Bodyless VR
«Bodyless» is a surreal VR experience based on the director's childhood memory during Taiwan’s martial law period in the 1970s, when human qualities were simplified and quantified with few characteristics recognized and measured by the ruling class.
Although the era has long gone, the emerging digital technologies follow suit. Governments started to use new technologies like digital surveillance, big data and AI as a means to monitor and control people.
In «Bodyless», the retrospective martial law governing and ultramodern digital technologies are fused into dark oppression against folk’s living and beliefs. The audience experiences the journey through the eyes of an old man who was a political criminal under a government’s secret experiment. After his death, he became a ghost and descended to the underworld. In Taiwanese folk belief, during «Ghost Month», the hell gate will open for ghosts to visit their families. The old man’s ghost makes up his face and ascends to earth. Through his eyes, the folk culture forms a rich spiritual world interwoven with nature. However, a mechanical force starts to deteriorate the spiritual world and eventually reduces human forms and memory into simple geometrical shapes that can be easily processed by the technologies.
Hsin-Chien Huang is a new media creator with backgrounds in art, design, engineering and digital entertainment. He explores cutting edge technologies in art, literature, design and stage performing. Huang is also the professor of the design department of National Taiwan Normal University and commits to the teaching of cross-discipline collaboration. Hsin-Chien's artworks have been exhibited in galleries, art museums and art fairs throughout the world. His work «Bodyless VR» won the Honorary Mention of Prix Ars Electronica 2020 and was part of the Virtual Reality section of the Venice International Film Festival in 2019.
Artist:
Hsin-Chien Huang
Main Cast:
Peng-Ying Wu (voice)
Music:
Lim Giong
3D artists:
Fig creative (Warren Wu)
Programmers:
Hsin-Chien Huang, Wei-Chieh Chiu, Jiun-Yan You
Institution:
Virtual and Physical Media Integration Association of Taiwan
Year:
2019
Duration:
31 minutes
Type:
VR experience
Country:
Taiwan
Website:
storynest.com
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