Inside a deserted Melbourne shopping mall is a bizarre XR journey into psychosis
The Door in Question uses VR headsets, sound and even smells to create an immersive experience inspired by its creator's experience with mental illness
I've visited the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Footscray many times but last week I saw it in an entirely different light: as a nightmarish bizarro world, sort of real and sort of not. The concept of using art to reinvigorate disused spaces is far from novel, but it's been taken to compelling heights in The Door in Question, an intense - and at times deeply unsettling - 90-minute extended reality, or XR, production that blends immersive theatre, escape rooms, virtual reality and mixed reality (overlaying the real world with digital elements).
Described by creator and director Troy Rainbow as an immersive journey into psychosis", The Door in Question was partly inspired by his own experience of psychosis as well as the experiences of his mother, who had schizophrenia.
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