Sunyata, 2023
VR experience for Oculus QUEST 1 & 2
Sunyata places virtual technology in a natural environment, which leads the viewer from real dunes to a simulated space, challenging the viewer’s point of view by means of mixed reality and hand tracking technology. Inspired by the concept of “Endlessness” in the “Avatamsaka Sutra“ from the Buddhist view of space; the world is not a single entity. It is a multiplicity of worlds overlapping each other, intertwined, and interminable. Under such context, material space is no longer limited by physics, and “even three thousand worlds can be subsumed into a single grain of dust.”
Sand stands as a metaphor of the material world. Sunyata refers to this, as well as imagery of matter that simultaneously straddles virtual and real space. Tiny grains of sand may have been huge formations, rocky terrain stretching for miles, or caves sheltering our ancestors. After millennia of weathering, they become rocks, then stones, then grains of sand, and eventually particles. In Sunyata, sand acts as an interactive object for the viewer, moving between macro and micro scales, Real and virtual. Asking the viewer: “How is matter possible? How is virtuality possible?
Credit:
Artist, Director | Tuan Mu
VR Interactive Software Developer | Lin Hung
Sound Designer | Chen Lin-Shuang
Filmmaker | YUAN STUDIO Hsu Po-Yen
VR Screen Recorder | Chang Yu-Cheng
Performer | Mohammad Umar Afzai Ai Mo-Er, nainai, Tuan Tsang-Tsang
Equipment Support | Juan Po-Yuan, Lin Hung, Ray He
English Translator | Alex Stoner, Ray He
Special Thanks | Lin Zi-Yun, Liu Wen-Hao, Lu Wei, Ray He
Duration: 6mins, Video
IMAGES
VIDEO LINK
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born in 1994, Tuan Mu is an artist and independent curator. As an artist, Mu’s work is based on cultural and philosophical dialectic within the context of East Asian culture. Through technological art and new media, he attempts to reinterpret bodily perception in relation with space and time. The mediums include XR, artificial intelligence, 3D animation, installation and ink wash painting. His works have been exhibited in Taipei, Zurich, Athens, Krakow, Prato, Beijing, Taizhou and Yamanashi. Mu has been shortlisted for the 7000×7000.tw project (co-organized by Digital Art Center and New Museum Rhizome), the 2nd ICIA (organized by Intermedia Krakow) and the 3rd TDCC Contemporary Arts Award. He also participated in FutuRetro – 18th Athens Digital Arts Festival (2022), and Spaceship Earth – 4th Asia Digital Art Exhibition (2022).
If you are interested in exhibiting or viewing this artistic VR experience, please send an email to us.
CATEGORIES