I have often asked myself the question: Is reality a simulation? For many of us, including post-humanist philosopher Nick Bostrom, this question is baffling. In a world overwhelmed by technology development that 50 years ago was unimaginable, new problems and questions have arisen making us reconsider what we perceive as reality.
We are now able to measure gravitational waves and with this explore distant galaxies far beyond of what we could have imagined. We have also been able to create complex simulations through the technology of virtual reality in the fields of video gaming, medicine, aeronautics and astronomy. The new technologies have helped us develop skills, understand nature’s secrets scenarios and produce even more knowledge that was just recently far out of reach. All this accomplishments have been giant leaps for mankind, but they have come with a price: with every new answer hundreds of questions spring into our collective brain, making us question our own perception of reality.
Will we ever know what reality truly is? Perhaps not. However, unlike the post-humanism philosophers that address this through thinking and discourse, I am attempting to get closer to the answer through art. And rather than attempting to find an answer on my own, I want to invite others to share my question and perhaps together find one or many valid answers to the question at hand.
In order to find common ground to start my art project I have come to terms that reality can be define in various ways, comparing the real world agains our own technology. With that said, I understand reality as a four dimensional perception a multi-sensory technicolor show that is fabricated by our own perceptibility that happen in a particular time and a unique space.
I believe that we take what we perceive in order to create our own film. In a conscious moment, we shoot in four dimensional space following the narrations of our inner voice. Our films then come together in the fabric of space and time in a hypercomplex network. These films then blend into one singular collective tale that intends to reveal the truth about the complexity of the universe.
My intent is, through my “consciousness” or my perception of reality, that I have intended to design a channel through which my impression of reality can be accessed. I call this concept: immersive reality. I want to-create links between the virtual space that is equipped in our consciousness universe in to tangible environments, using computer generated imagery and techniques such as video projection, mapping, sculpture and sound. I attempt to create and affect different space/objects in order to explore it’s alternate realities as well as how other individuals perceive them.
Art is the most primitive form of output of the mind. It’s a conscious creation that requires a significant use of skill and imagination. This creative activity and form of expression have being mutated and controlled by time and space. It has also been present over history and in different cultures through representation, expression and form.
Since the beginning of the first programmable computer, new and emerging technologies have nurtured a fascinating attachment to society. Virtual experiences, such as AR or VR are no different, especially in a world in constant technological development.
Our brain is a powerful machine with an unquestionable and unimaginable capacity for projection. Be it by dreaming or wakefulness, we could say that our mind is the side of a complex universe. What we experience everyday is a beautiful rendered simulation. Dreams lay the foundations for waking perception. The brain is equipped with a virtual model of the world that generates predictions of its constant vivid sensations that we experience in our everyday life. When trance, dream, hypnosis or alter state induce by drugs, our mind is able to travel to unimaginable dimensions and build non-existent worlds and magical stories, unfolding hidden narratives.
In our state of awareness, complex thoughts form universes. They all combine to generate electro chemical fireworks inside our neurons to eventually create instances of experiences which interconnect in a fascinating way. There are no limits or borders on what is a part of our existence, nothing is external, everything takes place inside our consciousness.
In a virtual world such as sleep, trance, hypnosis or drug induce we have a particular way to perceive time and space. When we submerge in these phases, we enter the realm of what we call “fantasy”. A state in which our mind has absolute freedom and its experience is dictated only by the limits of limitlessness.
There is, arguably, a thin line that separates our physical state and virtual experience. I find fascinating how this two, apparently opposite worlds, can perfectly blend through art. Human perception can attempt to a more complex interpretation of it’s surroundings when it is exposed to the possibilities of virtuality. It is here where the human brain and machine meet in order to create an environment where possibilities of interpretation and perception are endless. The effect contributes to a deeper and unique dialogues between the individual and its own unique realities .
When we connect the worlds of art, technology and consciousness as a form of storytelling, we can impact emotions, education and influence societies in a much deeper way.
I am driven by the power of curiosity to explore these realms by creating my own world through installations. These are playgrounds for my viewers, where sculpture, paint, motion graphics, mapping and sound design help me materialize narratives of my own realities.
In this “island of my own imagination,” I can lure the spectator to my own immersive reality. Here I am free to provoke the audience, to invite them to share my curiosity and ask, “Is reality a simulation? Can art help us answer this question? Where does consciousness begin or end? How can an object become alive in a narrative?” So that in the end, when they walk away from the experience they might begin to explore their own perception of reality.