Eidolon360 - A VR experience

TEI 2018 (Twelfth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interactions) is an ACM/SIGCHI conference held from March 18 – 21 2018, at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Kungliga Tekniska högskolan), Stockholm, Sweden. Eidolon360: A VR Experience is an artwork developed by Beverley Hood in collaboration with Dr Tom Flint (Napier University) and presented within the TEI 2018 exhibition event on March 20th, at the Stockholm Kulturhuser.

Eidolon360 is a virtual reality artwork and experience that is interacted with through VR headsets. The viewer, reclining on a bed within the exhibition space, experiences a 360 film, shot within a medical simulation centre, that mimics clinical hospital locations, such as operating theatres and hospital wards. The reclining viewer inhabits the point of view of resuscitation manikin Resusci Anne, set within a resuscitation training room. A medic (actress Pauline Goldsmith) approaches Resusci Anne and tenderly recounts her origin story, an intriguing tale of a mysterious drowned young woman, found in Paris in the late 1880’s, who became the face of CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), Resusci Anne, and has since been revived by over 300 million people worldwide. The film attempts to present an emotionally resonant anecdote, as an immersive experience, scrutinizing the overlaps between real life and simulation.