PRS Australia PhD Examination - Rosina Yuan (School of Architecture and Urban Design - RMIT University)

Manifesting Landscape: A Painterly Approach to Virtual Reality Creation

This PhD investigates the creative potential of head-mounted virtual reality (VR) technology as a generative medium, focusing on the manifestation of landscapes within digital virtual environments. It draws on a painterly approach rooted in my previous practices in landscape painting and emphasises the dynamic interaction between artist and technology, as well as between the physical and the digital. Influenced by the philosophy and aesthetic tendencies of Xie Yi in traditional Chinese landscape painting, the research speculates on landscape as a unique spatial paradigm in digital environments. 

The PhD asks: How to manifest landscapes with(in) VR through VR creation? Here, ‘VR creation’ refers to the emerging practice of creating in-VR-for-VR, while ‘manifesting’ denotes both the digital modulation of VR and the conceptual process of interpreting and expressing these creations. Through practice research, this PhD proposes a more sentimental approach to VR creation, attending to its digital and virtual materialities for artistic expression. The practice research foregrounds bodily movements as dynamic inputs to expand the practical potentials of VR landscape practices within the broader emerging field of VR creation.