Thresholds – Mat Collishaw

Using the latest in VR technology, VMI Studio and Mat Colishaw worked together to restage one of the earliest exhibitions of photography in 1839, when British scientist William Henry Fox Talbot first presented his photographic prints to the public at King Edward's School, Birmingham. The experience is a fully immersive portal to the past; people were able to walk freely throughout a digitally reconstructed room, and touch the bespoke vitrines, fixtures and mouldings; even the heat from a coal fire was recreated. A soundscape for Thresholds included the sound of demonstrations of the Chartist protesters who rioted in 1839 on the streets of Birmingham, and could be glimpsed through the digital windows. VMI sat down with Matt to outline the concepts that shape his work, a discussion accessible here. “There will be alternate levels of reality and unreality. This is a virtual reality of a virtual reality of reality,”.