Immersive interactions

Dr Andrew Yip presented on 16 August 2018 'Immersive interactions: a new museology of consciousness in the age of virtual reality'

This talk addresses the human and social potentials of immersive, interactive media installations to connect museum visitors to each other and to an expanded experience of cultural histories. Rather than focus on particular hardware types, or the novelty and marketability of in-vogue digital platforms, this lecture argues that immersive media platforms should be characterised by the paradigms of experience and emotion that they allow, rather than be pigeonholed museologically by their medium simply as ‘the digital’. How does this new museology of the virtual fit in with the mission of museums to collect and preserve material artefacts? Through recent case studies and audience research, I argue that new forms of immersive media are a natural fit for cultural heritage institutions, that allow them to speak to new audiences in their native languages, across time and place.

Dr Andrew Yip is a research fellow and resident 3D artist at the iCinema Centre for Interactive Cinema Research, University of New South Wales, where his research focuses on applications for experimental visualisation and embodied interaction platforms for the GLAM sector and cultural heritage studies. Andrew creates virtual reality installations for museums and artists. His virtual reality exhibition Henry VR is currently on show at the Art Gallery of NSW, and his Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly Unmasked: Virtual Reality 2017 won the 2018 Museums and Galleries Australia National Award for interpretation, learning and audience engagement. Andrew publishes widely in contemporary art and Australian art history. He was co-editor of the book The Legacies of Bernard Smith: essays on Australian art, history and cultural politics, which won the 2017 Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Book Prize for Best Compilation. Andrew holds a first class honours and PhD in art history from Sydney University and prior to joining UNSW held positions at the Art Gallery of NSW and Sydney University.

This free public lecture was part of the History Trust of South Australia's Talking History series. For upcoming events visit: history.sa.gov.au/whats-on/events/