A European digital art festival is exhibiting 15 artworks by National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) students, the only one in Asia to receive an invitation.
Recto VRso, an international festival held during the Laval Virtual exhibition in Laval, France, aims to promote works of art “related to interactive and immersive art between the real and the virtual.”
The theme of this year’s show, “Virtual Exhibition / Real Exhibition,” seeks to explore the evolving ways spectators interact with art through the digital world, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo courtesy of National Tsing Hua University
Students at the university’s College of Arts and Interdisciplinary Program of Technology and Art were invited to set up a digital booth in the “Laval Virtual World” alongside other universities from France, Canada and Australia.
NTHU invited Chen Chu-yin (陳珠櫻), a professor at Paris 8 University’s Department of Arts and Technologies of Imagery, to return to Taiwan and advise 20 undergraduate and graduate students in preparing the work.
“The pandemic has restricted movement, but it cannot block artists’ creativity,” Chen said. “In the virtual world, imagination and creativity are exploding faster than ever.”
Student Huang Chi-hung (黃紀虹) said that her piece, Digital Creatures (數位生物), brings to life robot-like beings from her imagination that jump out of an electrical socket.
Viewers can see the figures through augmented reality using a tablet or smartphone.
Another student, Lin Tzu-yan (林子妍), created a miniature building with QR codes in the place of windows.
Scanning the codes leads to clues into the inner life of the building, from piano music to a succulent garden, news playing on a television or people fighting in an alley.
The 15 digital artworks are on display in the second gallery of NHCUE Art Space on NTHU’s Nanda Campus in Hsinchu until May 1.
The “virtual” part of the Recto VRso festival began on Wednesday and is to close today.
The “physical” part, in which 10 artworks are to be selected for display in Laval, is to be held from July 7 to 11.
Visitors can register for free on the festival’s Web site rectovrso.laval-virtual.com.
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