‘Bjork Digital’ is at once a retrospective, VR project and a taste of the future. Bjork Digital is almost Bjork: The Theme Park. The installation, which opened in Tokyo earlier this week, includes a movie theater featuring a two-hour-long showcase of the artist’s videography. Around the corner from there, you’ll find several tracks from the album Vulnicura have been transformed into VR experiences. Farther down the hall, you can play around with the album-turned-music app from Bjork’s Biophilia album. The 18-day installation opened to the public this week, with Tokyo being the second stop on a world tour that also includes Europe and the US. I went for a visit and came away thinking that no other musical artist is pushing (or perhaps dragging) virtual reality forward more than Bjork. She’s working on more VR tracks too — this is really just the start.
I asked Paul Grey, Bjork Digital’s producer, why the musician decided to work with virtual reality. “[VR] is a challenge,” he said. “She continues to challenge herself, using this very new tool. But it’s also about bringing a new experience: It’s not a music video, or a live concert. Virtual reality is an intimate experience. Bjork wanted to bring people closer to the artist.
“Take “Stonemilker,” for example,” he continued. “It’s 360-degree video, so there’s just the camera and Bjork. There’s no crew. Bjork is stood. Alone. [The intimacy] is something you wouldn’t get on a single screen.” Your mileage may vary, but most will have some kind of emotional reaction — even if it’s simply mild discomfort at the isolated nature of the piece. Read More…