Ian Haig

Meatspace, 2019

VR experience for Oculus Rift

Meatspace is about the confrontation of the body. A reminder that in our increasingly mediated reality our bodies are still trapped within Darwinian husks of meat. One of the dominant narratives of VR is the idea of leaving our bodies behind in a wonderous unbounded new space of infinite possibilities. Running counter to this is the very real experience that VR at times can induce feelings of motion sickness and nausea, where our bodies are not absent but very much present. On one hand VR is all about the non body but at the same time it dramatically amplifies the notion of embodiment, of being in a body. Meatspace explores this space and the reminder of our meat bodies, as the user moves through a series of meat rooms, there is no narrative, no game, no logic, no end, no beginning, just meat. The body of the VR user/viewer is central  to the interaction of all behaviours/movement in the work, as extensive head tracking is used and the physical body and its sensorimotor behaviour a key aspect of the entire VR aesthetic experience of Meatspace, in this sense the driver for the work is the human body both conceptually, aesthetically and technically.

 

Duration: 7 min.

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

Ian Haig works across media, from video, sculpture, technology based media and installation. Haig’s practice refuses to accept that the low and the base level are devoid of value and cultural meaning. His body obsessed themes can be seen throughout a large body of work over the last twenty years. Previous works have looked to the contemporary media sphere and its relationship to the visceral body, the degenerative aspects of pervasive new technologies, to cultural forms of fanaticism and cults, to ideas of attraction and repulsion, body horror, the defamiliarisation and confrontation of the human body. His work has been exhibited in galleries and video/media festivals around the world. Including exhibitions at: The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne; The Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide; The Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne; Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Artec Biennale – Nagoya, Japan; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Art Museum of China, Beijing; Museum Villa Rot, Burgrieden-Rot, Germany; The Havana Biennial, Cuba

If you are interested in exhibiting or viewing this artistic VR experience, please send an email to us.

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