Here is a clip of me weaving in the virtual world, part of my research practice for the last three years. I have a headset on my face and a controller in each hand, behing me is a real life woven piece, made at a time when my body was growing a new life, when my thinking was shifting. I am using an Oculus 2 headset because it doesn’t require a high spec gaming computer on which to run. It is as portable as VR headsets get. The more I use VR, the less I enjoy it. In fact, I think i’ve reached the point of me disliking it and I’m going to unpick why I think that is. The headset is uncomfortable and because of this I am always aware of its presence - this piece of heavy, ugly (and it is ugly - a big white plastic box) technology strapped to my face. It pushes my glasses into the bridge of my nose and sucks to my forehead and when I remove the mask, it has left a pink ring on my forehead as if to say - i’ve used you, you can’t forget me that easily. The controllers are plastic. The entire Oculus 2 headset is plastic - slightly matt in texture, but still with that unmistakable plastic, unsatisfying feel that doesn’t sing to one’s sense of touch. The controllers are a big hindrance in the ease of use - the headset does have hand tracking technology, but this is very crude and clunky - there is no way it captures the small gestures needed when using Gravity Sketch. The controller buttons make that unmistakable sound of plastic being pushed into plastic by clammy fingers. When in this virtual space, the light is jarring and left me squinting into the daylight when it was taken off. There certainly is no way it imitates natural light. It just feels like i’m staring at yet another screen and I begin to get a headache and start to feel dizzy after about fifteen to twenty minutes. Wearing the VR headset is a novelty and the action of weaving in VR is certainly informative and intriguing, however the physicality of using the hardware is unpleasant, which in my opinion defeats the object of weaving. Weaving in its raw form is physical, it is sensorial in all aspects. The sensation of touching, smelling, listening to the fiber, the tools and the loom taps into the primeval human and uncovers this intuitive knowledge within the weaver.