Breathing Life Into VR

Join us for an evening at the intersection of neuroscience, art, and virtual reality, as we gather experts to explore how our body shapes our sense of self and guides our actions within real and virtual worlds.

After a keynote from Walter Greenleaf, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, we will hear from speakers representing intersections of neuroscience and VR. Our speakers include neuroscientists from EPFL in Switzerland, who will discuss their latest research bringing together virtual reality, neurophysiology, and cognitive science to understand bodily self-consciousness. We will explore the role that our heartbeat plays in perception, how respiration links to action, and how these insights are driving human-computer interfaces. Artist Mélodie Mousset and EPFL scientist Bruno Herbelin will present their collaborative project, “Virandola,” a device that transforms breath into a tool for interaction.

This event takes place within our Sound & Vision exhibition, where we present two virtual reality pieces by Mélodie Mousset: HanaHana 花華 and Sing a Jellyfish. These experiences invite us to enter a world of digital synesthesia that blurs our sense of body and mind.