Future of Reality
an artist collective interested in past, present and future forms of reality
| Artist: | Ben Chang |
| Title: | Better Living Through Modularity |
| Year: | 2006 |
| Project Description: | Better Living Through Modularity is a virtual reality environment inspired by IKEA furniture. IKEA, with its simulacra of design styles from around the world remade in lightweight materials and collapsible forms, is a kind of virtual furniture. IKEA is also a modular system, with numerous styles and product lines that can be used to create your ideal space. But what if the modularity could be extended further, beyond the arrangement of pieces of furniture and into their internal form? In Better Living Through Modularity, the he Leksvik, Expedit, Liatorp, and so on are like different species which can interbreed and mutate, forming new impossible forms of furniture. In a beautiful, spacious, sunny loft space - the kind which is perfect for IKEA but which you could never actually affordthese pieces shift and recombine in an infinite process, evolving towards their ultimate form as pure virtual abstract scupture. |
| Bio: | Ben Chang is an electronic artist whose work explores the intersections of virtual environments and experimental gaming with contemporary media art. Using materials ranging from immersive visualization systems to modi ed surveillance cameras, hacked video games, and antique telegraphs, his work brings out the chaotic, human qualities in technological systems. His installations, performances, and immersive virtual reality environments have been exhibited in numerous venues and festivals worldwide, including Boston CyberArts, SIGGRAPH, the FILE International Electronic Language Festival in Sao Paulo, the Athens MediaTerra Festival, the Wired NextFest, and the Vancouver New Forms Festival, among others. He has designed interactive exhibits for museums such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Field Museum of Natural History. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of the Arts and Co-Director of the Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences Program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. |
| Website: | http://www.bcchang.com/ |
| VR Artwork: |  |
| AR Model: |  |