Know Thyself as a Virtual Reality

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aAron Munson, “Where Are You?,” 2023, still from virtual reality (courtesy the artist)

In recent human history, attempts to understand our existence and experiences have meant breaking the body into components – whether organs, cells or chromosomes. Now, with the latest technological innovations, that quest for comprehension includes a previously unrivalled frontier: data. 

The futuristic exhibition, Know Thyself as a Virtual Reality, on view in the FAB Gallery at the University of Alberta in Edmonton until March 18, includes seven virtual-reality works made using personal data drawn from medical, biometric and even social-media sources.

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Marilene Oliver, Scott Smallwood, Liz Ingram and Bernd Hildebrandt, “Your Data Body,” 2023, still from virtual reality (courtesy the artists)

Marilène Oliver, a multimedia artist who co-curated the show with a fellow art and design professor at the university, Lianne McTavish, wants viewers to consider how corporations access personal data and whether limits are needed to protect individual privacy. 

“What the show is advocating for is … more awareness of what all these devices can do,” says Oliver.

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aAron Munson, “Where Are You?,” 2023, still from virtual reality (courtesy the artist)

As I enter, I see a circular vibrating dais that overlooks a television screen, a row of tiny black and white figurines and a blinding white light. A stool and a pair of virtual reality headsets sit on the dais. 

A volunteer who guides people through the show urges me to sit down. A soundscape created by Edmonton artist Gary James Joynes plays while I use a joystick to manoeuvre through a dark void. I zoom past various scans of Edmonton artist aAron Munson’s brain, taken by functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI. They were taken after Munson spent a week meditating and again after a week when he spent much time on social media. In the centre of the void, a lone figure stands on a triangle that bears a pointed question, “Where are you?” 

“We’re making this as artists,” says Oliver. “And the questions are kind of conceptual and aesthetic. The scientific is not part of the work … we’re hoping people can try to let go and experience it as an aesthetic experience.”

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Dana Dal Bo, “The Nearest Window,” 2023, still from virtual reality (courtesy the artist)

Didactic panels explain the science behind each piece, but you don’t need to understand the technology to appreciate the art. After a while, though, I start to feel dizzy. In each virtual environment, I seem detached from my body. When I take a headset off, I am disoriented. Oliver says some visitors have felt nauseous and had to return later to see the rest of the show.

“We are in our bodies, but we are detached from them, because of the digital,” Oliver says. “And then we go into these virtual spaces. We’re still physically in our bodies but we become projected into data.”

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Marilene Oliver, Scott Smallwood, Stephan Moore and J.R. Carpenter, “My Data Body,” 2023, still from virtual reality (courtesy the artists)

The exhibition grew from an interdisciplinary research project at the university. Two works, My Data Body and Your Data Body, were created by a team led by Oliver and music professor Scott Smallwood. The other five pieces were created by invited artists, who collaborated with experts at the Peter S. Allen MR Research Centre, which houses imaging technologies. 

The invasiveness of tech companies is evoked in My Data Body. As you peel back layers of data, including medical scans, social-media posts, biometric information and personal identification numbers, a dormant figure becomes increasingly mangled. 

“The role of the artist is really important, both in the way of understanding how we see and know the world around us, and in prompting us to slow down and question, maybe, changes that are happening,” Oliver says.

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Chelsey Campbell, “a vase, a vessel, a body,” 2023, still from virtual reality (courtesy the artist)

Other works in the show include a piece by Edmonton artist Chelsey Campbell, who works through the lens of critical disability theory. She inserted a magnetic resonance scan of her body into a LiDAR scan, a form of 3-D laser imaging, showing her bedroom, a site of rest and care. Meanwhile, artist Dana Dal Bo, who splits her time between Los Angeles and Montreal, hides data in an office full of desks and unattended computers that display views from the windows of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, a crowdsourcing website for on-demand workers. 

Although the exhibition can be overwhelming, it’s interesting to explore how artists are using cutting-edge scientific research. While my physical discomfort eases quickly, questions linger about technology’s power to invade the deepest realms of my privacy. ■

Know Thyself as a Virtual Reality, FAB Gallery at the University of Alberta in Edmonton from Feb. 21 to March 18, 2023. Curated by Marilène Oliver and Lianne McTavish, with artists Dana Dal Bo, Chelsey Campbell, J.R. Carpenter, Nicholas Hertz, Bernd Hildebrandt, Liz Ingram, Gary James Joynes, Lisa Mayes, Stephan Moore, aAron Munson, Marilène Oliver and Scott Smallwood.

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