Interactive Installation, VR, DOX Center for Contemporary Art, Prague, 2017, Collaboration with Jiri Vyskocil, Hardware support by Jan Zobal
The installation created at Dox Center for Contemporary Art in Prague in 2017 consisted of a light sculpture and four virtual reality stations. Four infrared depth sensors were used to visualize the skeletal structures of participants and create a volumetric point cloud that encompassed the entire installation space and anyone within it. The resulting three dimensional stream was then spatially mapped onto a virtual world that was one thousand times larger than reality, resulting in four separate virtual worlds placed within a cut on a monolith. By using a combination of network structures and volumetric fragments in conjunction with a 3D stream, participants were able to explore both virtual and real worlds simultaneously. Navigation of the virtual world was controlled by a series of hand movements, with participants able to fly freely through the virtual environment by pointing their index finger. Additionally, the movements of the participant's hands within the empty space generated data that was used to further alter the network structures.
The exposed entrails of the severed Kubrick-like monolith uncover emptiness, the scene of the three-dimensional world of virtual reality. This reality is created by a neuron network, the spacious fragments of memories and live footage from the gallery. It defines reality outside of existence - a reality into which the interventions of the visitors bring a dynamic connection via a multidimensional network, while transforming the very network at the same time. Fragments of images of the present moment as well as the past permeate through the network from the reality into a world, where they have not originated. Only their two-dimensional reflections come back through to the horizon of the cut, just like the shadows in Plato's cave.
The visitors find themselves in the position of the observer, as well as the one being observed. They become witnesses of their own relational interaction. The border between reality and illusion gets blurred. Every movement is recorded, thus influencing the experienced concurrence of realities.