Nox

Synopsis

Nox is an autobiographical immersive experience that explores trauma, dissociation, and the fragile boundary between existence and disappearance. Drawing from the director’s lived experience of complex PTSD, the work transforms psychological states such as identity fragmentation, depersonalization, and Alice in Wonderland Syndrome into spatial narrative and embodied interaction. Guided by a quiet voice, participants move through a dreamlike world composed of memories, drawings, sounds, and fragments of consciousness shaped by lived trauma. Hands distort, space collapses, perception shifts, and the participant’s own body becomes part of a landscape where reality is unstable and the self begins to dissolve. Through a series of hand-based embodied interactions that evoke cross-modal tactile sensations, VR/MR transitions, and intimate first-person storytelling, Nox invites participants not simply to observe trauma from the outside, but to enter the unstable space trauma creates. The work traces a quiet movement toward beauty, connection, and the will to keep living.

Statement

Do you remember a moment when someone’s words left a wound that never truly disappeared? People often say that time heals emotional pain, allowing us to move forward by forgetting painful memories. But some experiences do not fade. They remain quietly embedded within us, returning with unexpected clarity through the smallest trigger. Nox emerged from my own experience of living under prolonged psychological distress. Through social anxiety, hallucinations, and dissociation, I came to inhabit worlds that felt both painfully real and profoundly isolated. This work reflects not only the world I once experienced, but also the world I longed to find—a place where fear, memory, and hope could coexist. I hope the experience offers a quiet space for those who carry invisible wounds, reminding them that even in darkness, the possibility of beauty and connection remains.

Videos

• ▶Nox – Immersive Film by Rio NakadaPresentation · ナカダリオ | Rio Nakada

Credits

Director

Rio Nakada

Production

Katsutoshi Machiba, Yayoi Nakada

Running Time

20'

Language

Japanese, English

Country

Japan

Music

brightwaltz

Sound

Rio Nakada, Yuichiro Nakanishi

A project entirely conceived and realised by

Rio Nakada

Developers

Yo Sasaki, Ken Sonobe

Technical team

Yo Sasaki, VoxelKei, Yayoi Nakada