We Dwell Below \\ Great North Museum: Hancock

As part of our 2018 annual touring programme, AND Festival 2017 commissioned Virtual Reality experience We Dwell Below toured to Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle.

We Dwell Below is a fun-filled vertical virtual reality trip underground. Become a cave dweller in this comical one-off VR experience and prepare to traverse this fantastical subterranean world, exploring an alternative habitat though the act of chewing. Join your fellow gamers around the campfire, don your VR headset and pick up your cave tools, as the VIVE Handsets give you control over a new set of primal limbs.

Now you and your fellow cave dwellers journey underground may begin. Will you be the first to jump or will you stand nervously on the edge before you step is into the abyss. Tumbling down you look around and directed by your virtual gaze a spotlight falls on your companion – you bombard them with a rainbow of glitch objects, triggered by the mechanical mouth attached to your VR set.

Exploring the layers of the earth, you journey down underground with your companions, finding hidden objects and discovering the next layer by munching through the ground where a celebratory finale awaits you.

IRL, the next gamers wait expectantly, eager to adorn their primal costumes and take their turn, they watch this hilarious, absurd yet magnificent experience from the sidelines. Playful graphics, a 360˚ field of view, intuitive controls and HD haptic feedback provide an amazing sense of immersion. Remember – always eat with your mouth open!

We Dwell Below is an Abandon Normal Devices commission, co-produced with Ooni Studio. Concept and direction by Laura Juo-Hsin Chen with feature music by Ka Baird. Supported using public funding by Arts Council England.

We Dwell Below was originally part of the programme strand Dis-Location at AND Festival 2017 in Castleton, Peak District National Park.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/abandonnormaldevices/albums/72157690255034934