Real Virtuality: Creating the next normal with the crutches of technology
We are blaming it on the virus. But it seems, in hindsight, as if we were anticipating this moment in time, when we could be forced to withdraw from other fellow beings. The proof is the technologies
STARRY NIGHT-2, CANADACreated by French artistic directors Annabelle Mauger and Julien Baron, the massive projections create a space where people experience van Gogh’s art in ways unlike traditional museums. The brushstrokes appear several feet wide, as original canvasses are expanded and fragmented, then projected onto the walls and floor in unusual shapes to emphasise the mesmerising ex
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2/13
MEET GEISHA PROJECT, JAPANA geisha rehearses for an online drinking party with clients in Hakone in Kanagawa Prefecture. With the pandemic forcing the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and shutting down international travel, the Meet Geisha project explored other business options due to the drop in tourism and offered their traditional arts in the most modern of formats—Zoom ca
Image by PHILIP FONG / AFP
3/13
KINKY PLAY, USADominatrix Madame Margherite rehearses in front of her laptop in her dungeon ahead of a virtual strip club event livestreamed on September 4, 2020, in Los Angeles, California. Until the pandemic, Margherite was known to specialise in pet play, running a human zoo filled with kinky clients who paid $300 per hour to roleplay as her pet
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4/13
DIGITAL DRAG, ITALYAt an atelier filled with shelves overflowing with wigs, feathers and hundreds of stage costumes, Karma B prepares for her livestreamed performance on StageIt. The aim of the first online drag festival had been to allow drag and LGBT performers who have had live shows cancelled, to perform for their fans
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5/13
VITAMIN CLOWN, GERMANYClinic clown ‘Vitamins’ (real name Ute von Koerber) conjures up surprises and humours 11-year-old Pauline online, who is recovering at a hospital in Cottbus, Germany. In 2012, Ute co-founded the association Lachen hilft e.V. She combines play, improvisation and therapy to help heal ailing patients
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6/13
MEMORABLY GROUNDED, JAPANKatsuo Enuoe and his daughter enjoy the trimmings of a business class cabin and soak up the sights of Florence and Rome—without ever leaving Tokyo. Tapping into a growing virtual reality (VR) travel market for Japanese holidaymakers grounded by Covid restrictions, First Airlines provides virtual reality flight experiences, including 360-degree tours of cities and
Image by KIM KYUNG-HOON / REUTERS
7/13
ROW YOUR BOAT, CHINA The scenic route starts from Ping Hu Qiu Yue, also known as the ‘Autumn Moon Over the Calm Lake’ and gently glides over spots like ‘Two Peaks Piercing the Clouds’. Visitors wearing VR holographic glasses experience riding a boat on the West Lake during the 3rd China International Import Expo at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai, China
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8/13
CYBER SINGER, FRANCEJapanese virtual singer Hatsune Miku—an animated 16-year-old with saucer eyes and lengthy aquamarine pigtails—performs on stage during a concert at the Zenith concert hall, in Paris. One of Japan’s most famous pop stars, Miku is a singing voice synthesiser featured in over 100,000 songs and has performed sold-out 3D concerts worldwide. Miku has gone from being a vocal
Image by CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / AFP
9/13
VIRTUAL WIFE, JAPAN Akihiko Kondo (35), a Tokyo school administrator, poses for a photograph with a doll modelled after VR singer Hatsune Miku at his apartment, wearing their wedding rings after marrying her hologram in Tokyo. Akihiko’s mother refused an invitation to her only son’s wedding. Gatebox, the company that produces the hologram device featuring Miku, has issued a ‘marriage cert
Image by KWIYEON HA / REUTERS
10/13
SUMMER VACATIONS, CHINAFor children in Guizhou, summer vacation days out means a VR experience in a showroom of new technology at a tourism attraction in Xingyi in southwest China’s Guizhou province
Image by FEATURE CHINA / BARCROFT MEDIA VIA GETTY IMAGES
