Accidents of Connections

virtual reality / latex / projection

2022

In my project I explore existence at the boundary between the virtual and physical worlds. 

What does it mean to be human in a time of unprecedented technological possibilities? How is the concept of the body and its contemporary role in socio-political and cultural discourses changing? What possibilities does bridging the gap between technological mania and the physical experience of being in a human body open up? How is the perception of our bodies being altered through existence in a mixed reality? What are the possibilities of re-presenting and reimagining our bodies in digital form?

Perhaps now more than ever, the boundaries of our bodies can no longer be defined by skin alone. As a society for whom technology has become an integral part of life, we no longer only exist as stable, physically defined beings in material world. Our intimate relationships with the internet have caused profound changes in the nature of our subjectivity and our experiences. Online, we are connected almost simultaneously to an ever-growing network of people and spaces, and this is clearly affecting and changing the very nature of our identity. 
Parts of our personality float in virtual space and expand the perception of our "self" far beyond the confines of physical reality. I am interested in this interaction of the human body with digital space and the conscious pushing of the boundaries of physical space into the digital against a backdrop with an abiding sense of loss of contact with the 'original' physical self and a sense of corporeality. 

The very understanding of what counts as a body is questionable. The contemporary 'self' in cyberspace embraces the virtual world and transforms it into another manifestation of a body that exists simultaneously in both the physical and virtual worlds. A digital representation of us in a virtual environment, something that is so close to us that we can even touch it or feel it despite its immaterial nature.

Through my experience of entering 3D virtual environments, I have noticed the present tension and contradiction that arises between the sensation of a moving physical body and the perception of a digital body in a virtual environment. The contradiction between perception and feeling. This experience and all the feelings associated with it formed the basis for this research, which attempted to address the complexity of virtuality and the corporeality of our bodies. Observing the instability and ephemerality of both organic and digital matter in the 21st century is fascinating to me. Therefore, exploring the somatic body in hybrid reality has become my topic.

Photos: Paula Malinowská, Patrícia Chamrazová