"RE-SUBJECTIVITY": MEDIA ART AS A PRACTICE OF IDENTITY

Fadeeva T., Staruseva-Persheeva A.

Abstract—This article focuses on media art (and specifically
- virtual reality) as a powerful tool which allows transforming
social agenda into personal meaning for a participating viewer.
VR has recently become an intriguing medium which makes
one feel present in the artistic “text”; to maximize the effect of
immersion many VR projects give the viewer an opportunity to
be not just a witness of a scene, but a participant, a one who
takes action influencing the course of the narrative. Thus, we
argue that VR should be analyzed as “machine” to gather new
experiences and “melt” the boundaries of subjectivity
including the illusion of stability of both one’s body and Weltbild.
In virtual reality, a user is able to experience the new
subjectivity, being-with-the-Other, or – to a certain extent –
being the Other. When such “meetings” take place in a safe
space of aesthetic experience a spectator can literally take part
in these scenarios and experience the affects which would be
unimaginable in everyday life, expand his own boundaries of
subjectivity and go beyond the limits of an egocentric position.

Keywords: идентичность, субъект, современное искусство, виртуальная реальность, identity, subjectivity, virtual reality, contemporary art, медиаарт, media art

In book

Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Art Studies: “Science, Experience, Education” (ICASSEE 2019)

P.: «Atlantis Press» (Paris, France), 2019.