Calling upon early internet themes of hypertextual storytelling and fragmented narratives, artist Vivian Charlesworth creates an alternative reality in the VR piece As Real as the Here (2023). Users must take on the role of “explorer, bystander, or spy” by dropping into vignettes and orienting themselves to the virtual space and their own reactions to the action. Here, we’re publishing a single channel version of the VR experience.
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Digital America interviewed Vivian Charlesworth in November of 2024.
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Vivian Charlesworth is Los Angeles-based new media artist and filmmaker who creates immersive digital and physical worlds. She holds a M.S. in Fiction & Entertainment from Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), an M.F.A. in Digital + Media from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and a B.A. with concentrations in Fine Art and Comparative Literature from Sarah Lawrence College. She currently works as a visiting lecturer at Scripps College. Vivian has shown at the Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts (ISEA), as well as galleries and museums in Finland, China, New York City, Providence, San Francisco, Chicago, Minneapolis, and elsewhere.
