Eclipse

J.G. Ballard once said, “I would sum up my fear about the future in one word: boring.” And this author of science fiction may have had a point, if our future is to be shaped by huge technology companies that exploit every potentially exciting innovation for banal, purely commercial applications.

Eclipse offers an antidote in the form of a virtual reality universe that raises fundamental, existential questions. Alless and Lena are both moving around in this universe, but at such different levels of consciousness that they can’t actually see each other—all they can find are traces of each other’s presence. But by following and analyzing these traces, they can decode the thoughts and feelings of “the other.”

Two actors bring Alless and Lena to life in a live VR performance that gives a new and radical meaning to diversity: here, “the other” isn’t a variation on our self—it exists in an entirely different reality. The accompanying website serves as a manual that complements the VR environment. Its as yet undiscovered features generate the story.