Dutch Design Week 2015: Digital Wonderland

Eindhoven – Design Academy Eindhoven Masters student Allison Crank has re-imagined the shopping centre as an Escher-esque digital wonderland in her virtual reality retail concept.

• Exploring the next shopping machine, The Reality Theatre fetishises archetypes of the American mall
• Crank’s theatrical retail space eschews reality using perspective and psychedelic graphics

Donning their VR headsets, participants in Crank’s performance piece take the role of Ms Smith, a customer in search of a new piece of furniture. Participants guide Smith using head movements, traversing the virtual world in which each corner reveals surprises, including grazing giraffes and dancing mannequins.

‘I’m trying to bring back some magic and theatre to the retail experience,’ Crank told LS:N Global. Crank’s project explores the idea of a third space in which consumers can go to see and be seen in the online world just as they would indulge their voyeurism at the mall.