White Dwarf

“White Dwarf” is an interactive VR performance. The core of the work is the homonymous 360 stereoscopic virtual reality film, which also stands as a standalone piece. Framing the film within an interactive environment composes it differently, providing the viewers with a holistic experience.

The White Dwarf is a star which has used up all its power and dies silently, without exploding. How would the atomic bomb be if it had the fate of a White Dwarf? If, instead of wreaking havoc, it had remained locked in a room until it would become an exhibit in a museum of the future?

The research of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who is dubbed as the “father of the atomic bomb” meets the real story of Sadako Sasaki, a little girl, victim of the Hiroshima bombing. Scientific developments and space exploration are juxtaposed with the little girl’s pledge for peace in the aftermath of World War II. Τhe macro and micro histories intertwine in a minimalist environment, while the voyage of cosmic memory throughout history evokes the freedom of light travel. The explosion of the atomic bomb resembles that of the death of a star in a supernova explosion; though, instead of restoring the cosmic equilibrium, it causes irrevocable damage on Earth.

The audience is challenged to participate in a holistic experience that extends the virtual into the physical world and vice versa. One becomes part of a scientific experiment that will change humanity forever.