Chang Liu (LUNA)

Bystander

Interactive Film Installation/2019

“Bystander” is an art project that discusses the difficulties often faced by left-behind children in China, including domestic violence and the lack of emotional attachment between parents and children. I adopted the research method of Autoethnography and used my personal experience to create four artworks. The first work in the Bystander series was an interactive film installation I made in 2019. Long-term domestic violence caused me to suffer from childhood PTSD, depersonalization disorder(DP), and borderline personality disorder. This interactive movie simulates the mental abnormalities I often experience, such as emotional numbness, hypervigilance, and intrusive memories. In this interactive film, players explore my inner world by controlling a game character from a third-person perspective, which represents a typical DP symptom. People with DP sometimes experience an out-of-body experience, becoming a “bystander” standing next to their body and observing themselves. This interactive film was subsequently developed into a VR interactive film. The audience can be more immersed in experiencing the mental abnormalities of people who undergone domestic violence, and trigger a deeper understanding and reflection on social problems of left-behind children and domestic violence. In addition, this art project contains an interactive AR piece and a collage film. To know more about the VR, AR and collage film please visit this project page：https://lunaliu.art/2023/12/10/bystander-mr/