Fake Breaks is a virtual travel agency which encourages its visitors to ‘take a break’ in a simulated paradise – the dystopic future of tourism. As technology advances will we favour simulated hyper-realities as our beaches, valleys, jungles and holiday towns lay to ruin?

The agency invites users to assist in transporting each other to a paradise destination of their choice by means of virtual reality and sensory stimulation. First commissioned in early 2017 by Central St Martin’s: Lethaby Gallery (London) , Fake Breaks explores your senses’ ability to deceive your mind’s grasp of reality, and the extent to which we can manipulate this to immerse ourselves in simulated environments.

Fake Breaks was created in order to investigate the term ‘immersive’ and to what extent we can attribute the adjective to a fabricated experience. The piece also discusses the notion of post truth and the fluctuating value of ‘real’ experiences in 21st century life.

Virtual reality environments created in collaboration with 3D artist Eamonn Blake.

Jocelyn Anquetil (b.1994, UK) is a visual artist and live production designer. With a background in design for performing arts and a keen interest in the creative and cultural impact of new technologies, her work explores the ever blurring lines between live experiences and digital media.

Jocelyn uses traditional methods of physical creativity and re-appropriates them for creation within mediums of new technology. Her work is inspired by and investigates digital culture and the aesthetics that are born from our growing relationship with technology and the internet.

Following her graduation from Central St Martin’s BA Performance Design and Practice (2016), Jocelyn was commissioned by the university to collaborate with choreographer Ivan Blackstock and 3D modeller Charles Harrop-Griffiths marking her first major virtual reality project. The experimental collaboration reimagined traditional methods of physical dance performance within a narrative digital environment.‘Traplord of the Flyz VR’ was showcased at the Cubitt Sessions (August 2016, Cubitt Square, London) Jocelyn was later commissioned by Boomtown Festival to create a cross-disciplinary immersive theatre/virtual reality experience.

The ‘PORTAL_00’ , a second collaboration with Charles Harrop-Griffiths has since showcased at a number of venues throughout London. Her most recent work was a second commission by Central St Martins to create an interactive piece for their exhibit ‘Altered Realities’ (March 2016). ‘Fake Breaks’ – the mock travel agency, invited participants to ‘take a virtual holiday’ from within a hammock while others were invited to take control of sensory elements such smell, touch and taste using a number of provided materials and objects. The workshop set out to explore the meaning of the term ‘immersive’ through the deprivation and augmenting of the senses.