Reviewed by: Collage Adelaide
Review by Milly Farmer | 22 February 2022

Say you’re walking to the Garden of Unearthly Delights from the train station and you want to kill half an hour before your Fringe show, why not make a pit stop at the lawns of the South Australian Museum for a 10 minute swing session?

Electric Dreams presents a fun, light-hearted spot of immersion with Volo: Dreams of Flight. Mount a swing and don a headset, and explore Leonardo Da Vinci’s inventions adapted into virtual reality. There are four options to choose from: the Glider, the Thopter, the Hopter and the Chute. I opted for the Hopter—seemed the least swoopy.

The notion of playing on a swing as an adult-sized human is novelty enough, but the VR element really elevates the experience as you feel the sensation of your body movements propelling your aircraft. The simulation takes you higher over a landscape as you swing into low poly multicolour whorls. An extra layer of immersion would not have gone amiss by adding a stronger audio element, perhaps with headphones blocking out ambient noise and distraction.

Volo: Dreams of Flight is a little moment of escapism on your commute to work, your lunch break, or for a well-deserved study break. If you’re not too prone to motion sickness, and just want to whet your Fringe appetite without committing to an hour-long performance, this is the show for you!