South Australian cinematographer and video artist Liam Somerville has been selected as Flinders University's 2021 Digital Artist in Residence, with the Assemblage Centre for Creative Arts offering him the perfect environment to create a unique VR experience.
The Assemblage Artist in Residence program is available to practitioners and provides funds to work with industry leaders, academics, and students in developing trans-disciplinary creative work. The 2021 residence program runs from September – November 2021.
Somerville's artistry pushes the boundaries of what's possible with moving images and distortion in the world of virtual reality, playing with human interaction in the digital realm with the use of fame engines, interactive sensors, and hardware now available at Flinders University's virtual reality and motion capture lab The Void, which is the largest facility of its kind in SA.
"The Assemblage Artist In Residence offers an incredible opportunity to enhance creative practices and open doors to new technological creative frontiers. I'm so excited to create and learn alongside students, technicians and academics at Flinders to create a unique VR experience," says artist Liam Somerville.
"I aim to create a VR experience - Anthropocene - which is a simulation of the last 100 seconds of humanity on planet earth. The player is given no objectives but is free to explore the landscape to discover virtual dance, digital sculptures and the last remains of human life before their time runs out.
"The project will be created using the cutting-edge motion capture technology available in The Void at Flinders University. The data from actors and performers will then be piped into Unreal Engine to influence particle systems and character models. This world-class technology allows creatives like me to achieve hyper realistic virtual 3D animation.
