''Björk Digital'' was an "immersive"

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

exhibition by

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

ic musician

Björk Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct voice, three-octave vocal range, and eccentric public per ...

featuring 360-degree VR music videos from her eighth studio album, ''

Vulnicura ''Vulnicura'' is the eighth studio album by Icelandic musician and singer Björk. It was produced by Björk, Arca and The Haxan Cloak, and released on 20 January 2015 by One Little Indian Records. Björk said the album expresses her feelings bef ...

''. The exhibit debuted at

Carriageworks Carriageworks is a multi-arts urban cultural precinct located at the former Eveleigh Carriage Workshops in Redfern, New South Wales, Redfern, Sydney, Australia. Carriageworks showcases contemporary art and performing arts, as well as being use ...

in Sydney, Australia as part of

Vivid Sydney Vivid Sydney is an annual festival held in Sydney, Australia. It includes outdoor immersive light installations and projections, performances by local and international musicians, and an ideas exchange forum featuring public talks and debates ...

on June 4, 2016 and has traveled across the globe. Originally announced as an 18 month tour the exhibit ran until 2020, where it was last presented at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. Björk has promoted the traveling exhibit with a series of DJ sets and intimate strings-only concerts during her

Vulnicura tour The Vulnicura tour was the eighth concert tour by Icelandic musician Björk. The tour centered on her critically acclaimed 2015 album ''Vulnicura'' which chronicled the singer's breakup with American contemporary artist Matthew Barney. The first ...

, premiering at London's famous

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

on 21 September 2016. Her debut at the

Walt Disney Concert Hall The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 23, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Av ...

, with the

Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra The Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil) is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. The orchestra holds a regular concert season from October until June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from ...

, took place on 30 May 2017. The virtual reality videos premiered during the exhibition went on to form ''Vulnicura VR'', which was released on

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

for

Oculus Rift Oculus Rift is a discontinued line of virtual reality headsets, virtual reality headsets developed and manufactured by Oculus VR, a virtual reality company founded by Palmer Luckey that is widely credited with reviving the virtual reality indust ...

Valve Index The Valve Index is a virtual reality headset created and manufactured by Valve Corporation, Valve. Announced on April 30, 2019, the headset was released on June 28 of the same year. The Index is a second-generation headset and the first to be f ...

HTC Vive HTC Vive is a line of Virtual reality, virtual and mixed reality Virtual reality headset, headsets produced by HTC, HTC Corporation. The brand currently encompasses headsets designed for use with Personal computer, personal computers as well a ...

on September 6, 2019.

Background and development

Björk first began experimenting with virtual reality technology in 2014 when she and director Andrew Thomas Huang made "

Stonemilker "Stonemilker" is a song recorded by Icelandic singer and musician Björk for her eighth studio album, '' Vulnicura'', in 2015. It was written and produced by Björk with beats by Venezuelan musician Arca. "Stonemilker" is ''Vulnicura''s opening ...

", the first song from the singer's critically acclaimed 2015 album ''Vulnicura''. "I feel the chronological narrative of the album is ideal for the private circus virtual reality is," Björk said, calling VR, "a theatre able to capture the emotional landscape of (''Vulnicura'')." 90

Samsung Gear VR The Samsung Gear VR is a virtual reality headset developed by Samsung Electronics, in collaboration with Oculus VR, and manufactured by Samsung. The headset was released on August 21, 2015. When in use, a compatible Samsung Galaxy device acts as ...

headsets were utilized for ''Björk Digital'', and the VR project was ported to 60

"for a more immersive experience that comes with full room tracking." The experience was developed by her label

One Little Independent Records One Little Independent Records (formerly One Little Indian Records) is an English independent record label. It was set up in 1985 by members of various anarcho-punk bands, and managed by former Flux of Pink Indians bassist Derek Birkett. In th ...

in association wit
3rd Space Agency
and

Manchester International Festival The Manchester International Festival is a biennial international arts festival, with a specific focus on original new work, held in the English city of Manchester and run by Factory International. The festival is a biennial event, first takin ...

. On 17 March 2016 ''Björk Digital'' was announced as one of the headlining events at

2016, an annual music and arts festival in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia. In addition, Vivid Sydney announced that Björk herself would DJ the opening night party of the VR exhibit on 3 June 2016. Tickets to the opening night DJ set quickly sold out, leading to a second DJ set being added for the following day. A "work in progress", ''Björk Digital'' premiered, free of charge, to Vivid Sydney attendees at

with four virtual reality music videos. Carried over from 2015's

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

''Björk'' retrospective was the MoMA commissioned "Black Lake" video installation. Another previously available VR experience, "Stonemilker", was also on display. Two VR music videos premiered at Carriageworks: "Mouth Mantra," which had its 2D debut at the end of 2015, and "Notget" though in an unfinished form. The final "Notget" video would not be complete until September 2016. ''Björk Digital'' borrows additional elements from the 2015 Björk retrospective, specifically the "Cinema" room showcasing the majority of the singer's music videos from 1993-2015 in HD and the "Biophilia" room with several

touchscreen A touchscreen (or touch screen) is a type of electronic visual display, display that can detect touch input from a user. It consists of both an input device (a touch panel) and an output device (a visual display). The touch panel is typically l ...

