The Reverie Rooms
Smitee Oberoi
At 12, I wanted to fit in so badly that I grew up ridiculously fast, scoring my skin to render out the forsaken youth. At 17, I was locked inside my mind, taking eternal residence in my room, trapped under blankets and lost hope. At 21, I’m stepping out into the world, making up for the childhood I was once so eager to get rid of and embracing independence.
Each era of my life was wildly different from the last; with such complexity, it became increasingly difficult to fathom the intricacies of my mind. I needed to explore it visually, and that’s where the idea of The Reverie Rooms originated.
The Reverie Rooms is a rendition of my mindscape in an explorable, 360° space. To promote the exploration of my mind while allowing its complexities to shine, the rooms play on carnival tropes—presenting the mindscape as a full-fledged, fantastical escapade, translating the ups and downs and functional anomalies of carnivals into a masquerade of metamorphosis. It guides you through the experience, each element representing a different era of my mind: balloons representing the bubble of innocence, stalls offering ideas and whims, a love tester measuring mental health recovery, and more!
While The Reverie Rooms is based on my life, it strives to promote acceptance and understanding of the evolution of anyone’s identity—be it through mental anguish or true happiness. It reimagines the correlation between mental and physical space by digitally morphing 3D space to depict the 5D reveries of the conscious mind.