Mikhail Maksimov’s FlyOver is a VR experience that merges meditative gameplay with a deeply existential narrative. By transforming players’ hands into wings, the game invites participants on a tranquil journey through surreal landscapes, including serene swamps and dreamlike vistas where reality and imagination blur. The journey is marked by discovery: abandoned VHS tape recorders, placed in the heart of a swamp, beckon the player to engage. By inserting old VHS tapes into these machines, players unlock cryptic movies that weave a narrative of memory, mortality, and transcendence.
Are they fragments of forgotten lives? Echoes of alternate realities? Or glimpses into a subconscious? At its core, FlyOver is a “game of overcoming death,” exploring the liminal space between life and the afterlife, where transgression becomes key. This sense of transition - what Maksimov describes as meeting oneself in a dream - captures the enigmatic beauty of FlyOver.
Mikhail Maksimov engages with the conceptual interplay between digital media and reality, employing advanced techniques such as simulations and 3D animation to interrogate potential alternative realities. His practice, grounded in the framework of ‘transmedia storytelling,’ traverses multiple platforms, including film, installation art, and mobile applications. Through these media, Maksimov rigorously examines and critiques ideological and philosophical constructs, situating digital interfaces as both a reflective medium and an active agent in shaping the relationship between creator and audience. He posits that if reality can be understood as modeling gaming principles, then digital forms such as animation and interactive artworks possess the capacity to reconfigure reality itself. Maksimov’s academic foundation includes studies at Moscow State Construction University and the Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia. His works have been featured in prestigious exhibitions and festivals, including the Moscow Modern Art Biennale, the Locarno Film Festival, Manifesta 10, the Venice Architecture Biennale, and DA Z Festival in Zurich.
Download the game here for Windows/Android platforms
LINK: Mikhail Maksimov
