Love Simulation EVE: Water Spirits

Dive into the virtual world and wake up your inner Water Spirit! Inside the magic circle of the nocturnal sea, two beings emerge from the waves. Share a moment of connection with another Water Spirit and release your metahuman powers!
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Love Simulation EVE: Water Spirits is a 5-minute two-player virtual reality experience that grants the players telekinetic powers over sea waves. Transformed as Water Spirit avatars, the two players are taken to the otherworldly nocturnal ocean. The VR encounter is narrated and guided with the voice-over of an artificial intelligence character "GrandMother".

The cinematic structure is divided into three acts:
I) Finding Telekinetic Powers: the Water Spirits gain the ability to control the droplets of the ocean with their hand movements.
II) Creating Love Algorithms: the Water Spirits find new ways of communication and connection as they dance with the waves. The moments of synchrony are rewarded with elevated music and beautiful Love Algorithms.
III) Drowning in the Sea of the Future: Water spirits return to their ocean home and the final Love Algorithm emerges between their hearts.

Water Spirits is a dyadic VR experience about the powerful algorithms emerging from an encounter between two experiencers. Their live playful interactions allow them to create beautiful moments of micro-loving synergy in a way only possible with VR. The work makes invincible connections between people visible, hearable and tangible.

Water Spirits is a stand-alone VR experience produced under the full-evening long cinematic VR performance Love Simulation EVE (2023): https://filmfreeway.com/lovesimulationeve

  • Eero Tiainen
    Director
  • Iikkamatti Hauru
    VR Designer
  • Juuso-Matias Maijanen
    Intimacy Director
  • Iikkamatti Hauru
    Logo Design
  • Reishabh Kailey
    Logo Design
  • Anja Bargum
    Narrator
  • Liya Pirkuliyeva
    3D Modeler
  • Inna Huttunen
    Producer
  • Eero Tiainen
    Writer
  • Rongzhi Liu
    Thanks
  • Michael Jelbart
    Thanks
  • Mikko Honkanen
    Programmer
  • Maciej Tomaszewski
    Programmer
  • Matias Harju
    Sound Designer
  • Iikkamatti Hauru
    Sound Designer
  • Project Type:
    Virtual Reality, Installation, Game
  • Genres:
    Sci-fi, Romance, one-on-one
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    March 1, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    75,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Finland
  • Language:
    Finnish
  • Student Project:
    No
  • International Theatre of Finland (Non-finalized version)
    Espoo
    Finland
    May 22, 2022
    Demo screening
  • EMMA - Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Exhibition: "Searching for the Present" (Non-finalized version)
    Espoo
    Finland
    August 25, 2022
    Non-finalized version
Distribution Information
  • Avatar's Journey Tracel Agency
    Distributor
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Eero Tiainen

Eero Tiainen (born in 1985) is a Finnish XR experience creator whose practice combines metaphysical world-building and transpersonal psychology with intimate play. His latest productions are the cinematic VR experience Love Simulation EVE and the dyadic VR installation Water Spirits. Earlier works include fictional and documentary VR films, immersive performances and new media art installations. Tiainen supports the XR arts at the Finnish Virtual Reality Association FIVR and as a director of the XR Art Festival Embrace.

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Director Statement

Water Spirits is about making the connection between people visible, hearable and tangible. My goal was to create virtual intimacy that transcends the boundaries of everyday human interactions. The game design was inspired by Barbara L. Fredrickson’s studies of “positivity resonance” and "micro-moment of love" and Katariina Numminen's "play dramaturgy". Likewise, my dreadful experiences of swimming in a sea full of plastic have influenced the futuristic world-building and the message of the piece.

Water Spirits invites the two players to step inside the shared magic circle in otherworldly virtuality. The players are given an anonymous avatar body which frees them from the subconscious biases governing our everyday encounters. Transformed into the spirits of water, it is easier for the players to move to the level of non-verbal communication. The moments of embodied alignment and mirroring movements reward the players with the beauty of love algorithm and musical elements.

The moments of synergy and mutual recognition, or “micro-loving encounters” as we call them, can occur between friends and strangers alike. There is nothing more rewarding for me than witnessing the players of Water Spirits having an intimate shared experience that animates the joys of co-creation.