WALLPAPER

USA-based computer engineer and innovator PJ Sanders returns to his remote family home in the UK following the death of his elderly mother. His agenda: to close the place down and sell it. But not before he employs an experimental device he’s been working on, primed to help him uncover the history behind one particular room in the house – a room that has remained locked since his childhood.

(Source: Author)

WALLPAPER is an interactive and immersive piece of digital fiction that has been exhibited in the UK at Bank Street Arts Gallery in Sheffield as a largescale projection and as part of the Being Human Festival of the Humanities 2016 in Virtual Reality. Funded by Arts Council England and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, it forms part of the Reading Digital Fiction research project led by Dr Alice Bell at Sheffield Hallam University. Reading Digital Fiction aims to raise public awareness of and engagement with digital fiction by analysing the way that readers respond, applying empirical methods and cognitive theory. Through its accessible storyline, strong visuals and immersive atmosphere, WALLPAPER has engaged non-academic audiences online, through live events and within gallery settings.

A work of short fiction, it follows the story of PJ Sanders, a USA-based computer engineer and innovator who returns to his remote family home in the UK following the death of his elderly mother. His agenda is to close the house down and sell it. First though, he wants to trial an experimental device he’s been working on to help him uncover the history behind one particular room in the house – a room that has remained locked since his childhood. WALLPAPER can be shown on a modern gaming PC, through large-scale digital projection and in Virtual Reality on the Oculus Rift.

To see a short film of its reception in the UK at the Being Human Festival of the Humanities, please visit http://wallpaper.dreaming-methods.com/being-human/ For more information about the work, the storyline, its development, screenshots, in-project footage and downloads, please visit: http://www.dreamingmethods.com/wallpaper http://wallpaper.dreamingmethods.com http://www.readingdigitalfiction.com

(Source: ELO 2017: Book of Abstracts and Catalogs)