Cinema for Claustrophiles Virtual Reality at the Adelaide Film Festival and Beyond

Unobtrusively situated next to the entrance of the main 2018 Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) venue on Hindley Street, the Jumpgate VR Lounge boasted a selection of packages that offered audiences an opportunity to engage with a range of virtual reality (VR) titles from Australia and around the world. Despite the name, there wasn’t much lounging to be done. There, VR didn’t involve lounging; VR required swivelling. Functional swivel stools were scattered around some unassuming tables while a row of computers for the more interactive VR texts lined the back wall. It was also not particularly ‘virtual’ – several staff members were present to divvy out headsets encasing mobile phones as well as handheld controllers (which I carefully looped around my arm, certain of my non-virtual clumsiness). For my first session, I was the only participant, with five staff waiting to help or casually chatting; the unwieldy physicality of the preparation process made me feel like I was the one on display.

Fritz Lang jokes in Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt (1963) that CinemaScope is ‘only good for snakes and funerals’. Using similar(ly incorrect but still somewhat revealing) logic, it might be worth suggesting that VR is particularly good for audiences who enjoy the sensation of being surrounded; ‘claustrophile’ is the closest term I could find. While VR can create, or at least suggest, open and expansive surroundings – I remember my unease upon returning to the ‘smallness’ of an ordinary computer room after my first stint playing some VR games a few years ago – the Australian VR pieces on offer at AFF tended instead to evoke enclosure. As viewers/participants themselves were