Are you tired of reality?! Want to try something a bit different, and even better?! Well, for this year’s Liverpool Biennial (9 July – 16 October 2016), artist Ian Cheng has created an immersive alt-reality simulation installation using Google Tango tablets, incorporating a virtual reality dog named Shiba Emissary.
Emissary Forks For You, the installation encourages the possibility of a relationship between the human viewer and the virtual dog. By using the tablet as a portal, the viewer physically follows and interacts with Shiba.
According to the artist, ‘As Shiba Emissary verbally commands the viewer to follow her throughout the exhibition with promise of reward, the viewer assumes a new role: Shiba Emissary’s pet!’
If you want to find out more on this American artist and the dialogue between art, new technologies and neuroscience, then take a look at this superb new Ian Cheng book, Forking at Perfection.
Photo-credit: Ian Cheng, Emissary Forks at Perfection, 2015. Live simulation and story.