CONTROL NEGATIVE

CONTROL NEGATIVE is an immersive VR experience that stages situations in which the participant gradually loses the ability to fully control their actions and environment. Set within an unstable, inverted version of reality, the work uses moments of disruption and reduced agency as its primary material. The experience is rooted in the author’s lived memory of accompanying a person at the end of life and operates as a subjective space for recalling, forgetting, and processing what remains after loss. Instead of following a linear narrative, the virtual environment is composed of fragments that resist coherence. A recurring house form appears across different scenes, disembodied voices are heard within an otherwise empty interior, and a video recording of a playground appears in negative. These elements function as unstable traces, suggesting presence through absence. The participant moves through seven chapters that shift from physical engagement toward stillness and contemplation. Early interactions encourage movement and exploration, while later moments restrict agency and redirect attention toward perception and internal response. Participants are invited to bring their own recollections and emotional responses into the experience, making each encounter unique. CONTROL NEGATIVE treats the virtual environment as a place where loss is not represented but enacted. By intentionally challenging expectations of control typically associated with interactive media, the work creates a space in which frustration, helplessness, and longing can surface and be observed. The experience proposes that the breakdown of control can become a meaningful and transformative mode of participation, allowing participants to assemble their own associations from incomplete and fading fragments.