Christiane Paul on Immersion

Whitney Museum Curator of Digital Art Christiane Paul positions teamLab’s work within the history of immersive environments in digital art. The talk will trace the history of immersive environments in digital art and explore the degrees of immersion enabled by different platforms. Virtual and augmented realities, as well as enveloping projections, all rely on distinctive relationships between bodies and space. The challenges of negotiating boundaries between physical architectural space, simulated worlds, and embodied presence will be central topics of the presentation. The exhibition teamLab: Everything Exists in Infinite Continuity will be positioned within the larger context of immersive digital art, while paying attention to the cultural specificities of teamLab’s practice. Also discussed will be the tensions inherent in the simulation of reality and the natural environment and the effects of “naturalizing” the digital. Together, these themes illuminate the immersive turn in digital art and its impact on viewers’ critical distance, agency, and awareness of mediation. Free; RSVP encouraged.