Reality Bytes

In her Watermill Center residency, visual artist Georgie Roxby Smith will collaborate with new media and theater artists from New York and New Zealand to develop Reality Bytes, a new work that will break with traditional forms of visual arts practice, installation, new media art, video art, theater and performance, bringing them together in one “event.”

Exploring new possibilities of virtual reality media in contemporary art practice and focusing on the program Second Life, Smith’s installation will create a space where viewers are in multiple realities at once. In fact, through Second Life, audiences will be able to access the virtual installation component of the final work not only in person at Watermill, but from their own homes.

At Watermill, Smith will collaborate in the same physical space with artists she has worked with only virtually, including a New York-based new media artist specializing in Second Life, and Paula Van Beek, a New Zealand-born, Australia-based dramaturge, animator, and lighting designer. During her residency, Smith will also conduct a public workshop introducing participants to the world of contemporary art within Second Life.

The work of Georgie Roxby Smith, which spans a range of disciplines, has been presented in galleries, theaters, and festivals, including the Melbourne International Arts Festival. Her practice explores new possibilities of the use of virtual reality software, specifically Second Life, in contemporary art through the extraction of “in-world” performances into physical installations that create mixed reality events and happenings.