Indiana University is one of the few universities in the US that teaches art students to create within the medium of virtual reality. The technological opportunities and the collaborative possibilities make IU an ideal setting for the digital artist Margaret Dolinsky, who is not only an Associate Professor in the Hope School of Fine Arts, but also a senior research scientist with the Pervasive Technology Institute and Fellow with the Institute for Digital Arts and Humanities.
Having started her artistic journey as a painter, in 1995 Dolinsky began creating interactive virtual environments. She has installed virtual experiences in spaces as diverse as Minneapolis' Walker Art Center and the CAVE virtual reality theater at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dolinsky has been commissioned to create a VR experience of Chinese antiquities at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and virtual sets for performances at the American Opera Theater and the IU Jacobs School of Music.
"When I got into technology," Dolinsky explains, "I really wanted to capture those moments of extra-marginal attentuation: Those moments that we're conditioned to ignore, but that are really significant in our lives."
Dolinsky will showcase several of her virtual environments with Inter:Facing, which opens at the Grunwald Gallery of Art on Friday, September 9. There is a talk by the artist at 6 pm and a reception from 6:30 to 8 pm.