The literary classic by Franz Kafka "The Metamorphosis" becomes a virtual experience

Literature by Franz Kafka can be read or rediscovered with virtual reality glasses. In "The Metamorphosis" you can feel first-hand what it's like to be stuck in an insect's body.

The number of book buyers is falling and falling. It is difficult to lure young people in particular away from the display and inspire them with literary fantasy worlds. Great literature has therefore long since moved - out of the comfort zone between two book covers and into the new media: audio books, e-books, social media channels.

The American Mika Johnson is now setting completely new standards. The director and Kafka fan teaches at the Prague Film School and has created a virtual trip into Kafka's world from a piece of world literature. "VRwandlung" is the name of Johnson's art project. The commissioned work for the Goethe-Institut in Prague is currently on a world tour.

In order to bring Kafka to life, Czech model makers made Gregor Samsa's claustrophobically small room by hand. Advised by the Kafka Society and with touching attention to detail: On the shelves are a Goethe anthology as well as letters by van Gogh and Grimm's fairy tales. The wallpaper patterns are painted true to the original. The installation was photographed in high resolution and transferred into a three-dimensional, walk-through digital backdrop. "I wanted to avoid the walls, the wood and the objects looking like they were in a computer game," says Johnson. Mika Johnson first had the room for VRwandlung made by model makers in Prague. Then it was scanned and animated.

Infrared camera scans the body

Equipped with virtual reality glasses and sensors on hands and feet, the visitor then transforms himself into Gregor Samsa in this setting: for this purpose, the body is scanned, measured by infrared cameras and the position in virtual space is continuously calculated. At the beginning of the trip, the visitor sits on a simple metal bed, surrounded by sombre violin and cello sounds, and hears cracking, crunching noises that simulate threatening remodelling processes in his body.

The heartbeat accelerates from its usual rhythm to the beat of an insect's heart. When the visitor lowers his head, he sees a grey insect carapace. If he moves his hands, six arms move. Knocking and shouting can be heard behind the two doors. When the visitor stands up, he can wander through the small room, study the books on the shelf, the photos on the wall. At some point, the view in the mirror follows: a shock, especially if one does not know the narrative.

Trapped in the insect body

"A young Japanese woman screamed when she saw herself," says Mika Johnson. A student danced pensively in front of the mirror, enjoying the unusual, ponderous movements of his insect body, the wave of antennae. Some visitors even thought they could feel the antennae on their heads. One little boy, after meeting Kafka in virtual reality, was eager to read the whole story.

The trip is over after four minutes at the latest. Those who have found the key in a drawer of the secretary can shorten the whole thing and use it to open a door. The finale. A sky-bright white light dazzles the viewer transformed into Gregor Samsa. A powerful, sustained melody, played on an organ, resounds - Samsa's sombre musical theme.

If Mika Johnson had his way, the "Metamorphosis" would be followed by other Kafka material: a scene from the "Trial", also only a few minutes long, followed by the "Penal Colony". Johnson is virtually obsessed with the author. He has just cast ten Kafka lookalikes in Prague for a planned film about a fictitious son of Kafka.

Source: Star / Youtube