1 Welcome to Zenka’s Mini-museum of VR History

Jenny Carden, aka Zenka, is a Los Angeles-based artist who created a unique exhibit that showcases the history of virtual reality. More than 20 life-sized ceramic raku ‘masks’ depict notable virtual reality and augmented reality headsets. Her interesting perspective captures the humor and nostalgia associated with clumsy high tech beginnings of VR. It also shows the progression of the medium towards a polished, consumer driven technology.

The exhibition contains everything from Ivan Sutherland’s famous ‘Sword of Damocles’ from the 1960s to various NASA research experiments through the Oculus Rift and early Valve prototypes; not to mention a few other obscure curiosities. Zenka not only crafted these works of art by hand, but she also published an a timeline charting the developments of virtual reality headsets online. All of her sculptures can viewed on a personal timeline as well.

“The show’s title, Presence, not only speaks to the fact that the subjects depicted are ironically sealed in their own worlds – it is actually a virtual reality buzz-word used to describe the strange tipping point when a person’s brain and body miraculously click over to a point where VR becomes ‘physically’ real to them” says, Zenka. “When a headset achieves presence,” she explains, “there is no way your body would let you jump off a bridge in this state, even though it is fictional.”

Zenka’s exhibit was located at the District Gallery in the heart of the Arts District in Los Angeles, California. The art show began with an opening party on March 7th, 2015. The doors remained open for the public up until April 26, and she plans on taking custom orders for six months after.

So as the number of virtual reality devices starts to balloon with the explosion of the medium, we’ve taken the opportunity to chart the technology’s history through Zenka’s sculpture.

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