Sky Fine Foods and Radiance VR present: Jeremy Rotsztain, Walking a Turtle
Join us for a closing reception February 5th, 1pm EST
“Walking a Turtle” is a virtual reality artwork where viewers go on a walk led by a tortoise. It is based on a curious ritual performed by flâneurs in Paris, as described by Walter Benjamin: “Around 1840 it was briefly fashionable to take turtles for a walk in the arcades. The flâneurs liked to have the turtles set the pace for them. If they had their way, progress would have been obliged to accommodate itself to this pace.”
“Walking” revisits this unexpected ritual for this present moment: the age of distraction. It works as a tool for practicing restraint—against notifications and other digital distractions. By walking with a turtle, viewers also participate in a virtual protest against the powerful players that seek to dominate our attention spans in the attention economy.
At Sky Fine Foods in Art Gate VR, we are displaying video documentation of an interactive VR experience and a 3D model of the yellow & black Hermann’s tortoise, focusing more on this turtle-paced act of protest.
