Phantasmagoria

A collaborative VR project

Memories, Regret, Redemption

Phantasmagoria is an immersive VR theatrical experience loosely based on the life stories and founder of the science fiction genre, Mary Shelley. We follow Shelley St.James, a female author in the 1800s, who has found herself in the veil between life and death. Guided by a magic lantern, she confronts her past hidden in the thick fog of the phantasmagoria forest. Ultimately, she has to face the choices of her past and decide between a complicated life as a female writer or the comfort and escape of death. Her story, brought to life in a dramatic performance by Michelle Huynh, comments on the will to live and the radical act of self-forgiveness, touching upon the timeless fight for women’s equality and the power in a name.

The Phantasmagoria story comprises four vignettes, detailing moments of passion, betrayal, revenge, and forgiveness. Death is how the story begins, at the frantic desk of Shelley St.James, littered with letters of love, regret, and a spilled vial of poison. At this desk, she meets her guide, a magical lantern luring her deep into the fog. Wandering through the maze of trees and ruins, the lantern leads her to familiar memories in her life. The first memory, a quiet moment between her and her husband, Jonathan St.James ,in a ruined living room, revealing her finished novel. The echoes of the past act out the scene in whispers before Shelley is ushered back into the mist. After wandering helplessly through the fog, she comes across a moment she would rather forget. The moment that led to her and her husband's deaths at the top of a precarious staircase. She is forced to face her husband's betrayal and her crime of passion by following the lantern down to a grave. Through the grave, she is led back to where she began, at the desk where she took her life, situated between two gates. One gate made of iron and gold, leading back to life, and the other made of rock and thorn, leading to her final resting place. In this moment she makes her choice.

Collaborated in 3D Modeling + texturing + editing sound + video etc…

Collaborators: Heeyun Choi - Layan Aljambi - Matthew LaBella - Michelle Hyunh - Matthew Xu

2024