Peng, Y. P., (2022) “I AM (VR) : Tenuous Self (虛我) and the Liminal Body in Virtual Reality”, Body, Space & Technology 21(1)
Peng, Y. P., (2022) “I AM (VR) : Tenuous Self (虛我) and the Liminal Body in Virtual Reality”, Body, Space & Technology 21(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/bst.7975
Abstract
Positioned itself in the stance of critical posthumanism, this essay examines the virtual corporeality in Markus Selg and Susanne Kennedy’s VR performance I AM (VR). By introducing Zhuangzi’s idea of Tenuous self (虛我) and Jean-Luc Nancy’s take on the liminal body, this essay asks how do we consider the physical form of the body, assembled in reality-reality within the immersive sharing and exchanging process of virtual-reality? What kind of transformation that the body might experience when it immerses into that otherworldly reality? I Am (VR), as an embodied performative happening of both artistic research and practice of virtual reality, provides insightful perspective in searching for possible answers. Taking this analysis as a departure point, this essay further investigates the possible entanglements between the ‘I’ and the ‘VR’.
Keywords
Virtual Reality, Wu-wei, Body, Performance, Daoism, Zhuangzi, Liminal Body, Liminality, Critial Posthumanism, Markus Selg, Susanne Kennedy
