Shifting Border
All is dream, all is Illusion; I am your vision, as you are mine.
Shifting Border 是一件VR虛擬實境體驗的創作。由三位成員：黃偉軒、陳品辰、楊朝皓共同合作，並獲荷蘭烏特勒支劇院 Innovation Lab 計畫開發。
Shifting Border的核心概念是針對VR體驗與現實身體之間的邊界、與這個邊界如何被重新詮釋與開發所做出的提問。而開發過程反覆針對VR體驗的流程與可能性，分階段進行了嘗試與發想。
Shifting Border is a experimental VR experience, cooperated by the team HUANG Wei-Hsuan, CHEN Pin-Chen, YANG Chao-Hao. The project was supported by the Innovation Lab in Theater Utretch.
The main goal of the Shifting Borders project is to raise a question about how we redefine the boundary between virtual and reality, and how we can present new imaginations of tech-art cooperation through VR experience.
在今天，VR帶來的虛擬實境體驗，隨著科技進展漸漸成為日常的一環。從1935年 Stanley G. Weinbaum所著《Pygmalion’s Spectacles》 一書，對想像的虛擬實境中，關於視點與相對真實的提問；到今天VR作為視聽娛樂領域的新興設備，各平台皆嘗試著推出旗下嶄新的虛擬實境體驗，試圖打開新的疆域。過去僅存在於科幻領域的視野，正以無比清晰的輪廓逐漸向我們展開雙手。
Nowadays, experiencing virtual reality has grown into a part of our everyday life through VR’s technological advancement.
In 1935, Stanley G. Weinbaum’s Pygmalion’s Spectacles proposed an inquiry into spectacle and relative reality through his speculation on virtual reality.
Today, VR technology serves as a state-of-the-art facility in/for audiovisual entertainment, as many digital platform companies attempt to create their own innovative ways to experience virtual reality and explore new territories.
Once limited to science fiction’s realm, our visions of VR applications are becoming clearer than ever.
| Concept Phase |
在前期的階段中，我們希望將VR體驗過程中會經歷到 真實與虛擬的連結/人際交流/物體的互動透過幾種理論去定錨與包裹。基於這點上，我們研究了幾個感興趣的關鍵字，分別是 後VR憂傷/人際交往理論 / 囤物癖。
最終於Concept Phase階段，Shifting Borders所提出的目標是：
讓兩位參與者在VR環境下不僅能夠透過實體感官與當中的環境、物件進行互動，甚至能夠觀測到同在VR內同一空間內的彼此，讓他們既是體驗流程中的觀眾，同時也是演員。
於是設計了一段空間關卡的安排，讓他們在空間中探索的過程同時也會影響到VR內的演出，並以此溝通出一個模式，將兩者導向彼此碰觸的終點。
In the early process, there’s some specific keywords like post-VR sadness / social penetration theory / hoarding disorder which we are interested in, which they all reflected our imagination of our project in different ways.
So we propose a idea, about two participants with VR headset, not only will able to interact with the environment and object through their sense of touch, but also could see each other in the same VR space. Which will make them both are audiences, but also actor/actress to each other in the same time during the experience.
Through our stage design, the participants will be invite to explore the VR stage and affect the performance of space during the exploration, base on that, they may communicate a pattern through the result of interaction, and reach each other in the goal of the experience.
In the end, we focus our project in three topics: Duo-players experience, Real object interactive, Meaningful object.
| Prototype Phase |
虛擬身體與現實身體兩端抽離又再重新熟悉的過程，好像不斷地在一個邊界上來回穿梭，而VR就是那個穿梭的通道。因此我們希望找到一個體驗和敘事的方式，藉由VR體驗的特性，來重新演繹這個邊界游移的過程。我們試圖將台灣的喪禮文化導入到這一串體驗的流程內。
台灣的喪禮儀式，基本上是一場大型演出、一齣戲，一齣召集家族成員參與、向外人展示往生者膝下子孫滿堂、恪守孝道、為他的逝去哀痛不已。而過程中所需要的各式物件，舉凡孝服、繩索、花圈等等，都是演出的道具。
參與者會被告知需要進行甚麼表演、會被要求執行甚麼任務、並且被告誡不可以表露情緒，以免往生者留有遺憾無法離開。但同一時間，你遇見的人、看見的事物，都一而再、再而三地提醒你和往生者的回憶，難以忽視。在這過程內，我們不斷在各種身分、情緒之間被拉扯。
同時，喪禮也是家族內各個成員的身分階級產生巨大改變的時期，因此才需要聚集所有人，來重新排序和宣告這些新身分。
The VR experience is like a process which you pull your body away from it's daily progress, like passing trough a border, and the VR is that tunnel.
We like to explore this experience of VR into our narrative, a stage that could respond to the body and emotion shifting on the border.
We are trying to introduce a experiences about Taiwanese funeral culture.
Basically the funeral in Taiwan is a large scale performance. A performance gathering the family members, showing to others who not in the family, that the one passed have so many children, grandchildren, all deeply love them and felt so sad for he/she left.
And the items no matter the clothes, the rope or the funeral flower wreath, are all properties or settings in the performance.
Plus, the funeral its also a event will rearrange your position in the family and announce your new character to others.
You would be told what character you are, what you should do and what shouldn't, and don't reveal your actual feeling or the dead one would leave with regret.
But everything you saw, everyone you met keep remind you about every memories you had together.
我們希望透過結合VR虛擬實境、實物互動、文化敘事、以及劇場魔力，Shifting Border 試著去捕捉現實生活中那些魔幻、那些日常中非日常的時刻，將那個介於寫實與虛擬中間的精神體驗，與VR所帶來的感受彼此呼應，並以此去加強關於邊界的提問，以及科技對於藝術能帶來甚麼新的形塑。
Combining VR, interactive object with real sense, cultural narrative and the elements of theater, Shifting Borders are aiming to capture the magic moment, those extraordinary moments in ordinary days. We believe we may not just emphasize the reflection about ritual experience through VR, but also will raise the question about where/what is the boundary between virtual and reality, and the possibilities what technologies would form into a new respond to art.
Credit:
黃偉軒 HUANG, Wei-Hsuan
陳品辰 Yea Chen
楊朝皓 Howard Yang
Innovation:Lab
Thibaud Delpeut
Anne Marie Hoogland
Abdelhadi Baaddi
Ad van Mierlo
Thomas Lloyd
Samiha Awad
Wouter Dijk
黃偉軒 HUANG, Wei-Hsuan
陳品辰 Yea Chen
楊朝皓 Howard Yang
Innovation:Lab
Thibaud Delpeut
Anne Marie Hoogland
Abdelhadi Baaddi
Ad van Mierlo
Thomas Lloyd
Samiha Awad
Wouter Dijk
