Virtual Bodies in Reality involves the use of the male and female virtual bodies from the Visible Human Project, initiated in the US in 1986, where two corpses were systematically sliced, imaged, converted into computer data files, and reconstituted to form two virtual bodies for scientific research.
 
In this work, visitors are able to interact with the virtual bodies in certain predefined ways. Once the visitors have registered their name, age and sex, they would be able to use the mouse to select a spot on either one of the virtual bodies to "afflict" a bruise or "heal" a wound. In the fast-pace “immaterial” realm of cyberspace, there is often neither time nor space to reflect upon the impact of new technologies on power relations, and the ethical implications of our actions. This work highlights the changing concept of violence in technologically mediated spaces and attempts to suggest notions of responsibility (or lack of) through the registration of one’s particulars in the seemingly anonymous World Wide Web.
 
 
 
Virtual Bodies in Reality
A Cyberarts and Cybercultures Research Initiative project, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore
2001/2002
 
Technical Collaborators: Yeo Gek hui, Wong Keen Hon, Wang Meng, Freddie Wu
Installation view
Detail