INSIDE, 2016
Virtual environment
Duration: 6 mins
Ed. 3 of 5 + 2 APs
Courtesy of Gazelli Art House Ltd.
Copyright The Artist
About The Artwork
INSIDE considers provocative questions around the uncanny ability of VR to confound our sensory perception while contemplating what happens inside of us when inside virtual worlds. VR worlds can be like hallucinations - another reality leaking into our “real” world. In fact, we enter and explore the virtual brain, the Brain Cave, and find the universal imagery of hallucinations.
In this work the artist explores the inner world of the brain, the connection between virtual and real humans, and the sensation when immersed in artificial nature. Following the artistic practice of utilising “found objects”, many elements that make up the virtual worlds were found by scavenging through online thrift stores, while the model of the brain was derived from actual MRI brain scan data.
About Rebecca Allen
Rebecca Allen is an internationally recognised artist inspired by the aesthetics of motion, the study of behaviour, and advanced technology's potential. For over thirty years, her groundbreaking work has pushed the boundaries of art and creative expression in experimental video, virtual and augmented reality, large-scale performance and interactive art.
Rebecca moves fluidly between the artist studio and research lab as her research informs her art. She is a professor of Media Arts at UCLA and was the founding chair of her department. Her current work in virtual reality involves the mysteries of human perception and is linked to research in neuroscience.
Allen’s artwork is commissioned and exhibited internationally. It is part of the permanent collection of Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Whitney Museum and Museum of Modern Art in New York. Past collaborators include artists such as Kraftwerk, Mark Mothersbaugh, John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Peter Gabriel, Carter Burwell, Twyla Tharp, La Fura dels Baus and Nam June Paik.