Virtual Reality Exhibition Spaces as Digital Heterotopias - Case Study of Traveling Around Fu-Chun River

This study explores the spatial characteristics of VR art exhibitions based on Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia. Foucault posits that heterotopias, through the combination of nonlinear time and diverse cultural symbols, create spaces that coexist with but remain independent from reality. Based on this concept, the study analyzes how the VR artwork Traveling around Fu-Chun River (神游富春江) embodies heterotopian characteristics within virtual space and examines how it integrates history and modernity to provide audiences with a multi-layered cultural experience in an immersive exhibition setting. Specifically, the study focuses on the six characteristics of heterotopia proposed by Foucault: diversity of form, variability of function, juxtaposition, heterochrony, mechanisms of entry and exclusion, and the properties of illusion and compensation, investigating how these features are embodied in the artwork. Through a case analysis, this study demonstrates the potential of VR technology to contribute to the cultural dissemination of art and applies Foucault’s heterotopia theory to the realm of digital art, introducing the concept of “digital heterotopia” and offering a new academic perspective on the construction of cultural spaces in the digital age.