Everywhere at the End of Time
Written by Felix Dommett
Edited by Amaryllis Part
Main Outline:
Inspired by Leyland Kirby’s (known by the alias The Caretaker) well received album Everywhere at the End of Time (2016-2019), which takes its listener on an artistic musical journey through the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease, this VR experience aims to create a similar experience for its viewer. Utilising both the audio and the visual presented by the VR format, the viewer would sit through each of the 6 stages as followed in The Caretaker’s album.
Starting with Stage One and the initial signs of memory deterioration, through to Stage Four and the beginning of the “post awareness stage”, all the way to Stage Six and the end of the patient's life. With each stage the visual and audio surrounding the viewer deteriorates in quality and clarity mirroring the deterioration of the patient's ability to recall things they once knew.
The aim of this experience is less about ‘being in the mind’ of a patient suffering with Alzheimer’s and instead about conveying the emotional distress that is experienced through an artistic expression. That being said, with this VR experience there would also come a guide, with which the viewer may learn about the stages in greater detail, along with their symptoms and potential treatments.
Reasons for using VR:
Whilst most people will know at least one person who suffers from Alzheimer’s, the hope of this VR experience is to create an empathy and understanding that may otherwise be overlooked. In a report done by Alzheimer's Disease International in 2019 regarding attitudes towards dementia, it highlights the stigma felt by people with dementia, with respondents reporting “feeling ‘avoided’, ‘ignored’ and ‘ostracised’ in their social life” (ADI, 2019). This suggests that there is a lack of empathy surrounding people with Alzheimer’s that is actively affecting their quality of life.
By utilising not only audio, as The Caretaker does, but the visual VR offers, the hope is to create a fully immersive experience thus allowing the viewer to gain an understanding that otherwise would be unavailable to them, especially to a younger generation with less of a closeness to the disease. In his TEDtalk Virtual Reality is the Ultimate empathy machine, Chris Milk promotes the idea that VR is the future in terms of creating empathy, and by proxy, producing parasocial positive effects on the world, and increasing understanding of the experiences of different individuals; ‘you feel present in the world that you’re inside and you feel present with the people that you’re inside of it with’ (Milk, 2015). This makes it far more effective than a simple lecture or informational video would be.
Bibliography
ADI, Alzheimer’s Disease International. (2019). World Alzheimer Report 2019: Attitudes Towards Dementia. Alzheimer’s Disease International, London. Available at: https://www.alzint.org/resource/world-alzheimer-report-2019/ (Accessed on 28 March 2023).
CARETAKER,The.(2016-2019).EverywhereattheEndofTime[Bandcamp].UK,History Always Favours the Winners. Available at: https://thecaretaker.bandcamp.com/album/everywhere-at-the-end-of-time(Accessed on 21 March 2023