The artist drew inspiration for his work from research about 'micro-moments of love'.
Crédits photos : Water Spirits
“Love Simulation EVE: Water Spirits is a virtual reality (VR) experience that invites you to share unique moments of connection. Two users are immersed in a universe filled with particles, where the idea is to create love algorithms. “Water Spirits”, an artwork by Eero Tiainen, is part of the selection for the 7th edition of the Recto VRso festival of immersive and interactive art.
A unique moment of connection
“Water Spirits” is a five-minute immersive, interactive experience in which two users are immersed in a virtual world. In it, they take the form of avatars of water spirits with telekinetic powers. Throughout the experience, the two participants are guided by an artificial intelligence voiceover called “GrandMother”.
The experience is divided into three distinct narrative stages. First, the two players/avatars discover that they possess magical abilities and can control the ocean’s droplets, materialized as particles, with simple hand movements. The avatars then begin to dance in the waves, creating a means of communication and connection between them. When their movements are in sync, music plays and love algorithms emerge. Finally, in the last stage, the avatars return to the ocean and a final love algorithm emerges from them and their hearts.
Micro moments of love
This experience offers unique and precious moments of connection between two people. The strength of “Water Spirits” lies in the fact that these moments of synergy and osmosis can be experienced between friends or with complete strangers. This human and micro-love connection, materialised by the love algorithms created by the synchronous movements of the two users, is only possible in virtual reality. “The artwork makes the invisible links between people visible, audible and tangible,” explains artist Eero Tiainen.
Eero Tiainen is a Finnish artist and creator of XR experiences. He draws his inspiration from transpersonal psychology to create metaphysical worlds. To create “Water Spirits”, he drew on the research of Barbara L. Fredrickson, a specialist in positive psychology, on “micro-moments of love”. Fredrickson believes that love is found in interaction with others and in unexpected moments, whether they are close to us or strangers. In the experience, synchronisation movements offer precious moments of connection, forgetting real time. Real time stops, to be replaced by a virtual timelessness. “The five minutes of chronic ‘real’ time (‘khronos-time’) are transformed into an out-of-time virtual time (‘kairos-time’),” concludes the artist.
The “Water Spirits” experience will be on display at the 7th Recto VRso immersive and interactive festival, on April 11-14, 2024. Discover it among a selection of 15 international artworks exhibited.
