Between January and April 2018, Tactical Space Lab hosted an experimental virtual reality lab with artists Alex Seton, Jason Wing, Joan Ross, and John A Douglas.
Through an ‘incubator’ style experimental studio, each artist worked with media artist and Tactical Space Lab Director Josh Harle to explore virtual reality and other emerging technologies, experiments, and develop collaborative studies related to their practice.
Tactical Space Lab has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Tactical Space Lab is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
Joan Ross works across a range of mediums including drawing, painting, installation, photography, sculpture and video. Her bold and experimental practice investigates the legacy of colonialism in Australia, particularly in regard to its effect on Indigenous Australians. In just 2017, Ross won the Sir John Sulman Prize, AGNSW, the Inaugural Ravenswood Woman’s Art Prize and was awarded a New Work Grant, Visual Arts Board from Australia Council for the Art. Previously, she has won the 2016 Glennfiddich Artists Residency Prize. Ross’ work is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Museum of Contemporary Art and a number of regional galleries, university and private collections.
Represented by Michael Reid Sydney and Bett Gallery Hobart.
VR Environment (video documentation of use), Joan Ross & Josh Harle, 2018
Ross’s studio outcomes evolved from early tests working with extending her 2D collage aesthetic into a VR context. From there Ross and Harle worked to take advantage of responsive aspects of the underlying game engine to create emergent experiences in the experience.
Seton’s studio focused on experiments exploring how the virtual reality experience could change the audiences sense of their body in space. This included a spatial sculpting experiment, and a vertigo-inducing plank walk scenario, among others.
Alex Seton is a multidisciplinary artist working in sculpture, photography, video and installation, best known for his use of marble carving. He maintains an interest in materiality and the performative object, inviting interplay and exchange between objects, bodies, and ideas.
His work is held in collections including the National Gallery of Australia; Artbank; Art Gallery of South Australia; Australian War Memorial; Newcastle Art Gallery; Bendigo Art Gallery; the Danish Royal Art Collection, Copenhagen; HBO Collection, New York; and numerous other private and public collections.
Represented by Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney and Singapore.
Jason Wing is an artist who strongly identifies with his Chinese and Aboriginal heritage. Wing began as a street artist and has since expanded his practice to incorporate photomedia, installation and painting. Influenced by his bi-cultural upbringing, Wing explores the ongoing challenges that impact his wider community. Calling into question our understanding of history and of our current socio-political reality, Wing repurposes everyday objects and imagery, creating works that are both visually confronting and deceptively simple.
John A Douglas is a Sydney-based interdisciplinary artist working across video, performance, live art installation, photomedia, sound and objects. His practice investigates his ongoing experience of chronic illness through scientific and collaborative, immersive performance approaches. Douglas is the recipient of the inaugural 2017 CreateNSW Artist With Disability Fellowship and has been the recipient of numerous Australia Council Grants including New Work, Creative Development, Artist Initiated Residency (AIR) and Arts Projects.He identifies as an artist with disability.