devices loaded with the apps from Björk's 2011 album, '' Biophilia''. Unlike MoMA's show, however, the innovative and unique instruments created and utilized for ''Biophilia'' were not on display. ''Björk Digital'' ran in Sydney from 4 June 2016 to 18 June 2016 before making its second stop in Tokyo, Japan at

Miraikan The , simply known as the , is a museum created by Japan's Japan Science and Technology Agency, Science and Technology Agency. It was opened in 2001. It is situated in a purpose-built building in the Odaiba District of Tokyo. It can be reached b ...

, which previously hosted Björk's Biophilia Tokyo residency in 2013. No new VR videos were added though Björk again played an opening night DJ set on 29 June, with an encore set the following night. ''Björk Digital'' ran in Tokyo from 29 June 2016 to 18 July 2016. During the Miraikan residency, Björk made history by featuring in the world's first ever virtual reality live stream, broadcast on YouTube. She gave a live performance of ''Vulnicura's'' final song, "Quicksand", and the footage was later incorporated into the "Quicksand" VR experience which debuted months later. The next stop for ''Björk Digital'' was

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England. News of the VR exhibit's arrival in Europe was eclipsed by the announcement of a special acoustic, strings-only concert at the

. Tickets quickly sold out, prompting a second acoustic concert at the

Eventim Apollo The Hammersmith Apollo, currently called the Eventim Apollo for sponsorship reasons, and formerly and still commonly known as the Hammersmith Odeon, is a live entertainment performance venue, originally built as a cinema called the Gaumont Pa ...

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...

. ''Björk Digital'' opened at the

Somerset House Somerset House is a large neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building complex situated on the south side of the Strand, London, Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadran ...

in London on 1 September 2016 and ran until 23 October 2016. Björk made broadcast history by streaming herself as her virtual reality avatar into the press interview using the latest real time technology from

Unity Unity is the state of being as one (either literally or figuratively). It may also refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpoo ...

and

Autodesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that provides software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquarte ...

, hosted by director of Somerset House Jonathan Reekie John Leah was appointed Technical Director of Björk Digital and tasked with turning the show into the largest touring virtual reality roadshow in the world. The final version of "Notget" premiered at Somerset House and during the opening night party VIP guests were given the opportunity to see the work-in-progress version of the "Family" VR experience. Björk made her debut at the Royal Albert Hall on 21 September 2016. Her performance earned rave reviews, with

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

writing, "The tension between the rawness of the emotion, the alluring beauty of the string arrangements and the formal elegance of the classical presentation was utterly hypnotic." The Hammersmith show took place a few days later, on 24 September and was equally well received. ''Björk Digital'' next traveled to

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Canada for the

Red Bull Music Academy The Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA) is a world-traveling series of music workshops and festivals that was founded in 1998 by Red Bull GmbH. The main five-week event is held in a different city each year. The public portion of its program is a festiv ...

festival where two additional VR videos were unveiled: "Quicksand" and "Family", the latter having been co-commissioned by the Red Bull Music Academy. Björk did not perform live in Montreal but she gave two DJ sets during the middle of the exhibit's run. ''Björk Digital'' opened in Montreal on 15 October 2016 and ran until 12 November. Björk next took the VR exhibit to her native Iceland where she also announced two acoustic concerts to be held at

Harpa ''Harpa'', common name the "harp snails", is a genus of large predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Harpidae.Gofas, S.; Bouchet, P. (2015). Harpa Röding, 1798. In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of ...

. The first of these concerts, on 5 November 2016, was part of the

Iceland Airwaves Iceland Airwaves is a music festival held annually in November in Reykjavík, Iceland, since 1999. Its main focus is showcasing new music, both Icelandic and international. Background The event is promoted and produced by Iceland Music Export ...

festival. ''Björk Digital'' ran from 2 November to 30 December 2016. ''Björk Digital'' made its North American debut in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, Texas during the Day for Night festival from 16–18 December 2016. Björk DJ'd on the 16th and 18th. After a few months' hiatus, ''Björk Digital'' made its debut in Mexico on 21 March 2017. Björk held another acoustic concert at Mexico City's 10,000 seat Auditorio Nacional on 29 March. Björk played a second date in Mexico, this time in

Toluca Toluca , officially Toluca de Lerdo , is the States of Mexico, state capital of the State of Mexico as well as the seat of the Municipality of Toluca. Toluca has a population of 910,608 as of the 2020 census. The city forms the core of the Grea ...

