Experimental interaction project
Designer & engineer (C#)
Context
Have you ever had a memory stuck on loop?
After a traumatic experience, our sense of reality shifts as we realize we lost control of our emotional and/or physical safety. Shocked by the loss, our brains will revisit the memory later, playing it over, slowing down aspects, to figure out just when things go wrong.
When do you stop revisiting the memory? When do you accept that maybe you never had control in the first place?
Design
Using VR to tell a story words cannot
Trying to tell this story of control and trauma was difficult. I felt limited by words, movement, and time.
Yet, I found myself inspired by virtual reality as a tool for narrative. Through VR, I could break the laws of reality to tell a story in a whole new way. Specifically, I was able to use C# to create new laws around time and space - allowing me to capture the story.
The story
In this piece, the user goes through the scene by pressing their controls - giving them a false sense of control. However, at the end of the path, they experience the “trauma” and find themselves back at the beginning of the memory.
Now, when they move they realize that their movement can now control the time in this world. When they stop moving, so does time. When they choose to move, time begins to move once again. While the user can stop time from moving forward (and themselves), they ultimately can never prevent the trauma from happening.
They always find themselves experiencing the event, and returning back to the beginning. Their only choice is to continue to spend time in this memory, or take of the headset.
