UCSB Media, Art and Technology Department features Mengyu Chen’s Virtual Reality-based artwork Fukushima 2.0 in Studio F.
A short description of the piece:
Fukushima! Fukushima! is a conceptual virtual reality installation exploring the post-modern condition of human habitation and technological catastrophe. Based on the artist’s memory and photography at the 10 km evacuation zone around Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, along with the voice and testimonies from local residents, an immersive virtual world is created to connect one’s personal experience with the volatile apparition of collective trauma. A non-linear story-telling technique is employed that the audience can freely walk, observe, interact and habituate themselves at this marginalized and forgotten land at the corner of Japan. The lines between human subject, bystander, habitant, and technological refugee are, therefore, blurred, broken, and re-examined.
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