OccultUs is a new project from ECAL/Simon de Diesbach for Oculus Rift featuring live sound created by a variety of physical contraptions and rigs.
Users find themselves at the core of a hybrid space, where images and sound, though originating in heterogeneous realities, coincide. Stuck between two worlds, their perception is challenged. The OccultUs experience requests users’ participation in a double way: as the leading actor of the piece, but also as an integral part of it by becoming the object of other spectators’ attention.
As you “walk” down a similarly dark hallway using the Rift and gaze onto various objects, a machine in the room is triggered. A glass breaks right in front of you in the Rift. A glass breaks in the room, making it a bit more physical. If that sounds too literal, there’s a surreal room full of rotating objects in the Rift, which is soundtracked by a physical jar of bopping balls. Not really sure what the chains dragging on a textured rug are enhancing.
Creative Applications describes it as “a sensory experience that mixes two distinct realities, physical and simulated.” It’s definitely a start.
