Espronceda, Institute of Art and Culture, organised during February 2020 the first IMMENSIVA VR/AI Residence, where international artists working with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), coding, sensors, big satellite data and other new technologies shared a three-week residency to co-create interdisciplinary projects in groups, guided by international curators of new media art.
The residency culminated in the IMMENSIVA VR/AI Residence SHOW 2020 event, which — in the spirit of the Goldsmiths University London and Open Rijksakademie Amsterdam degree shows — offers visitors the creative prototypes devised by the artists alongside a selection of their individual previous works.
The event opened with distinguished speakers:
Kay Watson, Digital Curator at Serpentine Galleries London, and Louise Enjalbert, Curator of STARTS Residencies at IRCAM C. Pompidou, followed by a round table with Ulrich Schrauth from the VHRAM Festival.
The exhibition presents four projects created collaboratively during the residency:
SKNXSYTNH, a xenotransplantative skin, by artists Cenk Güzelis, Mohsen Hazrati and Josecarlos Florez. This project on body and skin expansion between the real and digital world employs new technologies such as kinetic sensors, VR and the transformation of data into sound through an algorithm, combined with an analogue performance by the artist. The experience expands through space via projections and sound.
Invisible Universe, a VR Prototype by Kris Pilcher, Lauren Moffatt and Mohsen Hazrati. It is a virtual reality and interactive projection experience in which the viewer is placed within shifting landscapes shaped by big data received from the space observations of the Charles Allen telescope as it explores multiple points across the Universe.
Occultation, a VR experience and sensory performance by artists Uwe Brunner, Bettina Katja Lange, Chiara Passa and Joan Soler-Adillon. Through a performative VR experience, the viewer interacts with forms and objects in real space that are simultaneously transformed in the virtual realm.
Frictional Forces, a VR project and performance by artists Shivani Hassard and Clarice Hilton. It is a virtual experience in which the body engages at an analogue level — sensing the resistance of materials and sound vibrations — resulting in a multisensory experience.
To explore the artists’ individual practices further, a selection of previous solo works will also be on display, including Mohsen Hazrati’s psychedelic VR piece Tey-Al-Tool Interactive, Lauren Moffatt’s interactive volumetric VR experience Beyond the Rubicon (2019), which explores emotion and memory, among others.
IMMENSIVA VRAI Residence SHOW 2020 aims to bring Barcelona’s public the creative immensity that emerges from interdisciplinary work, the application of new technologies and co-creation, where the collective surpasses individual achievements. An experience of artistic innovation and inter/anti-disciplinary methodology with a humanistic vocation and limitless curiosity.
The exhibition will be open to the public after the opening until 29 February, Tuesday to Saturday, 4 pm to 8 pm.
About the artists:
Mohsen Hazrati
Kris Pilcher
Bettina Katja Lange
Josecarlos Florez
Joan Soler-Adillon
Shivani Hassard
Clarice Hilton
Lauren Moffatt
Chiara Passa
Uwe Brunner
Cenk Güzelis
