Many interactive installations on the annual XR Expertise at SXSW supply a mixture of the experimental and the emotional. However in 2025, few supply a wilder trip on these two tracks than Traces: The Grief Processor, an interactive VR set up from Vali Fugulin and Couzin Movies.
Not like many XR Expertise initiatives that lean into spectacle, Traces is quiet and intimate. It’s a multi-user VR expertise the place 4 individuals step into an area formed by those that got here earlier than them.
And whereas Traces is not an alternative choice to remedy, it’s a distinctive, virtually playful strategy to course of your grief — it doesn’t matter what form of grief you occur to be experiencing.
Traces makes this clear proper firstly, with a deeply private alternative. You’re requested to share a photograph that stirs emotions of grief, whether or not that is a beloved one, a misplaced second, or one thing else solely. You additionally enter a brief phrase, one thing you’d inform your self to ease that emotion.
These components develop into a everlasting a part of Traces, layering on the expertise with the echoes of earlier customers. “Throughout the pandemic, as I grappled with profound grief, I discovered myself craving for connection, but not sure categorical my sorrow,” Fugulin says in a press release.
Mashable Gentle Pace
Fugulin says Traces isn’t about mourning current losses; she even cautions towards utilizing photographs of somebody who simply handed. However that didn’t cease attendees from being visibly moved. One teary-eyed person thanked Fugulin and producer Ziad Touma after the session.
And whereas I haven’t confronted a significant loss not too long ago, I nonetheless discovered myself caught up within the expertise. My contribution was a photograph of my cat, as a result of I felt responsible leaving him to attend SXSW.
Others shared snapshots from previous holidays or youthful variations of themselves — grieving not simply folks however locations, reminiscences, and variations of their very own lives that now not exist. And that’s the purpose.
As Fugulin places it, grief isn’t nearly loss of life. It’s about change, about time, in regards to the issues we are able to’t get again. And in Traces, these fragments of loss develop into one thing new — woven collectively in a digital house the place grief isn’t simply private however shared.
The journey of Traces is led by Fugulin and her longtime pal, Quebecois actor and ritualist Stéphane Crête. The pair craft a documentary-style VR expertise that feels each intimate and immersive — a uncommon mixture at SXSW.
With out giving an excessive amount of away, Traces invitations you into one thing private, reflective, and unexpectedly transferring. You gained’t stroll away disillusioned — and also you would possibly simply study one thing about your self within the course of.
