Array Infinitive is a practice-based research project that examines audiovisuals and audience experience in virtual reality art practice. This PhD investigates the ways in which audiovisual performance in virtual reality (VR) affects and impacts an audience, and to what degree the audience is aware of the live aspect of the performance whilst immersed in the virtual space. This studio-led work draws upon ambient audio and colourful VR visuals, generated, processed,
and ‘played’ via gesture to a locally networked audience. Acting as researcher, lead artist, composer, and performer, I used improvised hand gestures and bodily movements to create amplified soundscapes and VR particle trails, which were broadcast to audience headsets in real-time.
One aim of this project was to create an altered state of consciousness (ASC) experience through ambient soundscapes and mesmeric VR visuals. These could then be studied to determine
whether the audience had an awareness that ‘the instrument’ (by which I mean sonified and visualised VR-responsive gestures) was controlled by a human. I also expanded the framework of spectatorship through a ‘hybrid-audience’ when Array Infinitive was shown to a larger mixed group. This included observers both within and outside of VR, forming the same collective.
Methodologically, to understand audience experience in the context of this project, I undertook case studies, research studies, and field work to investigate audience response, as well as to gain feedback on the impact of VR audiovisuals, ASC reaction, and gestural performance as a form of instrumentation in VR.
This PhD research project builds upon important contributions to the field of performance research and the notion of 'enchantment' presented by Erika Fischer-Lichte, regarding performance as a spatial, embodied event: something that has energy and sensation.1 As well as Fischer-Lichte’s exploration of ‘enlivening’ a room into a performance space, she argues that live action extends possibilities of perception and expands the relationship between performer and
audience.2 Throughout this research, I intended to activate dual spatial planes – of both virtual and real-world dimensions; to create a group experience; and to explore affect by way of live audiovisuals. Other referenced research and material includes Maaike Bleeker’s ‘Corporeal Literacy’ and ‘Bodymind'3 concepts, Shi Ke's, Embodiment and Disembodiment in Live Art,4 Mieke Bal's Endless Andness5 and Jonathan Weinel's Inner Sound, Altered States of Consciousness in Electronic Music and Audio-Visual Media.6 In addition, essays and published papers such as Seigworth and Gre!’s 'An inventory of shimmers'7 and Dr David
Glowacki’s research into group VR ASC experience8 were also reference material for the thesis. Array Infinitive takes inspiration and points of reference from many artists who work with a variety of media, such as Ann Veronica Janssens, Haroon Mirza, Rashaad Newsome, Pauline Oliveros, Éliane Radigue, Jacolby Satterwhite and Catherine Yass. These artists produce work that is less about what it ‘means’ and more about what it ‘does’.
The outcomes of this research contribute to the field of audiovisual art by way of exploring and expanding the definition of performance in VR and of experimental, improvised live sound-making. The development of gesture-controlled VR audiovisual content for live
performance has been established and tested in a variety of settings through this actionresearch, including both public-facing interactions and controlled research studies. Discoveries revolve around audience experience and affective response to sensory contact
through VR, as well as demonstrating the ability of this work to evoke a genuine ASC. The findings of the Array Infinitive research project have demonstrated that the fully immersed audience were not aware of the live element of the performance. Participants
in VR were not cognisant that there was a performer within their physical environment nor that the audiovisuals were being conducted by a human. The cybernetic is present in this
performance piece, through a corporeal, tangible, biological conduit. This work does not employ algorithms or artificial intelligence (AI) to generate content. The majority of the test subjects could not recognise that the shared audiovisual experience was being conducted by a person as part of a live proceeding.
Furthermore, the alteration in perception of human performative manoeuvres was instigated and studied as part of an extended form of spectatorship, which reconsiders the definition of the ‘audience’ and makes room for paradox within a collective event:
a multidimensional encounter that deliberately involves isolation, solidarity, and heterogeneous realities simultaneously.
