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"They come from a reality, which is not real, anymore."

Decompensation is a 5-channel VR film that attempts to recreate the psychological stages that refugees pass through when moving and settling into a new social/cultural context over the span of many years: 
Early Arrival, Destabilization, Exploration, Return to Normal Life, and Decompensation.

de·com·pen·sa·tion

dēˌkämpənˈsāSH(ə)n/

noun

MEDICINE

the failure of an organ (especially the liver or heart) to compensate for the functional overload resulting from disease.

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PSYCHIATRY

the failure to generate effective psychological coping mechanisms in response to stress, resulting in personality disturbance or disintegration, especially that which causes relapse in schizophrenia.

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In this participatory piece, the notion of  "Displacement" is communicated through music, performance, and 360-degree video.
 
The viewer experiences three different presences:
1. Seeing other participants
2. Becoming a participant
3. Immersion in the virtual world of the performer. 
 
An immersive perspective provided by virtual reality is hoped to inspire empathy for the displaced individual. Therefore, VR stage design aims to function as a type of empathy machine in which the immersive quality enables a sensory experience.
 
The work displaces the viewer to contemplate the refugee's displacement.  The immersive experience provided by virtual reality can increase empathy, through sensory experience. By activating the body and the senses, virtual reality brings new topologies of emotion, pleasure, and passion to the landscape of interaction.