“Desert Rain” by Blast Theory (1999)

Desert Rain is an immersive participatory performance created by Blast Theory in collaboration with Nottingham University’s Mixed Reality Lab. It deals with the mediation of the first Gulf War through technology and images. Participants (six at a time) play their way through a game structure that virtually transports them into different war-related environments. The participants additionally move through physical space–a series of installations within container boxes. After traveling virtually through a field of numbers representing Iraqi casualties of war, players finally arrive at a simulation of a hotel room where they see and hear testimony from individuals whose lives have been shaped by the war.