#VR #Digital Interface & Infrastructures #Wonder While Wandering

W@NDER: Daydreaming In A White Night

This is an invitation to immerse yourself in a digital landscape composed to be a vacant room for you to wander in.

VR Experience created with Unity for Meta Quest Oculus VR headset.

I dream of ...

A room within the virtual reality of digital spaces — a quiet retreat, away from the loud noises of oversaturation. "Leave me alone in peace for a moment. Let me be a happy silent observer of this emptiness." In that moment, what seems empty transforms into an abundance of subtle details. The room is welcoming. I start to feel winds embracing my body.

However, there is no natural wind in digital spaces. How can I feel alive, have a sense of place, know that I exist here, and feel embraced otherwise? There is light. There are movements. One possible way to simulate the feeling of wind might be by moving around in this space with "my" virtual body.

Thus, I have created a virtual space that is vacant, a space that recedes. You can walk around, run, or sit still. You can close your eyes—you won’t miss a thing. I consider this a form of digital surrealism. While surrealist paintings used realistic techniques to create fantastical landscapes in a convincing presentation, I manipulate the laws of computer vernacular spaces to create "digital-realistic" yet fantastical landscapes, twisting representations of physical reality. It’s my version of the Penrose triangle in shape of rooms.

Welcome to daydreaming in a White Night.

It’s a night where the sun never sets. It’s a dream with your eyes open. Eyes open towards the world, and vision reflects towards your mind. What you see are mental images, but also something out there—taking you on a walk, outside-of-bodies. You step halfway away from the currents of time around you. Time slows down, fleets away, and distorts.

Windows within windows. Platforms
within platforms. Frames within frames. The white room becomes whiter in another white room.As you leave the daydream, maybe you realize that you are living in the daydream materialized on screen. What you thought of your life was another illusion of representation you have seen.

Give some room and distance. Welcome the little things that are just here, being as they are. Give a breath.