Deep Dive, 2021

interactive VR experience and installation environment

HTC Vive and controllers, EEG sensors, gaming PC

Deep Dive is an experimental video game commissioned by FACT (Liverpool, UK) as part of the Jerwood Arts/FACT Fellowship Programme. It is a psycho-geographical exploration of the deep sea in VR controlled by EEG sensors.

This immersive experience connects the five states of brainwaves (gamma, beta, alpha, theta, delta) to the five depth zones of the ocean (epipelagic, mesopelagic, bathypelagic, abyssopelagic, hadalpelagic), drawing parallels between states of consciousness and the natural world.

Deep Dive uses viewers’ brainwave data to navigate the unknown depths of the ocean: more mentally-scattered states cause the viewer to stay still, and more mentally-still states cause them to descend, diving deeper into the unknown. Although the surface level offers an idealised, untroubled vision of ocean life, as viewers descend, a more complex, morally ambiguous picture unfurls before them. Lifeforms become more unfamiliar and ugly by human standards. It is here in the darkness that viewers also witness these creatures’ struggle to adapt to environmental changes brought about by human activity.

This work raises pertinent questions about our responsibility as a species and individuals for the wellbeing of others. Gaining a degree of control over one’s mental state requires enhanced self-awareness; as a consequence, this expanded consciousness reveals a fuller picture of the world – both the good and bad. Is it therefore better to remain in blissful ignorance if the suffering of others will continue regardless? Do things that we consider frightening or unfamiliar deserve the same level of consideration as things that are more acceptable, familiar, and beautiful to our eyes? And in the face of these planetary questions that play out over long time scales, does the awareness of an individual really matter? Depending on whether the player takes a short-cut route to the bottom, or stays with the trouble of mastering their state of mind, they experience a different ending to the game.