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L.U.C.A. is an acronym for Local Unit Curing Alienation. The first version is designed as a spherical shape with a height of 2 meters, a circumference of 3 meters. This is a tranquil, private, space, with similar properties as a water-filled, deprivation tank. However, the user will not be submerged in water; but rather, the interior of the L.U.C.A. pod will be a projection screen for L.U.C.A.’s virtual reality interface in which the user can interact.

L.U.C.A. seeks to provide a rejuvenating, transportive, escape whereby people can experience a utopia; a virtual, fantastical place where they can experience surreal, superhuman, historical or futuristic escapism. Alternatively, people can choose a virtual place that incorporates beloved social traditions and norms, a place for users to meet their friends, to participate together in adventure/action games (like Ready Player One/Matrix), to go shopping (e-commerce), and to experience safe, comforting, programmed environments and simulations. Moreover, the unit is a way to speculate and research social needs and the preference for cultural virtual spaces versus utopian spaces.

This project is in response to the current Coronavirus outbreak in China currently affecting 77,270 global citizens and already killing 2,250 and isolating hundreds of millions of people in China and Italy. It is foreseeable time will come when we need to socialize with each other at home or in private, connecting through technology because we can’t access public physical spaces.

L.U.C.A. explores the hybridization of the physical and virtual, as well as the facilitation through technology. The artistic inspiration comes from growing isolated communities, such as Japan’s Hikikomori, as well as how patients are coping with the outbreak of Coronavirus through virtual dancing. Though these communities are isolated for different reasons, the project explores whether or not a virtual experience can provide social fulfillment.