With the rise of sexual violence cases, specifically in India, I wanted to look at different mediums of awareness. Using Unity, I built an interactive virtual environment for the users to experience a new realm of activism.

THE CONCEPT

The main character in the scene is a woman wearing a mask with the representation of a head or "nazarbattu". The nazarbattu is a metaphor of the Evil’s Eye mainly as a satirical depiction of an intentional blemish or flaw to prevent perfection. The attempt is to portray the essence of constantly keeping one's guard up as a female in a patriarchal society (depicted with the hands coming out of the buildings). The hands are symbolic representations of the endless restrictions on women in work, school and/or at home and the common prevalence of sexual violence against women and toxic masculinity.
The size of the female character is purposely enlarged, in order to portray empowerment and the essence of a warrior.

​I call this piece "Sigh!" because I was tired of sighing out of helplessness every time I read about an incident on sexual violence.

After some iterations, I decided to replace the head of the character with an actual design of a Nazarbattu, mainly made out of earthen clay in some regions of India.

​Experience the VR environment here; you can interact by using the arrow keys on your keyboard.

​Note: This project will be a part of an online Virtual Reality exhibition from Dec. 7, to Jan. 10, 2021