Artist James Merry, 37, has been working with Bjrk since 2009; they were introduced by a mutual friend while Merry was studying ancient Greek at Oxford University. He moved to New York to work with her, and played a vital part in her 2011 album, Biophilia, on which each song was accompanied by an interactive app uniting concepts of music, science and nature. Merry has remained Bjrks right-hand man through her 2015 breakup album Vulnicura and this years Utopia, as well as making her elaborate masks and headpieces. Their latest project is a full virtual reality version of Vulnicura in which seven VR videos by different directors follow Bjrks path through heartbreak and recovery in the Icelandic landscape, from a verdant valley into a dark lava tube and out the other side. Merry lives and works in Iceland.

Why did Bjrk decide to make Vulnicura into virtual reality? Most VR experiences focus on spectacle or action, and its such an inward, emotional album.In 2014, we got an Oculus Rift headset and set it up in her kitchen in New York she just got a gut reaction to it, and it also happened to really suit the nature and content of the Vulnicura album. It wasnt a gimmick, it wasnt like: Oh, VR is hot, lets force ourselves to do VR videos; it was actually more like the weird, airless, almost suffocating and isolating early VR stuff we tried, she realised it could really fit these heartbreak songs... it was just a really good overlap between the medium and the content. I think people are still figuring out how VR is going to position itself in our lives, whether its for hardcore gamers who are in there for eight days without eating, or whether its a thing in the living room that you order stuff on, or a paintballing businessmen-bonding-trip kind of thing. It still has that fluidity, so I am glad our contribution is an attempt to offer some emotion and poetry and music.

What can people expect from Vulnicura VR?Ive been trying to make clear that its not a game. I think a Bjork video game would be amazing and I would wanna play it, but this isnt it; its quite passive. Youre like a voyeur on this heartbreak album cycle. Weve made seven VR music videos and accompanying digital scores, and the Vulnicura VR app is like a house to watch them from. You go into a cave at the lowest point of the album and then you come out of the cave for Family, when the healing starts, and then you end with Quicksand when the claustrophobia is gone and youre in a more open space.

Whats it been like watching people experience it all over the world at the Bjrk Digital exhibitions?The first one we did in Australia, it was amazing hearing the noises: there were people crying, laughing and gasping and people talking to Bjrk like she was in the room. For 80%, 90% of the people there it was their first time in VR. So Im really happy that was their first experience. Its so beautiful seeing tears coming out of the bottom of a VR headset. Its like a humanity and technology mashup in a really beautiful way.

Theres a moment in the Family video where the Bjrk avatar seems to walk through the viewer its quite unsettling.Yes! When we were trying different builds of Notget with Nick Thornton Jones and Warren Du Preez, there were also moments when you were inside the avatar, and because Im a semi-gamer, I was like: Oooh! Oh no! Its glitching, you can see inside it and Bjork was like: Oh my God! This is amazing! Thats one of my favourite moments, when that avatar in Family stands up and walks towards you, and you float through it and watch it walking away; its the most emotional part of the whole album I think.

Can you see more musicians going down the VR route?For me, its a perfect medium for pop. I dont wanna be in VR for the length of a film. I dont wanna be in there for even half an hour, necessarily. I think a music video is perfect for VR. You dip in to this little self-contained world and have an experience with really emotional music and then you dip out again.

What other uses of VR are you most excited about?Outside of art and music, Ive been reading about people using it for post-traumatic stress, where you can program a situation and go back into it and relive it and reprocess it.

Do you still do art thats unrelated to Bjrks projects?I do have a side project where I hand-embroider my favourite plants and birds and mushrooms on to old Nike and Adidas sportswear sweaters. I probably have about 17 minutes every day to think about that, but Im going back to Iceland tonight and tomorrow Im pouring concrete and building myself a little studio at my cabin, where I can get back into my embroidery.

Vulnicura VR is available now for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Valve Index headsets and is showing at the Otherworld VR arcade in Hackney, London, until 1 Jan

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Artist James Merry: Its beautiful seeing tears coming out of the bottom of a VR headset - The Guardian