TURBULENCE: JAMAIS VU

OFFICIAL SELECTION: IDFA 2023; WINNER: IDFA DOCLAB AWARD FOR IMMERSIVE

When extended reality artist Ben Joseph Andrews suffers an attack of vestibular migraine, he loses his sense of orientation, balance and spatial awareness. It also affects his experience of reality, where everything familiar suddenly seems new and different—a neurological phenomenon called “jamais vu”.

Andrews lets you experience this sensation of jamais vu yourself with a VR headset. This distorts your reality into a black world with objects outlined in white. Sitting at a table, Andrews guides you with his voice through a series of actions with everyday objects, which suddenly feel awkward and clumsy—something as simple as leafing through a book feels strange. How does this experience affect your image of your environment, of the material world, of yourself?

Turbulence: Jamais Vu is the first part of a series of mixed reality works that Andrews is making about the chronic condition he lives with, in an attempt to see it not as an impediment, but as a source of creativity.

Supported by Screen Australia, Frame Documentary, and Creative Victoria.

Still from Turbulence: Jamais Vu