Decompensation

Decompensation

Decompensation

They come from a reality, which is not real, anymore. (based on five psychological stages that all refugees pass.)

Decompensation is a performative work that attempts to recreate the psychological stages which refugees pass through when moving and settling into a new social/cultural context over the span of many years:
Early Arrival, Destabilization, Exploration, Return to Normal life, and Decompensation.

In this participatory piece, the notion of ‘Displacement’ is communicated through music, performance, and 360-degree video.

The viewer experiences three different presences:
1. Seeing other participants
2. Becoming a participant
3. Immersion in the virtual world of the performer.

An immersive perspective provided by virtual reality is hoped to inspire an empathy for the displaced individual. Therefore, VR aims to function as a type of empathy machine in which the immersive quality enables a sensory experience.

The work displaces the viewer in order to contemplate the displacement of the refugee. The immersive experience provided by virtual reality can increase empathy, through sensory experience. By activating the body and the senses, virtual reality brings new topologies of emotion, pleasure and passion to the landscape of interaction.

DIR: Nima Dehghani
USA | RT: 20 min
Production Company: Nima Dehghani
http://www.nimadehghani.com/#!decompenastion/xl38e