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Into Yourself, Fall

7-Hour game for London's
biggest Toy Store

Debug role
Concept, Design & Development

Platforms
Web, Mobile, Billboard

Collaborators
Miura

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Into Yourself, Fall

VIRTUAL REALITY ARTWORK

4 min read
Project
Installation
Arts
Technologies
VR
Vive
Unity
Houdini
Maya

Few living artists have achieved the recognition and renown of Anish Kapoor, so to collaborate with such an established creative was a huge honour.

'Into Yourself, Fall' takes us on a journey descending through the human body, depicting a labyrinth of our inner-workings. Passing through the physical, emotional and thinking self is like witnessing death as a process of these connected layers switching off - stop breathing, stop feeling, stop thinking.

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The piece was commissioned by Acute Art, presented at the Nobel Prize celebrations in Gothenburg and Art Basel in Hong Kong. Debug ran the production, handling the design and development, working closely with Anish Kapoor to bring the concept together in-keeping with his vision and style.

EXPERIENCE OVERVIEW

THE PROCESS
MAKING AN ARTWORK
IN A NEW MEDIUM

WORKING WITH ANISH

Anish Kapoor is a leading contemporary artist, most well known for his large-scale abstract sculptures set against the backdrops of global cities and natural landscapes. Whether it be infinite holes, impossible reflections or giant structures, he frequently plays with perspective and perception, at times leaning into illusion.

A defining aspect of Anish's work is his manipulation of space, inviting viewers to not just look at objects but through and beyond them, questioning both what is present and what is absent. It's as much about space as it is form, putting a particular focus on negative space - the void, a space full of what isn't there.

There's an overarching sense of existentially reflecting the self throughout his work. Anish's starting point on the concept was "it's very much about exploring the feeling of going inside, inside-out, of involution". We had to take the defining characteristics of Anish's physical works and shape them into a digital experience befitting to his vision, while Anish had to ensure what we did was true to his tone, style and voice. He focused on the why, we focused on the how.

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ANISH ON THE PIECE

Concept Art
Environment
Style Frames

We felt falling through environments depicting the inner self would work for both the concept and the medium of VR.

A series of visuals were created around themes we noticed across Anish’s work over the years. We felt falling through environments depicting the inner self would be an ideal way to present the vision. As the experience progresses and you fall deeper, the themes are explored through physical, ethereal and abstract environments, which represent peeling back layers of the physical, emotional and thinking self. You pass through these living layers, finding yourself left in a void - a space full of what isn't there.

Aesthetically the visuals reflected Anish’s two poles of precision and mess, of slickness and abstract chaos, with the materials and textures suited to his physical works.

Physical Environments
Ethereal environments

ARTWORKS IN VR

The art world can tend to be technophobic, but VR is another way of expressing art's traditional concerns, of posing questions without immediate answers. Viewers can be presented with unknown, unexpected moments - what is this? why am I here? what’s this reality? what’s our reality? VR is perfectly suited to what art does best; of making us pause, question, and notice what we overlook (while making what’s overlooked visible in new ways).

Creative coding is the approach used when programming for artistic expression. It's not like coding with the pragmatic reasoning applied to systems or games. It's freer, there's a feeling of creating without constraints - a little more loose and human in approach. It's about creating an expressive experience over a functional one, an artwork articulated through code.

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PRESENSE IN VR

Presence allows for perceiving yourself to be somewhere other than where you really are. It’s a reliable indicator of the value immersion adds to an experience.

Immersion is sensorial, it's the impression of being in another place, your senses are deceived to relate digital to physical - made possible through effective use of tech. Presence is how engaged, absorbed, and yourself you feel inside the virtual world - made possible by how compelling the experience is. Rather than an impression of being somewhere else, presence is the notion of feeling somewhere else. You know it's an illusion, but feel it as real, you're in another place.

Much has already been established on presence outside of VR. It's not a singular notion, presence has sub-states: spatial, cognitive, perceptive, body, emotional... Understanding these states helps to achieve, manage and maintain presence as a whole. They unlock potential for creating illusions to trick the mind. Perfect presence can be seen as effectively achieving three core illusions; place, plausibility and embodiment.

VR artworks aren't about the tech, they're about life, death, the human condition... These topics resonate through the presence an immersed viewer feels.

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HOW ACUTE ART PRESENTED THE PIECE

DEVELOPERS CUT
HOW WE PLAYED
WITH SCALE

Anish's sculptures often alter perception through innovative approaches to scale. In Fall the environment continually expands and changes form. Our intent was to increasingly dwarf the viewer as they journey further into the experience and the tone becomes more abstract, heightening the growing distance from reality felt as you fall deeper into yourself.

COLLABORATORS & CREDITS

CREATIVE DIRECTION
ANISH KAPOOR

COMMISSIONED BY
ACUTE ART

PRODUCTION
DEBUG

VR CREATIVE
DEBUG
VR DEVELOPMENT
DEBUG

CONCEPT ARTIST
TOBY AUBERG

3D
VERONICA CARLOS

SOUND
ISHAN KAPOOR
EVENT PRODUCTION
ACUTE ART

THANKS TO
DADO VALENTIC
RODRIGO MARQUES
CREATIVE DIRECTION
ANISH KAPOOR

COMMISSIONED BY
ACUTE ART

PRODUCTION
DEBUG

VR CREATIVE
DEBUG
EVENT PRODUCTION
ACUTE ART
VR DEVELOPMENT
DEBUG

CONCEPT ARTIST
TOBY AUBERG

3D
VERONICA CARLOS

SOUND
ISHAN KAPOOR
THANKS TO
DADO VALENTIC
RODRIGO MARQUES