, on 2 April 2017 as part of the Ceremonia Festival. DJ and ''Vulnicura'' co-producer Arca joined Björk on stage for a strings-and-beats concert similar to her 2015

sets. Ceremonia was almost cancelled due to poor weather but was pushed back a day in a scaled back form. ''Björk Digital'' ran in Mexico City at the Fotomuseo Cuatro Caminos until 7 May 2017. On 6 March 2017 it was announced that Björk would bring her VR exhibit to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

with a special debut performance at the

scheduled for 30 May 2017, where the singer announced on stage that it would be her final ''Vulnicura'' concert. ''Björk Digital'' played at the Magic Box at the Reef in Downtown LA from 19 May to 4 June 2017. Her long-awaited songbook, ''

34 Scores for Piano, Organ, Harpsichord and Celeste ''34 Scores for Piano, Organ, Harpsichord and Celeste'' is a song book by Icelandic singer Björk, published by Wise Publications on June 5, 2017. Björk worked on the book, which includes arrangements of songs from '' Debut'' (1993), '' Post'' ( ...

'', Björk's first ever collection of sheet music for her songs, was available early exclusively at the LA ''Björk Digital'' gift shop several weeks ahead of its official release date. One month after its time in Los Angeles, ''Björk Digital'' traveled to Barcelona for the 2017 Sónar Festival, where the singer celebrated the opening night with a 4-hour DJ set at Fira Montjuïc's SonarHall stage. The VR show is expected to run from 14 July to 24 September 2017 at Barcelona's Centre for Contemporary Culture. Additionally, Björk also gave a talk at Sónar + D, a congress of digital culture and creative technologies, which in 2017 will focus on the latest advances in artificial intelligence and virtual reality applied to the arts. On 19 September 2017, ''Björk Digital'' had its official opening in Russia, at the 7th Moscow International Biennale of Contemporary Art. The show ran for four months and was housed at the New Tretyakov Gallery. ''Björk Digital'' played alongside work from American artist Matthew Barney, whose breakup with Björk is the focus of much of the material from ''Vulnicura''. On 20 September 2017, ''Björk Digital'' played at the 2017 Ciudad Emergente festival in Buenos Aires, Argentina for four days and then continued in the city until the 30 December. It ran alongside the Michel Gondry exhibition ''Usina de Peliculas Amateurs''. Three days later, ''Björk Digital'' continued its South America run as part of the Colombia 4.0 festival in the capital city of

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...

. The show was free to the public. The VR show then travelled to Poznań, Poland for the 11th annual Arts & Fashion Forum. It ran from 3 October to 31 October 2017. ''Björk Digital'' returned to Mexico City, this time at the Centro Nacional de les Artes, on 22 March 2018 and played until 24 June the same year. On 23 January 2019, ''Björk Digital'' was announced to run at the Museu da Imagem e do Som in São Paulo, Brazil. The show ran 18 June - 18 August 2019 and is the first stop for the traveling VR exhibit in a year. It was then confirmed to be presented in the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB) of

Brasília Brasília ( ; ) is the capital city, capital of Brazil and Federal District (Brazil), Federal District. Located in the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region, it was founded by President Juscelino ...

and

Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte is the List of largest cities in Brazil, sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population of around 2.3 million, and the third largest metropolitan area, containing a population of 6 million. It is the List of cities in Sout ...

. While it was running at the CCBB of Rio de Janeiro, the museum closed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The remaining dates of the exhibition were cancelled. On October 5, 2020, a digital version of the exhibition was made available online, accompanied by an

exhibition catalogue There are two types of exhibition catalogue (or exhibition catalog): a printed list of exhibits at an art exhibition; and a directory of exhibitors at a trade fair or business-to-business event. Art or museum exhibition catalogues Catalogues for ...

, audioguides and

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

filters Filtration is a physical process that separates solid matter and fluid from a mixture. Filter, filtering, filters or filtration may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * Filter (higher-order function), in functional programming * Fil ...

created by James Merry inspired by Björk's looks in "Notget", ''

Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...

'' and

Cornucopia In classical antiquity, the cornucopia (; ), also called the horn of plenty, was a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers, or nuts. In Greek, it was called the " horn of ...

''Vulnicura Virtual Reality Album''

On 24 September 2018, ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...

'' published an interview with Andrew Melchior, technical adviser on ''Björk Digital'', where he said that the full ''Vulnicura VR'' album will be out before Christmas 2018 via

One Little Indian Records One Little Independent Records (formerly One Little Indian Records) is an English independent record label. It was set up in 1985 by members of various anarcho-punk bands, and managed by former Flux of Pink Indians bassist Derek Birkett. In t ...

and will be available across all VR platforms but the release did not materialize in 2018. Nearly a year later on 14 August 2019, while thanking MIS San Paulo for hosting ''Björk Digital's'' first run in Brazil, Björk wrote that those who have not had a chance to experience the VR exhibit can look forward to the upcoming Vulnicura VR app. The VR album was released on September 6, 2019.

Exhibition dates

;Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bjork Digital Works by Björk Museum events Traveling exhibits 2016 introductions Events cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Background and development

''Vulnicura Virtual Reality Album''

Exhibition dates

See also

References