“I believe that the best immersive pieces can somehow embrace the limitations of the medium” – Cameron Kostopoulos (IN THE CURRENT OF BEING)

Filmmaker and immersive creator Cameron Kostopoulos returned to SXSW with a powerful new virtual reality experience, IN THE CURRENT OF BEING, building upon the foundations laid by their previous acclaimed work, BODY OF MINE (awarded in Austin in 2023). And he won again, this time with the Agog Immersive Impact Award.

While BODY OF MINE offered participants a visual exploration of inhabiting another person’s skin to understand gender dysphoria, Cameron’s latest project utilizes haptic technology and somatic feedback to connect audiences with intense personal narratives around conversion therapy. In this interview, Cameron discusses his approach and design considerations balancing realism and metaphor to foster empathy and drive real-world impact.

This haptic VR experience shares the true story of Carolyn Mercer, a survivor of electroshock conversion therapy aimed at ‘correcting’ her gender identity. Through wearable haptic vests, sleeves, and gloves, participants physically connect to the rhythm of Carolyn’s heartbeat, the cadence of her breath, and the tremors of the procedures she endured. Her journey confronts the inhumanity of these practices and highlights the extraordinary strength it takes to live authentically.

Cameron Kostopoulos – I’m a filmmaker, director, and immersive creator. I was here at SXSW two years ago with a piece, BODY OF MINE, and now I’m returning with my second piece IN THE CURRENT OF BEING. The piece explores the intersection of embodiment and storytelling, and in my opinion, it takes it a step further. This time it’s all haptic and it’s all somatic.

C. K. – There’s a phenomenon where two heartbeats can synchronize. This can happen when people are lying next to each other, this can happen with mother and child, this can happen with people who are close to each other. That was really interesting and beautiful. I wanted to take that element and put it into Carolyn’s story, who has this really intimate and intense story of not being able to be who she was meant to be. We attach to that story, for example, by connecting with her heartbeat, and then with the haptics increasing the speed of the heartbeat.

Embracing Limitations of the XR Medium

C. K. – I believe that the best immersive pieces can somehow embrace the limitations of something. With BODY OF MINE, we accepted that body tracking is not perfect, and motion capture is not perfect, and allowing that misalignment to capture the dissonance of one’s experiences between their mind and body when they experience a different story. Both pieces explore visual metaphors, combining human biology with other elements. IN THE CURRENT OF BEING, we use elements from Carolyn’s experience with electroshock conversion therapy. We use electricity as a way of exploring not just this conversion practice, but also life and the currents in our body and bioelectricity and our neurons firing, all these universal features that we come with as human beings, that we all have that allows us to then imagine what if you were told that you couldn’t be you, and you couldn’t be your natural self. The electricity and the currents in our body all came together into this one piece.

C. K. – It sounds awful, but the experience is designed to make people uncomfortable. We didn’t want to just use haptics to explore trauma, but also emotions like defiance and liberation, anxiety and trauma and more subtlety peace and darkness. In the scene when you’re flying at night with the birds, when you’re given trauma, you can find peace with that, but that doesn’t erase what happens. 

C. K. – For a lot of people like Carolyn who have been through procedures like electro-conversion therapy, it can impact the rest of your life. We wanted to play with that and use haptics to exploring how does trauma reintegrate into our life and how can it fuel things for the rest of our lives. I think the title brings a certain self-awareness to Carolyn’s reflection on the story as something that happened over the past, but now, IN THE CURRENT OF BEING, she’s able to now reflect on this. So we’re able to use that in the haptics and play with a lot of the subtlety of the emotions of her experience.

Visual Style

C. K. – There are a few different visual styles in the piece. It was designed in a way where you have this very intense experience where you’re in the chair and you feel like you’re embodied in her story and your heart’s racing, and you see these strobing lights beginning to get more intense and more intense. We also play with surrealism. In a sequence where faces surround you, they start to merge and be happy, almost like you’re being taunted. They they start to scream, and there’s this anger and rage as this torture keeps going on. There’s a lot of surrealism hidden in the realism. 

C. K. – We were after a visual language of 90% desaturated darkness that’s broken up by these streaks of rainbow, which carries a lot the themes of the piece. Then when it ends, it’s all fluid and it’s all about being in your body and feeling these pulses. Your pulse, literally your pulse coming from your wrist and your heart beating and redirecting energy. So the visuals are a lot more fluid but everything is kind of connected by this repetition that happens and continues through the conversion practice. Then it culminates with this heartbeat and this pulsing light and this pulsing rhythm through your body. Because from the moment we are born to the moment we die, we all have a pulse and we should listen to those things that unite us.

Metaphor of the Tree and Brain

C. K. – I think Carolyn’s story is really beautiful because the way she captures her story has this universality to it where she invites you into her story through her metaphors and through her poetry to reflect on all the things that you have in common with her. I wanted to visually portray the things that unite us.

C. K. – In BODY OF MINE we end up inside of a chest cavity. By the end of IN THE CURRENT OF BEING, it’s like we’re inside a brain. We’re seeing these synapses and neurons firing, but then suddenly it’s a tree. There are these parallels with nature and the roots of a tree. These layers of nature that happen at every single level are so fascinating because of how neurons look like the roots of a tree. We play with that with all this pulsing coming together, this tree that is in its natural state. And then it’s shot by lightning and catches on fire. It’s kind of a metaphor for Carolyn’s story of not being allowed to be who you naturally are.

C. K. – The climax of the piece to me really is not an intense conversion practice, but the climax is when that tree is burning and she says, “How dare you say that to me? I will defy you until my dying breath. Why does it matter to anyone else how I live? How I look or who I love?”. That image of this natural thing, the tree, these capillaries, these roots being burned, creates the climax of the piece. Then it’s redirected as lightning electricity as Carolyn is taking charge, taking back all of that energy that she was giving, all that electricity that she was administered, redirecting that as her own source of life.

Outreach

C. K. – BODY OF MINE is now making an impact in 40 states across the USA and in four different countries. We received a donation of 75 headsets and sent those out for free to LGBTQ+ centers and recovery homes, advocacy groups and gender wellness clinics. They use BODY OF MINE for therapy sessions, for family conversations, sessions for mental health support, for showing politicians and legislators and voters in their communities doing community engagement events. Now that we have this community of LGBTQ+ organizations equipped with VR and with BODY OF MINE and using it for good, we’re able to extend that into this new piece as well. 

C. K. – The focus of this piece is obviously a lot different. BODY OF MINE has this ability to help make people feel a lot better and more comfortable in their skin. This one’s quite the opposite. It’s designed to make you uncomfortable. For an LGBTQ+ center, they can use headsets to show people who are meant to be on both sides of the coin. We have access to all those communities and now where we’re able to give them an adaptation, a mobile version of IN THE CURRENT OF BEING and then send them on their way to places in their state, in their community, who can work on banning conversion therapy and using this piece to push for bans at the local and state and national level.