Between lived experience and simulated presence
Although virtual reality (VR) in gaming is becoming widespread due to hardware accessibility and commercial benefits, the lack of critical discourse about VR free from issues of market value in the arts drives Clara's research project.
The residency, Between lived experience and simulated presence aims to develop a VR prototype that explores the impact of digital integration and creation on clinical research. This will be the first iteration of a more comprehensive artwork. The project seeks to uncover and expand the possibilities of VR and immersive cinematic environments to engage with clinical approaches to memory, empathy, and embodiment.
The Virtual Reality Lab at the IoPPN develops VR treatment environments to assess and treat mental health problems. Drawing on the virtual environments created by the VR Lab, the team's prototype will engage with participants' personal experiences of sensory and perceptual shifts.
By creating an artistic narrative around these shifts, the team hopes that the prototype will further experiment with VR technology to help others empathise with and embody these different sensations. The project seeks to enable individuals to identify and strengthen the social and emotional skills needed to tackle these issues in real life. Audiences will be granted agency to manipulate, interact and play with the narratives proposed to them by the prototype. The project also aspires to reduce stigma around mental health conditions by encouraging users to reconsider preconceived notions of mental health by assessing their creative potentials.
The project has become one of five pop-up research projects launched in King's REACH (Research & Engagement in the Arts, Culture and Humanities) Space, funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute. Read more about the research projects in this news article.
Clara Sukyoung Jo is an artist based in Berlin. She is a graduate of Bard College and the Institut für Raumexperimente / UdK Berlin. Clara has exhibited her work both nationally at the Royal Academy of Arts and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, as well as internationally at Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Savvy Contemporary and Akademie der Künste in Berlin, and the Alliance Ethio-Française d’Addis-Abeba, Ethiopia.
In 2018, she received the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship and was international artist-in-residence at YARAT Contemporary Art Space, Baku, AZ. She was the recipient of the 2015-2016 Starr Fellowship at the RA Schools, and the 2016-2017 (in)versions Residency at SPACE Art + Technology, both in London.
Dr Lucia Valmaggia is a Reader in Clinical Psychology and Digital Mental Health at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. She leads the Virtual Reality Lab and is a Hon. Consultant Clinical Psychologist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust.
Her work focuses on the prevention and early detection of mental health problems, particularly psychosis. She has extensive experience in service implementation in the community and set up the first service for prevention and early detection of psychosis in a prison setting. She conducts experimental studies using virtual reality to explore the effects of adverse life experiences on the appraisal of social situations. She leads clinical studies to evaluate virtual reality assisted assessment and treatment.
Dr Sarah Atkinson is the Head of Culture, Media and Creative Industries in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities. Sarah is co-editor of Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies.
Sarah has published widely on the impacts of digital technologies on film, cinema & media audiences and screen production practices & industries. Sarah has undertaken extensive work into the Live Cinema economy. She is currently working on several funded immersive media projects including a Virtual Reality diversity initiative, a project which explores artificial intelligence and conversational interactivity in games and ‘XR Circus’ which brings together circus artists with immersive technologists.