The Experience: A Three-Room Journey
The co-created XR installation is a multi-user experience that transforms community data into an immersive, interactive environment. It explores how our interactions and words shape the imagined worlds we inhabit together.
The installation narratively mirrors the way the Living Labs unfolded. Starting at opposite ends, two people walk through each space, eventually arriving at a shared meeting point.
Room 1: Individual Reflection
The first room is an individual reflection that provides context for the project in a fragmented, mixed reality space. Voiceover guides the visitor to slow down—an invitation to ponder the presence and influence of new technologies in our daily lives and who the decision-makers in this process are. Voiced sentiments of Living Lab participants echo. Fragments of digital, glitchy text seep from the veil before us, lulling us in.
Room 2: The Digital Archive
Moving through the veil into the second space, our gaze falls on the thoughts and voices of the Living Lab participants, visualized in streams of data. Long lines of personal story and reflection form the structure of the place. We are in a digital archive that we can interact with and navigate through using our gaze.
Room 3: Collaborative World-Building
In the third room, the two participants meet before passing each other like ships in the night. The questions and themes from the Living Lab float in text form on different areas of the virtual floor. The world’s imagery shifts according to the participants' physical proximity to each question, their answers, and the rhythm of conversation. They must work together to create the worlds they want to see.
Documentation & Setup
The installation uses multi-user VR headsets and a localized tracking system to allow for physical movement within the virtual space. The environment is generated in real-time, pulling from a database of community-created assets (3D scans, audio recordings, and AI-generated textures).