Heterotopias
Noa Kaplan and Szilvia Ruszev
The heterotopia is capable of juxtaposing in a single real place several spaces, several sites that are in themselves incompatible.
—Michel Foucault
Heterotopias is a virtual reality essay that allows users to inhabit remote and enclosed spaces. These spaces, initially defined by a quality of otherness, become increasingly intimate through the inner voice of the narrator. Based on the theoretical text of Michel Foucault, Des espaces autres, this VR essay is set to invite the theory into space and the body. It is an intimate experience situated in spaces such as the interchange, the the cemetery, and the garden.
The experience defies conventional cinematic time; instead the viewer occupies various states of sensual and cognitive exploration. Virtual reality is a space of illusion that exposes structures underlying real space. The user enters an intimate experience with otherness and emerges with a shifted perspective on the hegemonic conditions of the real. Heterotopias is a virtual reality experience combining stereoscopic cinema and CG elements. The series explores the combined effects of ASMR audio and gaze based interactivity.
Heterotopias also includes physical “furniture” to situate the experience. Sound has a vital role in building up each intimate environment. The experience is augmented with ambient sound and texts integrated through whispering voices. We aim to induce an autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) to achieve a hypnotic connection to the inner voice.
With support from the Jaunt Cinematic VR Fellowship.
