Body as Data is a short, interactive VR installation that immerses participants in the unsettling reality of how their identities are constantly turned into information. The experience begins in a dark void where a glowing human silhouette appears and undergoes a biometric scan, confirming identity through familiar cues like Aadhaar numbers, UPI codes, and WhatsApp messages.

Slowly, the body dissolves into fragments of personal data, which flow outward to fuel targeted ads and algorithmic feeds. The user can interact with these ads and pop-ups—accepting or rejecting them—but every choice only feeds the system further, either stamping corporate logos onto the body or multiplying digital requests. As the overload of permissions and notifications builds to chaos, the participant is forced to confront a final choice: to remain as data, fully consumed by the machine, or to remain human, fragile and unstable, but still resisting. The experience ends in silence, leaving the participant with a haunting bilingual question: ‘Are you a body, or just data?’ (‘क्या आप शरीर हैं, या सिर्फ़ डेटा ?’).

Credits: Body as Data was developed at HIVE, IIT Kanpur under the supervision of Dr. Gowdham Prabhakar.

Virtual Reality (VR) Installation | 2025