The Thousands

Virtual reality was supposed to be huge but for whatever reason highly impractical clothes-based hardware hasn’t been the technology of choice for the 21st century. Perhaps this has been a good thing: as big corporations have left the immersive arts for the portable ones, artists have been able to pick up the technology that business didn’t know what to do with.

It’s a Jungle in Here is a multimedia installation by internationally celebrated Melbourne artists Isobel Knowles and Van Sowerwine that combines the interactive technology of our dearly departed VR with stop-motion animation, creating a series of real-life-ish scenarios that allow you to play with the fragile rules that dictate our public lives. With bonus animorphing.

A flight simulator for social interactions, Jungle projects you and your plus one into a train carriage via live video feed, pitting friend against friend in a series of awkward encounters revolving around violence and sexual mischief. And animorphing. Do not forget about the animorphing.

Virtual reality allows us to experience scenarios we wouldn’t be able to handle in Real Life without a little primer. Next time you’re on a train with a set of teenage triplets sexually harassing stuff, you’ll know what to do (hint: animorph).