Seeing I - 'Pilot: 7 Days in Virtual Reality,' Ars Electronica Digital Arts Festival (Solo Exhibition)

This is a research arm of the bigger project, Seeing I: 7 days in VR.

Culminating a residency at Atelierhaus Salzamt, Linz (August - September 2019), and exhibited as a solo exhibition at Ars Electronica Digital Arts Festival, artist Mark Farid wore a virtual reality for 9 consecutive hours, for 7 consecutive days, each day experiencing the first person point of view life of a different person.

Farid was on constant display in the gallery space, whilst wearing a biometric harness and monitored by Clinical Psychologist Dr. Tamara Russell.

Also on show was the development of the custom built 360 degree, first person point of view, capable of recording audio and footage for 36 hours - specifically developed for Seeing I. All of the code and .STL files were open-sourced with the opening of this exhibition.

This version of Seeing I was commissioned by arebyte Gallery, with the support of Ravensbourne University, the Mindfulness Centre of Excellence, Body>Data>Space, the Sundance Institute, and Ars Electronica Digital Arts Festival.

The lives Farid experienced:

Day 1: the artist's life
Day 2: 71 year old, female, Art Historian
Day 3: 18 year old, female, school student
Day 4: 49 year old, male, Professor
Day 5: 23 year old, female, Fitness Instructor
Day 6: 23 year old, male, Bartender
Day 7: 32 year old, male, Farmer