VR Bagh

In this exhibition, I intend to interpret and reproduce Amin Gulgee’s installation, “Charbagh'' in Virtual Reality, and create an interactive experience to enable audience participation, as passive critics of the. virtual production.

The physical copper installation and the new media virtual artwork will be juxtaposed in a gallery setting, where, in collaboration with the curator, we will symbolically stage the artworks in a multilayered transmedia storytelling exhibit, including a performance. I am exploring McLuhan’s theory of “making meaning” in relation to Amin’s use of spiritual symbols to achieve a “common consciousness” in the Charbagh.

This is done through personal reflection, and a streamlined process of 3D and virtual content production, using open source 3D and photogrammetry software.

Immersion - Test Render

This looping animation transports the viewer to a first person perspective, running through the evolving landscape of the Charbagh. Time-based media enables the artist to record moments and messages sequentially for the viewer to experience through the journey of the video. This artwork explores the relationship of man and nature, and man’s need to control nature by confining it within boxes and paving pathways in between. 

Removing an artwork from its context, and reproducing it in a different medium allows the artist to break free from the characteristics of its aura. In the process of making meaning out of the Char Bagh III, I bring my own biases and assumptions to create a visual representation of the sculpture. This new visual communicates an entirely different story than the one the original sculptor intended. It is an alternative perspective on the relationship between Man and Nature and the need to deconstruct and reconstruct nature to achieve peace of mind.

Deconstruction - Test Render

In experiencing and re-experiencing an object, we discover new perspectives, altering the overall idea we have relating to it. This evolution of experience depends on our contextual information about this object. We can relate this feeling of changing contexts to re-watching an old series on Netflix, and noticing new gags, or politically incorrect dialogue for today's age. In reinterpreting Gulgee’s sculpture, Throughout the digital production pipeline, my external and internal context continually changed, and I noticed new thoughts which transformed into ideas based on my moment in time. 

The ability to digitally manipulate the camera around the re-constructed 3D sculpture gave me the chance to spend time and experiment with the symbols and messages emitting from the virtual Charbagh. Seeing them in different lighting set-ups and focal lengths, there was an added dramatic element within the frame of the virtual camera. In an infinite 3D space, there is infinite potential, so the key is to remain focused on a goal, and organise your chaos.