As leading decision-makers do their best to shrink reality to the size of a screen, what becomes of the tangible world neglected in favour of the digital? Our need for connection and community has never been more keenly felt than it is now, with the many options we’re given for surrogate contact with one another. 

Hibernation is a visual story imagining a near future where tech-encouraged isolation has become even more prevalent, and the climate crisis has necessitated an enforced period of hibernation for all people to curb carbon emissions and address economic collapse. In a time like this, sleep is an escape, but when most of the world spends more time dreaming than awake, which state of consciousness has more claim on reality? Can dreams change the world? Can dreams become the world?

Written from the experience of living alone during COVID, and informed by years of hallucinatory insomnia and visual meditation practices, Hibernation brings together Jacob Riley’s storytelling and music with Katie Pinch’s illustration, animation and design to create an immersive and interactive narrative inviting players to make choices, big and small, and collaborate in the telling of a surreal, comic and tragic tale. 

Hibernation is created by Katie and Jake, who are members of FACT's Front of House team. The version on display is an extensive demo from a work in progress.