Drowning is Easy

Drowning Is Easy is an installation that incorporates both virtual reality 360 filming techniques and aerial filming. The formal abstractionism inherent in the poetic and reflexive mode, which can detach the viewer from the narrative, makes the embodied storytelling that occurs naturally in VR an appropriate aesthetic practice to use after the experience of embodied storytelling of Immersion. Drowning Is Easy is made up of four to six screen projections of a bay accompanied by the sounds of the seascape, which can be enjoyed for as long as desired. Within the space, there is one VR headset; the person who wears this will experience the viewpoint of a drowning person in the same bay and, although this is only a small part of the installation, it is the most important, as it effectively conveys the central idea that everyone in the area is close to - sometimes within touching distance of - a drowning person, but it is only the person drowning who is aware of their plight.