SYNOPSIS

Veiled Reality is an immersive, interactive first-person adventure in VR, speculating on a future where emerging technologies, feminism and religion collide in the genesis of wearable "shroud computing" and "smart veils" - essentially, a design fiction on the future of hijabs and niqabs.

The story follows Qainaat Latif, founder of BLVR Labs and the charismatic Inventor of these living, semi-sentient garments as she is interviewed by the Player – a journalist profiling the inventor’s entrepreneurial and technological achievements.

The advanced material of BLVR's Veil is apparently imbued with the aggregated and digitised feminine intuitions of millions of women, expressed as an artificial intelligence; provides anti-patriarchal capabilities such as deflection of the male gaze; can utilise hormonal fields to mediate interactions and transform modesty into immodest personal superpowers.

The Inventor guides the Player through a series of demonstrations and trials - each a unique veiled reality. These conversations not only showcase the capabilities of the technology, but also begin to surface the Inventor’s mysterious motivations as it becomes clear the inventor is not only showing her creation, but also experimenting on the Player, as a number of problems begin to emerge.

BACKGROUND

The hijab and various forms of veil have become a flashpoint for debate on religious freedom; integration and assimilation; gender equality; secularism and fear of "the other", simultaneously as a symbol of both emancipation and oppression, as well as a vehicle for prejudices of all sides.

Veiled Reality synthesises real-world developments in technology - such as advanced materials, synthetic biology, artificial intelligence – with speculative fictions and design fictions, to explore this debate, with alternate perspectives that may provoke new perspectives.

• Can new forms of veil – accommodating multiple biological, cultural and social identities – lead to a kind of wearable apparel for code-switching and a more fluid understanding of the different facets of gender and veils.

• Could a smart veil reveal oppression to the liberated and liberation to the oppressed.. VR promises us we can experience the empathy of others; can the experience of multiple "veiled realities" allow empathy and reveal the perspective of the other.

• The veil is fundamentally gendered, but would a technologically advanced veil – that mediates, augments or diminishes the reality of its wearer – concentrating power in the wearer or the creator of the technology. Where does power reside amongst gender, religion and technology?

WORLDBUILDING

What are the fundamental capabilities of BLVR’s Veil and the architecture of fictional technologies upon which it is based: the Veil itself and the supporting technologies which enable its features.

SETTING: TIME & PLACE

We’re thinking about the near future as a time - in the 2030s as AI becomes a commonplace substrate in society and economic convulsions have resulted in a society in decline, with cities now shrinking as opportunities recede.

We find our Inventor, Qainaat working alone in abandoned warehouses and offices and the never-revived former mills of her hometown of Bradford, a former city of culture which never got its uplift, but did give rise to an experimental freewheeling culture of fringe innovation and enterprise.

A MAGAZINE FROM THE FUTURE

Ultimately, the Player is uncovering a story about Qainaat’s work, profiling the technologies, the inventor and the social and cultural implications of BLVR’s Veil. 

An artefact from the future, such as a magazine can be a useful way of getting a handle on such futures and draw together the fullness and complexity of a fictional world.

As the player progresses, more elements of the magazine article are unlocked, until a full story is visible as an artefact of the player’s experience. If we’re clever, we can adjust the output based on what the Player encounters.