The Visit

The Visit is an interactive non-linear 6-degree-of-freedom real-time video installation and Virtual Reality experience, developed from an interdisciplinary research project conducted by artists and psychologists working with women living with dementia. Visitors are invited to sit with Viv, a life-sized, semi-realistic, and responsive character whose dialogue is scripted largely from verbatim interviews. The work draws us into a world of perceptual uncertainty, while at the same time con-founding stereotypes and confronting fears about dementia. The characterisation has both scientific validity and the qualities of a rich, emotion-driven film narrative. The point of the work is to draw the viewer into the emotional and perceptual world of Viv.