VJing and Immersion- discussed alongside surrealism.

        I am utterly intrigued by the Idea of immersing one's self in a simulated space-time. Patricia Moran's article covers the subject briefly:

 "Immersion necessarily passes through physical contact and body/senses within the medium in which the observer is. Physical and immaterial spaces organize our perceptions in such a way as to complement or establish friction in each other when we dedicate our time to mediated activities or those promoted by machines. New spatial notions and experiences are added to traditional spaces, or in other words, to physically consolidated spaces. We are undergoing the amplification of illusionary spaces, physical or not, and the invention of immaterial spaces functioning as interfaces with material spaces or for experimentation with what is to become objects in the future , etc. Exchanges and perceptions resulting from the cohabitation with computers and spaces contiguous to them have their terms defined by illusionistic pacts constructed by us."

      It is therefore intrinsic for a VJ to immerse those who are subject to the projection. By the very nature of projection design applied to any field we are able to experience other realities thereby escaping our current realities. It could already be said, through current findings and postulations in the field of quantum mechanics, that the reality we experience on a day to day basis is, in and of itself, a projection. By modifying our spacial awareness, it is possible to fire cognitive and neural pathways which would have otherwise been dormant. We are then able to entertain the idea of escaping our 3rd-dimentional existence in a 4th dimensional realm (space-time), and by immersing ourselves in to simulated projections of consolidated light and sound, to experience transcendence through the creations of others. Synthesia, which has only become widely recognized as a phenomena in the past 150 years, is becoming more prevalent as technological advancements are made. 

Surrealism, an art form who's movement began in the 1920's, seems to mirror a transcending of reality. With roots in Dada culture which stemmed from people's reaction to World War I, Surrealism became a counterculture to order and reason.  Art began to take on a metaphysical nature, and subject matter became based in worlds other than the observed, to which we have become so attached. 

Is all Projection Design considered surrealism? Technically, I would have to say that it is not. Certain Projections aim to create an environment which forces the audience to become fully aware of the space they are in, as opposed to blurring limitations. Educational projections would more than likely include the environment it was being held in as subject matter (i.e. museum exhibitions).  However, there has arguably never been a field of artwork that has held as much versatility and potential for total sensory immersion, and that has allowed the complete obscurity of one's own observed reality. 

René Magritte's "This is Not a Pipe" 

Salvador Dali's, 

                              "Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man"