileen Isagon Skyers and Venezuelan curator Helena Acosta, Morphḗ Presence is a collection of VR-bound art that observes the strengths and failings of technology in the face of framing it around our daily reality. So, essentially, spotlighting the beauty in both the bad and the good of VR and technology.
the beauty in both the bad and the good of VR
Morphḗ Presence features works from a multitude of artists, including Paris-based new media artist Miyö Van Stenis, Greek artist and architect Theo Triantafyllidis, the technology-inhibited psychedelia from Brenna Murphy, and the chaotic, glitch-focused work Rosa Menkman. While their creations are as diverse as can be, there is one throughline between all of them: VR. All ripe for participation within a handy-dandy headset.
From the pastel-hued tanks of Stenis’ “Miyö’s War Room,” to the introspective body horror of Triantafyllidis’ “Self Portrait (interior),” the Morphḗ Presence has plenty of unparalleled experiences to behold. VR ventures that are equally disorienting, unassumingly cute, frenetic, dark, bleak, and just plain weird. They all show the limitless potentials of VR art—and how the medium’s growing by the day. A singular art field where glitches and visual noise artifacts have the same immersive effects as, say, the “trans-dimensional labyrinths,” as seen in Murphy’s work. Because in VR, you’re trapped within it for the ride. There’s no physical way of turning away, as you can do with paintings or whatever else. Anything can become your own personal, avant-garde hell.
You can visit DiMoDA’s website here. And if you’re in New York, visit Morphḗ Presence at Superchief Gallery in Brooklyn starting on September 9th. Later, the exhibit will be at VIA Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (October 6-9); Aurora Festival in Dallas, Texas; Satellite Fair in Miami Beach, Florida (December 1-4); and finally at the RISD museum in Rhode Island starting in mid December.
All images provided courtesy of DiMoDA.
