Unreal Estate (The Royal Academy is Yours)

Synopsis

Unreal Estate (The Royal Academy is Yours) uses video game software to imagine a future in which the Royal Academy of Arts in London has been sold to a Chinese billionaire as a luxury private mansion. A first-person perspective tour through their new abode is accompanied by a voiceover – translated from the high-society Tatler magazine into Mandarin – about how to hire and fire an 'army of household staff'. Drawing from the language of high-definition property marketing videos, the project presents a critical look at the capital's current housing crisis. The Royal Academy is itself on a rental contract from the government, and this fact shows the precarious status of even the nation's oldest and most revered art establishment. This is an uncannily familiar virtual world where a major cultural institution has been appropriated into commercial real estate. The work forms Chapter 9 of Lawrence Lek’s Bonus Levels project, a series of utopian/dystopian virtual worlds based on real places.

Main Cast

Joni Zhu

Voiceover

Age : N/A | Popularity : 0%

Crew

Department	Role	Name
Directing	Director	Lawrence Lek
Crew	Translator	Joni Zhu
Sound	Original Music Composer	Oliver Coates
Writing	Writer	Lawrence Lek
Editing	Editor	Lawrence Lek
Visual Effects	CG Artist	Lawrence Lek
Department	Role	Name

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