[spectre] V2_: Test_Lab: Better than Reality, 11 Dec.

[V2_]

Test_Lab: Better than Reality
date: 11 Dec 2008, 20:00 - 24.00
location: V2_, Eendrachtsstraat 10, Rotterdam
admission: free

Test_Lab is a bi-monthly public event organised by V2_ Institute for
the Unstable Media that provides an informal setting for the
presentation, demonstration, testing, and discussion of artistic
research and development (aRt&D).

This event will be streamed live at http://live.v2.nl

Featuring: CREW (Eric Joris and Vincent Jacobs), Joachim Rotteveel,
Marnix de Nijs, Boris Debackere, and Jonas Hielscher.

Ever wondered what happened to the future of Virtual Reality (VR)? VR's
past has seen many visionaries who, often with goggles and joysticks in
hand, claimed that the technology's future would hold completely new
realities for everyone. These new realities would surpass the restraints
of physical laws and flesh bodies by making "the artificial as realistic
as, and even more realistic than, the real", as Negroponte stated.
According to Kurzweil, the technology would result in millions of people
being fully immersed into "a full-blooded parallel universe" most of the
time. Obviously, such promises drew much attention from artists eager to
explore the new esthetic possibilities that this technology had to
offer. Consequently, VR became a popular research theme among artists
and institutes dealing with technology and art: V2_ being no exception.

Looking at recent VR artistic development projects, at V2_ and
elsewhere, one could wonder what happened to the promises of wild
cybersex, psychedelic virtual experiences, and utopian parallel
realities that VR exponents made. Decades after artists were first
introduced to VR, the technology has indeed resulted in new immersive
art experiences that most people have experienced at some point.
However, do these experiences live up to the visions that artists had
when VR first emerged?

It seems that advances in VR have taken several unexpected turns. One of
these turns is the shift in attention away from purely virtual
experiences towards the more hybrid experiences offered by Augmented
Reality (AR), in which virtual elements overlay our physical reality.
Also, recent developments allow access to such realities in places far
removed from lab and home environments, and without the bulky technology
attached to our bodies that accompanied early VR.

How do these developments influence our future visions of VR? Does the
future still hold parallel realities accessible from our homes; or
rather a single one that is virtually enhanced and part of our everyday
urban environment? Does full-blooded immersion in the future perhaps
take more physical involvement than we expected at first? Will we even
be able to note the technology in future VR, or will it be seamlessly
integrated in our body and environment? Are we still pursuing
experiences that are better than reality; or are we trying to make
reality better instead?

Most certainly, answers to these questions will show that VR's esthetic
possibilities have changed enormously during recent years. By
demonstrating state-of-the-art AR and VR artworks and by discussing
those in the light of the promises made by early VR visionaries,
Test_Lab: Better than Reality will explore these changed possibilities
for the arts.

The V2_ Better than Reality artist-in-residence projects by Marnix de
Nijs, Boris Debackere, and Jonas Hielscher will also be open to the
public at V2_ on December 12th from 11h-16h.

For more information, please contact Michel van Dartel
E: michel at v2.nl
T: +31 (0)10 2067272