On eco-sensuality with untethered VR

Artist Grace Kingston’s work with Tactical Space Lab explored themes of artifice and facade vs nourishment and connection in our digitally-mediated evocations of the natural world, making use of the stand-alone capabilities and hand-tracking of the Oculus Quest to create a site-specific VR work that maps to the natural landscape and features it’s experienced in.

With the use of photogrammetry and spatial mapping, the viewers hands reach out and touch actual trees mirrored in the headset’s view, while an original score from composer Chris Hancock intertwines with actual sounds of water, insects, wind and birds. The work is intended not as a digital substitute for nature, but a way of framing and bringing to the foreground other sensual aspects of the site; smell, touch, and sound.