Immersive Environment as a Tool for Changing Human-Centric Optic

Abstract

The article is devoted to the scientific problem of theoretical elaboration and contextualization of an immersive environment implemented in the physical space of a gallery or museum, as well as a site-specific work, or in VR and AR, which work to change anthropocentric optics. The aim of the research is to identify the peculiarities of the formation of an immersive environment and the practice of creating VR and AR projects in Ukrainian contemporary art, to identify the work of Ukrainian artists, which takes place outside the country at the intersection of the latest ideas in European culture with a focus on the relationship between human and nature. The task is to study the theoretical foundations of the subjectivity of nature and the development of immersive environments, review and analysis of projects that use digital technologies to create immersion. The methodology of the study consists in theoretical and field researches at the intersection of eco-topics and immersive technologies and the development of author's experiments as part of the research "Analytical Instruments for Audio-Visual Translation of Metabolomics" merging genotype and environment regarding climate changes at Iméra — the Institute of Advanced Studies in Marseille. The main method is a comprehensive approach to highlight issues of the development of deep ecology, the theory of symbiosis, visual and photometric methods, analysis of concepts, spatial structure and artistic works. The peculiarities of creating an immersive environment in physical space were explored in the projects "Cosmogony", "Homage to Leonardo", "Garden of Divine Songs" after Hryhorii Skovoroda, "Homage to Matisse", "Gaia", "The Ocean", "Espace Ocean: Waters Come Into My Soul", "Ecocide", which analyzes the impact of the ongoing war on ecology, in order to be included into the national art discourse. The concept of "non-human agency" is concidered as an imperative of nature's subjectivity. The possibilities of molecular sonification in metabolomics were analyzed. A brief overview of the VR projects "Invasions 1.2.3", "Atmospheric Forest" and "First Day" and AR "Vegetable Kingdom, Vegetable Anarchy" is provided. Festivals OVNi in Nice, Scientifica #2 in Marseille, Ars Electronica in Linz, RIXC in Riga, UNESCO Media Art City in Karlsruhe and Venice Immersive are considered as platforms for the construction of "future civilization". The instrumentality of immersive environments for changing anthropocentric optics has been revealed.