Marina Abramović’s Rising
In Marina Abramović’s VR experience “Rising”, the artist grapples with the tangible effects of the climate change crisis. Abramović created the work not solely as conceptual/ performance art, but an overt call to action for the public and policy makers. I think immersive technologies greatly expand the audience that can experience performance and installation art, which has traditionally been accessible within the confines of galleries and museums. However, Abramović suggests that immersive mediums could create more empathy around these issues. Supposing this is true, this brings up various questions about the limitations of more traditinoal information formats: journalism, data visualization, documentary, etc.. As platforms like VR evolve, is it possible for journalism (for instance) to still foster empathy, or does it need to expand to immersive mediums to maintain relevance, substance, and impact?