Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror has been delivering dystopic bangers season after season since 2011, giving us glimpses into dark near futures that distressingly seem to keep coming true.
The show has become the first real heir of Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone with an anthology format that allow Brooker and his writer’s imaginations to run wild while aiming for the tightest storytelling possible. Which has led to some real television classics.
Now the Black Mirror franchise has turned its eye on the immersive experience format, with a VR powered production which debuted at Cannes Film Festival and is currently in residency at The Shed in NYC through September.
We checked in with David Bardos, director of The Black Mirror Experience, about the experience as it settles into its Manhattan run.
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NO PROSCENIUM: Tell us a little bit about your experience! What’s it about? What makes it immersive?
David Bardos: The experience is a first-of-its-kind immersive episode of Black Mirror. It puts the participant at the center of the story, making them the hero and allowing them to influence the narrative through choices and interactions. It is a radical new approach because participants are no longer passive visitors contemplating the beauty of immersive art. We have added a new dimension to immersive entertainment, which we call “generative experiences.”
NP: What was the inspiration for your upcoming experience?
DB: As Black Mirror always builds its stories around technologies that could exist in the not-too-distant future, we spent a lot of time absorbing the wisdom of contemporary philosophers on the risks and challenges related to technology and AI. The core idea we chose explores how intimacy, when combined with AI, could become the next and greatest tool of mass destruction: manipulation on a global scale, executed within personal and intimate places and moments.
NP: What do you think fans of immersive will find most interesting about this latest experience?
DB: The level of personalization is certainly unique in The Black Mirror Experience. It is not every day that you find yourself face to face with yourself in a virtual environment, right?
NP: Once you started designing and testing what did you discover about this experience that was unexpected?
DB: We wanted to create an experience with the intellectual and narrative depth of the IP, with a touch of typical Black Mirror humor. Well, the experience turned out to provide a lot of fun moments for many people, with big laughter.
NP: What can fans who are coming to this, or thinking about coming to this, do to get into the mood of the experience?
DB: I would invite fans to reflect on their life goals: what are the achievements they desire and would love to get from life? And at what cost?
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