How groundbreaking art is already emerging from virtual reality

A trio of groundbreaking VR installations at the Tribeca Film Festival hint at the staggering range of possibilities for this young art form

Virtual reality has already inspired a variety of projects.
(Image credit: David Ramos/Getty Images)

Last week, over the course of a couple hours, I spent some time in solitary confinement. And then I stepped into the shoes of a blind man gradually learning to navigate the world without sight. And then I went to a wildlife reserve, where I stood face-to-face with one of the world's last surviving northern white rhinos.

Such is the promise of virtual reality — a long-imagined technology that is beginning, at long last, to feel like an actual thing. The Oculus Rift is in the wild (though you might have trouble finding one). The similarly pitched HTC Vive is hot on its heels, with a projected ship date of June 2016 in the United States. Next fall, Sony will make an aggressive launch into virtual reality with the Playstation VR, a headset designed for the Playstation 4. And barring all those high-tech options, you can always fall back on something like Google Cardboard, which uses smartphones and cardboard binoculars to approximate the VR experience for around $15.

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Scott Meslow

Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.