Michael Takeo Magruder

A New Jerusalem, Stereo, United Kingdom, 2014

Bogdanka Poznanović Award

An installation noted for its style in which the artist incorporates both immersive and artistic, technologically sophisticated elements, consisting of a VR Oculus Rift head-set creating a unique awe-inspiring sensual experience coupled with complementary projected animated volumetric visual forms. Ultimately the work creates an inspiring, yet cryptic, multi-layered interpretation.

Michael Takeo Magruder (b.1974, US/UK) is a visual artist and researcher who works with real-time data, digital archives, immersive environments, mobile devices and virtual worlds. His practice examines Information Age technologies and systems to explore our networked, media-rich world.

A New Jerusalem is an immersive virtual reality installation embodying the spirit of this prophesised city. The work manifests as an illuminated metropolis based upon descriptions in the Book of Revelation, and is experienced through two perspectives as related by the Book’s narrator, John the Seer.