Victoria Bradbury
Blue Boar VR, 2019
VR experience for HTC Vive
Blue Boar VR invites viewers to ‘play’ in the complex absurdity of accusations that were used against the artist’s 10th great-grandmother in the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Lines are drawn in the piece between current political manipulation of the phrase ‘Witch Hunt’, the #metoo movement and women's power. The game is designed with an embroidered digital motif, using voxels and textures to conjure 17th century hand-sewn tapestries. Blue Boar VR considers multiple perspectives in a scenario in which wild accusations and mass hysteria are escalating out of hand. Drawing from actual testimony of the tried and convicted Mary Bradbury, Blue Boar VR raises questions about truth, fiction and justice by inserting viewers directly into the blue boar story. Play the game as the 75-year-old Mary, picking carrots and fruits in your garden before an errant beast crashes through your fence and runs off into the wood. Ride on horseback as George Carr, imagining you see a blue boar dash at your horse’s legs. Or play as the Boar himself as you hover over Salisbury village, re-foresting the town. Blue Boar VR allows you to replay the past, where you can begin to imagine possible futures.
Duration: 10 min.
Credits:
Blue Boar VR is by Victoria Bradbury
Additional Credits:
Unreal Engine Development: Kendall Breivogel
3D Modeling and Animation: Forest Gamble
Sound Design and Composition: David Freund
Additional Unreal Development and Animation: Wesley Stroupe, Mitchell Connor
Voice Acting: Scott Walters
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ABOUT THE ARTIST
Victoria Bradbury is an artist working with code, physical computing and virtual reality. She is the co-editor, with Suzy O’Hara, of the forthcoming volume, “Art Hack Practice: Critical Intersections of Art, Innovation and the Maker Movement” and co-taught, with Mark Hursty, “The Glass Electric: Glassblowing, Electroforming, Interactive Electronics” at Pilchuck Glass School, Summer 2019. Victoria was a member of the British Council team for Hack the Space, Tate Modern. (London UK, 2014) and participated in the IMMERSION: Art and Technology workshops (Shanghai, China, 2012) and Digital Media Labs (Barrow, UK, 2014). Her work has been exhibited at IEEE-GEM, xCoAx, Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center‘s {Re}Happening, Harvestworks, Revolve Gallery, Albright Knox and The New Britain Museum of American Art. She has published writing on new media practice in Neural Magazine, the CITAR Journal and Media-N Journal. Victoria completed her PhD with CRUMB at the University of Sunderland in 2015 and is Assistant Professor of New Media at the University of North Carolina Asheville.
If you are interested in exhibiting or viewing this artistic VR experience, please send an email to us.
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