Virtualshamanism:

Towards an alternative digital reality of consciousness

is an interactive virtual reality installation for HTC Vive and Leap Motion, based on modern concepts such as technoshamanism, ancestral-future, and neo-paganism, among others.

This VR experience uses a scale room setup of about 4 by 4 square meters (around 160 square inches), and the only way to move around it's by walking. Please make sure you have enough space available to experience it, and remember to connect your leap motion in order to use your hands to interact with the world.

The Virtualshamanism operates between two worlds, the modern one, mental and scientific, and the ancestral one, intuitive and shamanic, generating an approach between both sides through its role as a nexus and peacemaker, placing itself as a powerful mediator between these two dual forces. In this work the artistic event is revealed from the inside outward, this characteristic suggests a way of interpretation where the user acts as the core of the work, becoming a means of resonance, there where the piece vibrates by itself, echoing by its own presence.

A virtualshaman works with audiovisual representations which are transformed into maps that will serve as a guide to decipher and manifest the techno-spiritual and cyber-pagan problematics of this era.

According to Terence McKenna there is no distinction between entheogens and computers, both parts represent for him an extension of the human capabilities which function as prostheses, that is, as devices to extend the mind and the perceptual functions of the human being, calculating and simulating complicated processes in order to achieve new answers and knowledge.

In a Virtualshamanic work, the confrontation between imagination and hallucination is diluted by the use of VR technology as a tool for the research of an alternative digital reality of consciousness.

Virtualshamanism was only presented to the public as a VR site-specific art installation, now that I've decided to share it only as a digital piece, please keep in mind that you're gonna get half of the experience. That is to say, the virtual one, not the real one, which is related to very specific and carefully arranged technoshamanic rituals, in order to prepare the user for the VR trip.

For more info about my work please check out my web site.
www.matiasbrunacci.com