![]() ![]() ![]() What distinguishes I AM (VR) from many other virtual reality projects is that I AM (VR) is less about contemplating the anthropocentric instrumental utilisation of VR technology per se than about imaging alternative scenarios for the emergence of specific bodily human and nonhuman assemblage, where the virtual world is not turned into resource but something to be actively examined, experienced and exercised. Along with this process, the ‘self’ becomes ‘tenuous’ (虛我) 4, and the body itself becomes a liminal space. ![]() At the same time, the dissolution of the subjective body propels the birth of an elusive, flickering, glitchy, liquid, freshly regenerated VR body of sensuous, consciousness, and spirituality. ![]() Throughout this process, the participant’s material body from reality-reality fades out into the visual oasis within the meta-lens that grants access entering Selg and Kennedy’s virtual-reality - a xenon-constellation fabricated with breathing colours, melting fossils, talking screens, glitching glyphs, shimmering amulets, hyper objects humming their mystical Sagas, affects automated from digital turmoils, a vortex of weird beings and non-beings micro-meshing into neon Mandelbrot sets swirling into infinity…as well as tumbling streams, mutating boulders, burning fire, dripping dews, oozing breeze… ( Peng 2021a) 3 Within such (duty) free, fluent, fluid world, one is reminded of the disappearance of her own subjective, material body while her consciousness experiences the instant bewilderment of ‘being here but not here’. The voice leads the participant into a digital cave where the participant is able to stroll through THE FOREST, experience THE NARRATIVE and finally take THE ELEVATOR to meet the Oracle. During this journey, the participant is guided by an artificially interweaved intelligence which is presented through sound waves. The performance is designed for an one-on-one encounter, inviting the participant to join a meditative journey of searching for the otherworldly enlightenment - the Oracle. I AM (VR) is a simulating virtual reality performance created by Markus Selg, Susanne Kennedy, in collaboration with Rodrik Biersteker and Richard Janssen, as part of Markus Selg’s solo exhibition MIND IN THE CAVE at Galerie Guido W. ![]()
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