At Texas arts and tech festival, VR is perfectly human

Artists at SXSW embrace VR to connect with humanity, not escape it, through inventor Niki Smit's emotional exploration program.

At South by Southwest — the gargantuan Texas festival for cinema, music, and tech — artists this year embraced virtual reality (VR) as a way to better connect with humanity, not escape it.

VR and augmented reality (AR) are often associated with video gaming, or the groundbreaking hardware races underway between tech titans like Apple and Meta — though with little in the way of mass adaptation.

But for inventor Niki Smit, VR is an avenue for humans to express their emotions, and explore their mental health.

After donning the usual headgear, the user of Smit’s “Soul Paint” program is invited to “paint” their virtual body, using colors and lines to explore and express their inner reality. “When I’m stressed, I clench my teeth — so I draw this pulsating red thing near my jaws,” Mr. Smit said, demonstrating the software.

“What we’ve been making here is an invitation to dive into yourself, to explore yourself,” he said.

In a massive hall dedicated to VR, demonstrations invited conference goers to watch films and test video games, faces pressed against the VR headset. But at Mr. Smit’s stand, users emerged looking visibly moved, having smeared their virtual stomachs in sickly green or their heads in gray, and dancing to free themselves from downbeat emotions.

“VR is not an extension of film. VR is not an extension of video games. We’re starting to find out it is a medium about your own human body,” said Mr. Smit.