TRAUM (PC)

Christian Lemmerz’s VR work TRAUM (2018) materialises the tragic as a virtual space, using the aesthetics of hyper realistic video games to create a Freudian nightmare. Users find themselves in a steel cell, that flits from total smoke-filled darkness to dim illumination. Snakes slowly slither into the space, multiplying in number as they turn on the viewer. Fear, helplessness and vulnerability materialise as a paralysing force that echoes the oppressive, prison-like surroundings. The medium offers agency only to strip it away, creating feelings of entrapment and mounting claustrophobia.