THE DELUSION
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley
Artwork Description:
THE DELUSION is a multiplayer immersive experience that combines cooperative gaming and participatory theatre to explore themes of polarisation, censorship and social connection. Combining factual and fictional content, it archives recent headlines, social-media posts and testimonies drawn from online forums and in-person focus groups to reflect a diversity of perspectives. THE DELUSION explores the challenges of navigating individual and community decision-making: as a living installation, players' actions determine the next ‘Delusion Loop’ - the emotional state and resulting conversation topics in the space. Developed with the community-built open-source game engine UPGBE, it continues Danielle’s work archiving Black Trans histories while expanding the creative and civic potential of video games. The work unfolds in a near-future scenario where every negative online comment becomes real. Players enter a post-apocalyptic world shaped by a catastrophic event: the Day of Division. Society has broken into dogmatic factions, an era called ‘Peace by Isolation’. Conceived as a meeting place, the project aims to rehumanise debates, centring the role of the audience to ask how we relate and respond when faced with collapsing systems and distorted realities.
Project Collaborators:
Curation, Production and R&D led by Serpentine Arts Technologies: Tamar Clarke-Brown, Ruth Waters, Vi Trinh Concept, Animation, Development and Direction: Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley Technical Direction, Game & Controller Design: Vincent Moulinet Game Development: Leo Auersperg-Castell and Florian Brückner Writers Room: Travis Alabanza with Tatenda Shamiso and Shaznay Martin Game Narrative Design: Brooke Maggs Controller Engineering: Ivaylo Getov Controller Fabrication: The White Wall Company Game Music Composition: Loraine James Sound Design: Guillaume Tiger Movement Direction: Malik Nashad Sharpe Advisors: Julia Ebner, Meghna Jayanth, Christopher Summerfield, Dr Stephen Reicher, Celia Hodent, Alan Resnick Made possible by: Suneil Setiya
