The VR installation I produced for the exhibition, Again For the First Time, houses a web server inside the sculpture. The server hosts a single website that stores energetic residue from every visitor in the form of an IP address. Periodically throughout the course of the exhibition, a reiki healer performs energetic alignment to rid the site of blocked and negative energy. Once updated, healthy energy is sent back out onto the network via a ping to the stored IP addresses. Each healing session is recorded in Virtual Reality (VR) and Visitors to the installation can use VR headsets to experience virtually-embodied healing sessions created from the motion capture data of each healing session while they connect to the server. This call and response creates an electromagnetic connection between the users, the healer, and the sculpture via our networked devices.
I contend that while there is potential for beauty and interpersonal connection in networked interaction, that biases coded into these platforms have resulted in fragmentation and trauma for the end users. I am interested in using these systems to create gentle places of healing; a platform designed for the most vulnerable bodies.
