---
title: "This Underwater VR Tricks You Into Thinking You’re Flying"
description: "This year's Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah allowed festival goers to experience something wild: virtual reality (VR) underwater."
date: "2020-02-03"
modified: "2020-02-03"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/underwater-vr-flying"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
  - "Virtual Reality"
tags:
  - "the digest"
  - "virtual reality"
  - "vr"
---

# This Underwater VR Tricks You Into Thinking You’re Flying

![This year's Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah allowed festival goers to experience something wild: virtual reality (VR) underwater.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/underwater-vr-flying.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Pyaré\</em\>*

## Moon Trip

This year's Sundance Film Festival in Utah allowed festival goers to experience something wild: virtual reality, but underwater.

The ["Spaced Out" experience](<https://www.sundance.org/projects/spaced-out>) dreamed up by multidisciplinary artist Pierre "Pyaré" Friquet and collaborators allows participants to be virtually transported to the Moon through a combination of abstract imagery and archival footage from the Apollo 11 mission.

## Float On

By floating underwater, the experience is designed to fool you into thinking you're drifting through outer space.

"It was the closest I've felt to floating in another world," *CNET* senior reporter Joan Solsman wrote in [her review](<https://www.cnet.com/news/with-underwater-vr-you-wont-ever-want-to-come-out-of-the-pool-spaced-out-sundance/>). "During several portions of my demo, I genuinely forgot I was floating in a pool," journalist Kyle Melnick [wrote for *VRScout*](<https://vrscout.com/news/sundance-spaced-out-aquatic-vr/>).

## Underwater VR

A specially designed "Divr" VR headset by manufacturer Ballast VR features a built-in snorkel allowing the wearer to breathe underwater. Sound is sent out through speakers attached to the headset rather than piping it through headphones.

Ballast VR has already been offering its water-oriented VR services to water parks around the country, including a [VR slide experience](<https://ballastvr.com/vrslide>). A deep dive simulation and jet-assisted underwater ride are in the works as well.

**READ MORE:** [Unlike sex, VR is crazy better when you do it underwater](<https://www.cnet.com/news/with-underwater-vr-you-wont-ever-want-to-come-out-of-the-pool-spaced-out-sundance/>) \[*CNET*\]

**More on VR:** *[Panasonic’s VR Glasses Are Unlike Any You’ve Seen Before](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/panasonic-vr-glasses>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)