Yifei Chai

If you could be anyone for one day, who would you be?

Where would you be?

What would you do?

The Pretender Project allows you to step into the body of another person.

It is inspired by the Proteus Effect, a psychological phenomenon where the behaviour of an individual operating under a digital persona in virtual reality experiences such as games, adapts to conform to that persona and continues to exhibit behaviour even after leaving the virtual environment. Could this effect also take place in real-life environments with people becoming avatars for others?

The Pretender Project utilises a series of readily available technologies and algorithms to offer a glimpse into this future. A realistic virtual environment is created, by employing microphones and headphones for sound; dual wide-angle cameras and the virtual reality Oculus Rift for transferred vision; and the motion sensing Kinect and electric muscle stimulation for synchronised motion.

In the first step on this journey, the Pretender Project explores what it means to control and be controlled. As individuals step into the body of another person, they experience first hand, real social interactions, and have the opportunity to assume the physical behaviours (and in the long term even personalities) of someone else without physical restrictions. The Pretender Project is a first, one of a kind, real-life identity exploration tool. The project also opens up a world of opportunity for potential applications in medicine particularly psychology and neuroscience, by offering a unique perspective into social interaction, validation and empathy.