[EOL]. End of Life

A virtual ruinscape by DARUM

A coproduction by DARUM and brut Vienna

Screenshot: DARUM

DARUM goes digital. In Victoria Halper and Kai Krösche’s latest performative installation [EOL]. End of Life, the audience is sent on a journey into a fictional, decommissioned Metaverse 1.0 of the near future. An intense, immersive journey across a virtual ruinscape, confronting us with the question: what virtual traces will we leave behind once we are no longer here, and who will determine what to do with our digital legacy in the future.

What do abandoned virtual worlds feel like? How much life remains in the digital reconstruction of a deceased person? Who am ‘I’ in the presence of the absent? And what will no longer have a place in the future, corporate-controlled Metaverse? Building on themes explored in their 2021 hyperlink installation 404-TOTLINK, created for Impulse Theater Festival (Germany), DARUM, in [EOL]. End of Life, allows audience to gaze into a not-so-distant future through the lens of a Meta Quest 3 virtual reality headset. The audience steps into the role of an ‘outsourced freelancer’ for the fictional multibillion-dollar corporation IRL (Imaginary Reality Landscapes). As freelancers, they must decide which abandoned worlds still deserve to exist in the virtual utopias of tomorrow’s metaverse– and which should be permanently erased. [EOL]. End of Life confronts these virtual travelers with a range of walkable, 3D environments, each containing remnants of their human creators. In this slowly decaying Metaverse 1.0, now disconnected from the online servers, the digital echoes of past existences persist – along with the question of how we will one day be remembered, and how we want to be remembered.

[EOL]. End of Life was recognized by FALTER as one of the 10 best theater productions of 2024, named by DER STANDARD as one of the three theater highlights of 2024, and nominated by nachtkritik.de editor Janis El-Bira for the 2025 NACHTKRITIK-THEATERTREFFEN.

Dates

Performance dates in Graz
Individual performance slots daily from

Wed. March 19th till Sat. March 22nd 2025

TBA

The respective timeslots can be booked in the webshop. One timeslot per visitor. Please arrive 10 minutes before your booked timeslot. There is no late admission. Duration of the performance: approx. 90 minutes.

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Reviews:

"Krösche and Halper suggest, in their artistic masterpiece, the exploitation of the audience by an imaginary corporation aiming to transition an abandoned metaverse [...] into a new one. [...] The story in '[EOL]. End of Life' is moving. But the subtext of this work, which highlights the overwhelming manipulative potential of the digital VR medium, sets off all the alarm bells."
(Helmut Ploebst, Der Standard)

"Technically and dramatically exquisite, '[EOL]. End of Life' sets new benchmarks in this intricate genre. As soon as you put on the VR headset, you glide through digital spaces in awe [...] [This] story, which cleverly and [...] movingly tests our relationship with digital heritage, should not be missed under any circumstances"
(Martin Thomas Pesl, FALTER)

"The distance you traverse in the physical world may be minimal, but in the virtual world, surprisingly, it is all the more expansive."
(Sandra Schäfer, Die Kulturfüchsin)

"Top: In terms of innovation, DARUM (Victoria Halper and Kai Krösche) pushed the boundaries yet again in 2024. Since 2018, this duo has been developing new forms of performing arts, and now, with '[EOL]. End of Life,' they've immersed audiences in a fascinating digital 3D world. Visitors interactively navigate through technically stunning fantasy landscapes in a VR installation. Wow!"
(Editorial Team, Die Kulturfüchsin - Rationale for being in the top three theatre highlights of 2024)

"A journey via VR headset to the cemetery of the metaverse: here, the avatars of the deceased, created by AI as comfort for the living, wander. But the shadowy figures built from polygonal structures soon develop their own consciousness. Can they now simply be deleted? Victoria Halper & Kai Krösche have created a fully interactive VR world to tackle these questions—a benchmark for similar ventures in the future. Digital immersion on a new level: palpably real, eerily nightmarish, and deeply moving."
(Janis El-Bira, Rationale for the nomination for 'nachtrkritik-Theatertreffen' 2025)

How does this performance work in VR?

[EOL]. End of Life is a fully immersive VR experience, programmed in Unity and exclusively designed for one of the most advanced headsets currently available: the Meta Quest 3. Interaction in the virtual space is performed solely using your hands, without the use of controllers.

Movement Space:
Each visitor is given approximately 10 square meters of space to move freely. In virtual reality, you move as you would in the real world. Tools like teleportation or controller-based locomotion are not used, significantly reducing the likelihood of experiencing motion sickness.

Duration:

You will spend about 85 minutes in VR. There will be brief moments when you can sit down (on the floor), but the performance is designed as a walkable installation within the virtual space, where you will often stand or walk.

Still Unsure?:

Contact us, if you have any questions or concerns. We've made every effort to ensure that entering the virtual world is as easy as possible, even for audiences with no prior VR experience.

Cast & Creatives:

Directed & Story by: Victoria Halper & Kai Krösche (DARUM() 3D-Design, virtual set design: Mark Surges Music: Arthur Fussy Live stage design: Matthias Krische Character Design & Animation, Costume Design, Photogrammetry Scanning, Motion Capturing and Videos: Victoria Halper 3D Object Animation: Kai Krosche, Mark Surges Creative Coding, Motion Capturing, Lighting Design & additional Sound Design: Kai Krösche Drawings (School): Alexander Tingrui Wülferth Testing & Artistic Feedback: David Rosenberg, Matthias Krische, Matthias Seier, Arthur Fussy, Armin Kirchner Special Thanks: James Stanson

With: Victoria Halper, Kai Krösche, James Stanson

We would like to thank our interview partners:
From the Center for Art and Media Karlsuhe: Götz Dipper, Bernd Lintermann, Tina Lorenz, Felix Mitterberger, Dorcas Müller, Morgane Stricot.
Susanna Neueder MSc. (Psyducated)

Funded by the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna and the Federal Ministry for Art, Culture, Public Service and Sport.

The artistic development of [EOL]. End of Life was supported by a residency at the Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany.

Blog Posts:

Residency Time at the ZKM in Karlsruhe (Germany) (March 1st, 2024)