Feeling My Way Through ‘Virtual Reality Underwater Spa’ (Notes)
While the relaxation putty gelled, the overall themes didn’t
Virtual Reality Underwater Spa, by Amy Wong and Matt Rosenblum via Brooklyn art collective The Tiny Cupboard, bills itself as a relaxing spa experience mixed with an underwater safari, but that’s not entirely accurate. While there are certainly elements of both, the entire piece has a larger narrative that starts at the door, where you play a marine biologist for hire, sent to search for a fish with healing properties to appease angry alien invaders. Only you can go underwater, find healing fish in VR, answer oceanic trivia, all while experiencing percussive massage, CBD gummies, aromatherapy spritzers, and more!
If that sounds confusing, that’s because it is. Stressful, too; as a relaxing spa experience, Virtual Reality Underwater Spa falls more than a bit short. After being hustled in, you are told you need to stop an angry alien, then spun around in a chair as you search for fish in a virtual landscape you barely understand, all while being pelted with various devices and substances promised to put you at ease, which in fact… does the opposite. But at the same time, the immersive experience isn’t a total failure. Virtual Reality Underwater Spa is fun, as you hunt in VR for unique species under a barrage of distractions, and indulge rapid-fire in all the silly excesses that tempt you from the back pages of Skymall. The trouble there is that it fails to gel; what’s the focus, the hunting game? The trivia questions? The tactile play of being spritzed with essential oils and massaged with a vibrating wand? Why create a “spa experience” for a gamified sci-fi story about an alien invasion searching for aquatic cures? Why are we still rehashing Star Trek IV?
Virtual Reality Underwater Spa has a lot of good ideas, ones that could be beautifully refined in a future incarnation. Just the idea of a set of spa treatments in a gorgeous, otherworldly immersive environment sounds delightful. There’s something in the premise about the aliens searching for healing mirroring the experience of you, a spa patron, that could be expanded upon. But those themes get confused by your role as a “marine biologist”: why am I getting these treatments when I need to work? Instead, maybe the alien could be a character, relaxing and unwinding alongside you — making friends is a lot more relaxing than trying to appease an angry unknown. Besides that, while the sequence of trivia questions raises some interesting prompts about conservation, some are just neat ocean facts your third grade science teacher might tell you. Even if they were all environmentalism-focused, the stress of being quizzed still causes the biggest tonal clash of the entire piece.
For now, Virtual Reality Underwater Spa could make an interesting feature as part of a larger program; as its own program, though, it’s more of an interesting distraction right now than a destination to be sought out.
Virtual Reality Underwater Spa continues in Brooklyn through October 15. Tickets are $20.
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