{"id":19211,"date":"2025-06-20T08:37:34","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T06:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/20\/inside-a-deserted-melbourne-shopping-mall-is-a-bizarre-xr-journey-into-psychosis\/"},"modified":"2025-06-20T08:37:34","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T06:37:34","slug":"inside-a-deserted-melbourne-shopping-mall-is-a-bizarre-xr-journey-into-psychosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/20\/inside-a-deserted-melbourne-shopping-mall-is-a-bizarre-xr-journey-into-psychosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside a deserted Melbourne shopping mall is a bizarre XR journey into psychosis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Door in Question uses VR headsets, sound and even smells to create an immersive experience inspired by its creator\u2019s experience with mental illness<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/newsletters\/2019\/oct\/18\/saved-for-later-sign-up-for-guardian-australias-culture-and-lifestyle-email?CMP=cvau_sfl\">Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I\u2019ve visited the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Footscray many times but last week I saw it in an entirely different light: as a nightmarish bizarro world, sort of real and sort of not. The concept of using art to reinvigorate disused spaces is far from novel, but it\u2019s been taken to compelling heights in The Door in Question, an intense \u2013 and at times deeply unsettling \u2013 90-minute extended reality, or XR, production that blends immersive theatre, escape rooms, virtual reality and mixed reality (overlaying the real world with digital elements).<\/p>\n<p>Described by creator and director Troy Rainbow as \u201can immersive journey into psychosis\u201d, The Door in Question was partly inspired by his own experience of psychosis as well as the experiences of his mother, who had schizophrenia.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/stage\/2025\/jun\/20\/the-door-in-question-vr-xr-immersive-experience-melbourne-metro-west-footscray\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/92b7aca55c37c5a399ddfb064cca606ea822d73c\/0_0_1706_1365\/master\/1706.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=f4448b243f222edd17f726a1c4973dda\" title=\"Inside a deserted Melbourne shopping mall is a bizarre XR journey into psychosis\" \/>The Door in Question uses VR headsets, sound and even smells to create an immersive experience inspired by its creator\u2019s experience with mental illness<br \/>\nGet our weekend culture and lifestyle email<br \/>\nI\u2019ve visited the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Footscray many times but last week I saw it in an entirely different light: as a nightmarish bizarro world, sort of real and sort of not. The concept of using art to reinvigorate disused spaces is far from novel, but it\u2019s been taken to compelling heights in The Door in Question, an intense \u2013 and at times deeply unsettling \u2013 90-minute extended reality, or XR, production that blends immersive theatre, escape rooms, virtual reality and mixed reality (overlaying the real world with digital elements).<br \/>\nDescribed by creator and director Troy Rainbow as \u201can immersive journey into psychosis\u201d, The Door in Question was partly inspired by his own experience of psychosis as well as the experiences of his mother, who had schizophrenia. Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Door in Question uses VR headsets, sound and even smells to create an immersive experience inspired by its creator\u2019s experience with mental illness Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email I\u2019ve visited the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Footscray many times but last week I saw it in an entirely different light: as a nightmarish &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/20\/inside-a-deserted-melbourne-shopping-mall-is-a-bizarre-xr-journey-into-psychosis\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Inside a deserted Melbourne shopping mall is a bizarre XR journey into psychosis<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":19212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19211"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}