Sensing the Environment - Art and the West Cork Archipelago
29 June to 1 July 2021

As part of a Virtual Reality conference led by TU Dublin on 29 and 30 June, ELIA Future Arts: Towards a Virtual University of the Arts incorporated an installation at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre from 29 June to 1 July.

MA A+E students presented speculative proposals developed in Virtual Reality (Spatial io) in the second module of the MA Art and Environment Programme. This module uses archipelagic environments in virtual reality to teach, discuss, research, and produce artworks. This year, students took on the challenge of engaging with islands and island communities without having visited those communities physically (due to Covid-19 restrictions). Particular to this challenge, was the aesthetic representation of island spaces, island sounds and islander voices at a time of unprecedented social isolation.

Visitors to Uillinn could access the research and artworks created by the MA A+E students using Virtual Reality Headsets available at the installation.

The MA Art and Environment is an archipelagic Masters programme developed in the archipelago of West Cork, Ireland, in collaboration with the Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre and the Sherkin Island Development Society (SIDS).

Emerging out of the MA Art and Environment and building on the diverse range of Virtual Reality education and experimentation in TU Dublin, Towards a Virtual University of the Arts connects with other European Universities around the critical questions, creative possibilities and institutional challenges of Virtual Reality education.