Background

During 2020, the rapid spread of coronavirus around the globe caused many countries to tighten their borders to international travellers. Western Australia had very low rates of Covid-19 and no community transmission. Visitors entering WA from interstate or overseas were required to stay at hotels to wait out their 14 day mandatory quarantine. Despite the luxurious affordances and knowledge that they were protecting local communities, many people found their stay difficult being isolated to a single room, away from family and friends.

The pandemic evoked much sympathy for individuals within enforced quarantine as people around the world experience similar conditions while in lockdown within countries with very high rates of community transmission.

By presenting two versions of the same room, Isolation compares mandatory quarantine with another type of enforced confinement - refugees seeking asylum who are forced to remain in detainment centers. These locations couldn't be more different to 5-star hotels and some detainees have spent over 10 years living in these conditions away from family.

And yet, do they attract as much sympathy?

Research

I was inspired to create this AR experience by an article in the Guardian. Written by Mardin Arvin, a Kurdish Iranian writer and translator, he compared the difficult Covid-19 quarantine conditions faced by many Australians with his own experience in immigration detention. Arvin had been imprisoned by the Australian government since 2013.

“I want to ask something of those people appearing on that small rectangle TV set and talking about how they are ailed by quarantine: “Until now have you ever been in a situation where you were confined to a hotel room for almost a year? A situation where you could only go for a walk in your room or a corridor? It is ridiculous! Perhaps they have never thought to themselves that even while they are quarantined their freedoms are what some person is dreaming of – someone like me. Someone like me cannot go out from this place I am confined in.”

Other news articles have quoted hotel visitors as describing their experience of spending 14 days in 4 or 5-star hotels as “traumatic”, “dehumanising” and as if “we were dropped in a hole and forgotten”.

One security guard recounted his own difficulty in not being able to assist people more. “I was like oh my God, these people aren't prisoners… They aren't detainees from another country. They aren't here illegally.”

I realised that the current COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportunity to elicit sympathy for a forgotten group in Australian society and to shed light on their circumstances. Specifically, by using narrative design elements in a 3D augmented reality environment.

Narrative Design Features

I wanted to directly juxtapose these two experiences and decided the best way to showcase this was to present a single room with two drastically different interiors.

Audience agency through selection mechanic

I designed the experience to invite the viewer to make a choice about how they enter the country: via plane or boat. The only suggestion provided is that the information provided will assist in finding appropriate accommodation. Selecting “plane” places the viewer within a 5-star hotel room while “boat” places the viewer within a detention cell. The size of both rooms are identical. The differences are in the materials that cover the walls and floor, the selection of furniture and certain objects.

Historically more asylum seekers arrive in Australia by air than by boat (see image below.) This fact is largely unknown to the public due to the issue of boat arrivals being highly politicized by government and the media. Boat arrivals are more likely to be recognised as refugees than those who have arrived by air.

Contrast between living environments

The hotel features typical five star amenities including high-end furniture, luxurious bed linen, fresh fruit bowl, and large flat screen TV. In comparison the stylised detainee room is prison-like with sparse furniture, canned food and an exposed toilet.

3D objects with hidden meanings

The detainee cell features a travel poster which references the “Pacific Solution” a policy of the Australian Government from 2001-2007 of transporting asylum seekers to detention centres on island nations in the Pacific Ocean rather than allowing them to land on the Australian mainland. In the same location from the alternate perspective of the hotel room, a TV displays a screenshot from The Block, an Australian game-show reality TV series focused on renovation. Many Australians used the COVID-19 lockdowns as an opportunity to undertake home improvements within their own homes.

Both rooms feature a counter beside the door indicating how many days remain before their isolation is completed. The hotel’s counter displays “14 days” while the detainee cell displays “4179”. This number is a reference to a Sri Lankan refugee known only as “A” or “Alex” who was detained for over 11 years.

Both rooms have a sign on the main door. The hotel features a standard “Do not disturb” sign while the detainee cell’s sign displays “Do not be disturbed”. Many hotel quarantine visitors expressed mental health challenges from not being allowed outside of their room, windows that could not be opened, claustrophobia or triggering existing PTSD issues - during a stay of no more than 14 days. While it has been widely documented that refugees and asylum seekers are at a high risk of mental health problems including suicidal behaviour and psychiatric illness. This is in part due the trauma and experiences that have forced them to flee their countries as well as the conditions they endure while in detainment.