Translating Virtual Reality into an Artistic Medium

Recently, more and more artists have begun experimenting with the medium of Virtual Reality (VR) and producing immersive, computer generated worlds. Further, festivals and galleries around the world have started exhibiting VR artwork. However, despite this hype around VR art and its very fast and successful entry in the art world, it seems that Virtual Reality is still very nascent and just at the beginning to develop and define its own language, aesthetic, contents etc. and to become a new artistic medium and a new art form. This PhD project investigates how VR is translated into an art medium and an art form. How exactly does VR get established as its own art form? What do the artistic strategies and methods of appropriation of this new and nascent medium look like in detail? How does a new aesthetic language develop? Who is involved in all of these processes? Are there similarities to the strategies and processes of developing and establishing former avant-garde forms as their own art forms? To answer the outlined research questions, a set of different qualitative methods is employed such as document analysis, semi-structured interviews and ethnographic observations of artistic practices in the artist’s studio. By trying to understand the process of translating VR into an artistic medium this project aims to expand different theoretical approaches starting from sociology of art, through research on art in the tradition of Science and Technology Studies (MCTS) to media theories.

Project leader(s):
Mariya Dzhimova

Period:
Since January 2017

Project type:
Promotionsprojekt / PhD Project