An Immerse, Interactive VR Installation

Kintsugi journal was on display October 16 and 17, 2021, at FD Studios in Astoria, NY

This February, deep in lockdown, a friend, a client, and a mentor all encouraged me to make Kintsugi pottery. Kintsugi artists repair broken pieces by filling and highlighting the cracks with gold. The result is beautiful, maybe more beautiful than the original. It is also, of course, a meditation on the cracks in people’s lives and the practice of mending them.

I wanted to do it, but I didn’t have my own broken bowl, and I wasn’t going to buy someone else’s bowl just to break it and repair it.

I asked myself, what do I have that feels broken, that I could repair?

I thought of the journals I’d kept in high school and college. I cringed. Back then, I was trying very hard to be a straight boy who best expressed himself through math and science, while my insides were saying, “we have different plans for you.” Those years were rough, and I wrote about them with the intensity and self-importance of any good teenager; “broken pottery” is a pretty good way to describe the time and the journals.

Then I wondered, what would happen if I imported the journals into VR?

Kintsugi Journal is the result. It’s a 5-10 minute immersive solo VR experience. The process does its magic: the journals, and the earnest, pulsing time they represent, are more beautiful now, for having been mended.

This project is funded by the City Artist Corps Grants program, presented by The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), with support from the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) as well as Queens Theatre. Special thanks to Rob Liu for letting me prototype on his VR set.

Questions? Contact Michael