Art Of The Future: Recreating The Real World In Virtual Space

Womanhouse (Or How To Be A Virtuous Woman) from Angela Washko on Vimeo.

We've covered the opening of Memory Burn, the latest show at bitforms gallery and we've covered specific artist works within the exhibit but we keep finding interesting turns and artist engagements exploring our increasingly digital world.

“There’s a lot of technology out there that’s trying to recreate the real world in virtual space and this show is playing with that notion,” says Memory Burn curator Chris Romero.

Angela Washko’s video work "Womanhouse (Or: How To Be A Virtuous Woman)" plays with the notion of future representation of people and space in art by placing Avatars from the game The Sims into architectural environments. In her future fantasy, she digitally designs bedrooms without exits, and inescapable swimming pools, as a comment on the dangers of present and future architectural environments.

Sarah Rothberg’s Memory/Place: My House, 2014-2015 virtual reality environment, Oculus Rift headset, swivel chair, CRT television monitor dimensions variable

In the corner of the gallery show is Sarah Rothberg’s seemingly normal immersive installation, "Memory Place: My House". The domestic scene recreates the artist's childhood living room—the space includes a carpet, swivel chair, and computer monitor—with the added amenities of a video game joystick build-into the armchair and the virtual reality Oculus Rift headset. “It allows participants to use the Oculus Rift and when you explore the environment you are going through a recreation of the artist's childhood home in the suburbs,” explains Romero. “And when you are navigating through the space are home movies that her father recorded when she was a kid. It’s really personal for her and she is using the technology to explore what is going to happen to memory now that everyone is putting things into virtual spaces.”

Memory Burn is on view at Bitforms through August 16, 2015. For more information, click here.

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