Xinyu Shao

Plastic Traps in the Anthropocene Era: REBIRTH (2080) is a speculative VR narrative that explores how environmental fear is commodified. Set in the year 2080, the experience places users in a future archaeological lab investigating the ruins of “Rebirth,” a healthcare giant that thrived by exploiting public panic over microplastic pollution. The project critiques how consumer markets transform ecological crises into economic opportunity.  

The VR & MR journey unfolds across five emotional scenarios; each designed to evoke and break the emotional state of the “consumerist placebo effect”. Ranging from fake newsrooms to luxury wellness clinics—participants witness the emotional arc of consumer manipulation: fear, desire, relief, and eventual disillusionment. As they scan fake health reports, purchase symbolic safety products, and uncover the artificial creation of panic, they are forced to reflect on how capitalism sells self-comfort, not certainty.  

Blending speculative fiction, environmental science, and behavioral economics, this project questions the ethics of health-driven consumption. Ultimately, participants are challenged to re-examine whether their conscious purchases genuinely protect their health—or merely serve as comforting acts of self-deception within an exploitative market system.   

Collaborators：

Shuxin Liu, Psychological Sociology Theory Guidancer

Haixu Wang, 3D Animation Tec-Director

Xiangqi Wen, VR Tec-Director

YUHUAN JIN, MR Tec-Director

LIANGYU QIN, Visual Director