28 September 2016

EVRE

"Every single person I talk to can relate in one way or another," said Tahiti Rae as we spoke about the premise behind her new build on LEA27, EVRE. "Are we everywhere, at all times?" she asks. Through the exploration of this vast sim, which features a ground level and fourteen additional locations ascending into the sky, visitors can explore that very question, and in more than one way. If fifteen distinct environments sound like a lot to cram into one sim, they are — and the results are impressive. (Tah asked that bloggers avoid spoilers, so this post only scratches the surface of what visitors will encounter during their exploration.)

"On EVRE, travel in time, and then out of it," encourages Tah. "The purpose of EVRE is to present new evidence and to encourage the experience of what we don't yet quite understand. We can see 13 billion light years into the past via the Hubble space telescope, but what is it like now? Are the little gray men us, in the future? Is our deja vu a real memory out of order, or a wink from the universe that the timing is right? When our sleeping dreams come true, did we tap into the super string field? What if time is a misconception? What if reincarnations are little errors we're not supposed to discover? What if we travel from dimension to dimension, and always exist? We are capable of having a good or bad feeling and it comes true, seeing strange images awake or asleep that materialize, communicating with others on a level we don't understand, feeling we've known someone forever, constant deja vu, feeling the pain of strangers across the world, having flashes of memories from the far past, and experiencing anomalies in the present we don't understand."

Visitors enter EVRE on the ground level, where a sparse but beautiful landscape of gently undulating hills conceals a dozen or so antique "memory clocks," each of which serves as a transporter to one of the fourteen levels. The clocks are numbered and have names that correspond to their destinations (Monastic, One Room, Pass, Cruisin', Boomerang, Pride, and so on), and each destination depicts a different moment in time ranging from the distant past to the future. Two clocks are prominently visible as one enters the space: one in the sky (which differs from the other clocks, and points to a location that should be visited at the culmination of all other visits), and one with a large welcome sign that explains how the clocks work — this one, #1, goes to the Psi Pavilion and the Events Venue. Start here, where an orientation to EVRE is presented. Throughout the Psi Pavilion (top image), which functions as something of a library, one can read and watch videos about subjects ranging from telepathy to precognitive dreams, from telekinesis to reincarnation. Visitors can also participate by sharing their own experiences.

Each of the levels is an exquisitely created and photogenic space, a small world unto itself, with remarkably independent content, look and feel. At the culmination of your visit (or visits, as your exploration is likely to take more than one trip) a surprising pair of final destinations tie the various levels together with the build's overall theme. (Tahiti provides a notecard so that visitors can keep track of the destinations they've visited, and using this is almost a necessity. To return to the landing point with the memory clocks, simply click on the two runners who are present at each level.) EVRE will host occasional events and facilitate group projects — join the group at the landing point for additional information — and will remain open until December 31.

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