The Death and Existential Virtual Environment (DEVE), 2023
Kwame Kyei-Boateng
Masters in Digital Media (2023), York University, Toronto Death reflection is the deliberate contemplation and contextualization of one’s mortality, and is often explored in traditional media and art forms, such as novels, theatre, and film; but how can new media be used to encourage death reflection? In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic recovery, it became ever more clear how necessary it was that we found ways of healing our minds as much as we did our bodies. With the drastic evolution of Al technology and a growing revolution in VR technology, there are greater means of aiding in this healing process through computational art, just like the traditional arts have always done.
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The Death and Existential Virtual Environment (DEVE), is a project that aims to foster death reflection and existential contemplation. The project invites a participant to communicate with a virtual agent about mortality and existence within a 3D virtual environment influenced by the participant’s heart rate data. DEVE is an exploration of psychological well-being through new media arts and human-computer interaction. DEVE explores the boundary between the physical and the virtual, materialising these shifting boundaries to help create a hybridised environment in which the space reacts to the body. Using an observer-first approach, the participant’s perspective becomes the focus of the experience, rather than an afterthought, immersing them in the narrative of the installation.