Shadowtime

Shadowtime is a VR essay that leads you from Ivan Sutherland’s creation of the first head-mounted VR display through different versions of simulation theory. It critiques the idea that virtual realities can solve current emergencies.

Two worlds at once

The term “Shadowtime,” coined by Ranu Mukherjee and the Bureau of Linguistical Reality, describes occupying two irreconcilable times simultaneously: being caught in traffic while recognizing that the fuel comes from compressed prehistoric creatures, or scrolling through a phone while remembering that the Earth is changing irrevocably. Directors Sister Sylvester and Deniz Tortum explore these temporal conflicts through virtual reality and simulation theory, asking whether VR is a hiding place from reality or a context for learning how to be in two places at once.

Alma’s guidance

Alma, a mysterious guide to the double world, leads you through questions about the climate crisis, irreconcilable realities and the virtual world as a place of shelter. The experience describes virtual existence as having two bodies, four hands and two hearts: your body is in one world, while your heart is in the other.

Shifting environments

A short sequence uses AI to create 3D and six-degrees-of-freedom environments that morph seamlessly into one another in VR.