SILENT RADAR
“I may have more of a connection to my avatar than I do to my physical self. My VR self influences my real self and vice versa. I’m fully integrated at this point.” – Silent
Silent and Radar, two transgender friends who spend most of their time on the virtual reality platform VR Chat, have found there a true sense of belonging. This growing community of over 130,000 users has become a space to explore identity and overcome boundaries: walls, borders, language…
The rent-stabilized complex in which Radar lives with her family is the only home she has ever known. “I want to leave, but I cannot afford to… When I walk around, there’s a bunch of closed-down storefronts. I remember what used to be there. I walk and there’s five weed stores that all have the same fake linoleum wood floors and the same sh*tty neon signs.” For them, it’s never about the technology, but about the emotional need and how it is being satisfied.
Combining several photographic forms, this project confronts and blends the ideas of the real and the non-real, the virtual and the tangible, the digital and the analog. When both worlds start to merge, how is the ‘self’ defined? And what does it reveal about our real, tangible world?
Find out more:
Website: paolachapdelaine.com
Instagram: @paola.chapdelaine
