This VR Allegory of a contemporary Frankenstein looks at how humans are shaping, and being shaped by, new technologies. 

At a time when modern science was just beginning to explore the limits of the human body through electricity and anatomical research, the English novelist Mary Shelley gave birth to Frankenstein — a story that warned of the ethical consequences of unchecked scientific ambition and critiqued the anthropocentric logic of Britain’s Industrial Revolution. 

Two centuries later, Frankenstein’s monsters live on not in the Gothic laboratories, but in our phones, our screens, our networks. They exist as algorithms, platforms, AI systems and data infrastructures controlled by capital. These monstrous forces have become inseparable from our daily existence. Through this VR experience, we invite you to confront a hidden ‘darkness’ that reveals a contradiction of our digital age – where the creative and information systems we use are often driven by commercial and political interests. 

Three monsters – The Lure, The Dictator and The Liar – are seated at a gloomy, candle-lit dinner table. Each represents a different aspect of humanity’s entwinement with today’s technologies– from algorithms manipulating our behaviour; to the undermining of human agency through Artificial Intelligence; to the distorted ‘truths’ and performative narratives running rampant across social media. 

The exhibition has been created and curated by the Develop Collective: 

Tuğçe Küçük 

Tugce is an experimental researcher and artist whose practice centers on constructing narratives by juxtaposing everyday objects through photography, video, and mixed-media installations. Her work explores unexpected connections between materials, images, and texts. Originally from Ankara, she is currently based in London and is pursuing an MA in Contemporary Photography at Central Saint Martins.

Ashima Pargal 

Ashima is an immersive experience designer. A recent graduate of the Royal College of Art, she works on creating immersive spatial experiences using audio-visual tools and innovative application of digital technologies. With a focus on audience connectivity and thematic conceptualisation, she often experiments with bringing together different spatial dynamics and digitally enabled narratives.

Eliana Dyer Fernandes

Eliana Dyer-Fernandes is a photographer, curator and architect-in-the-making from the University of Cambridge. Her work centres on public engagement, accessibility and inclusive design. Through visual media, she combines spatial storytelling with technological advancements, exploring how art and architecture (often engaging with the reuse of materials) can shape social experience through community led practice. 

Lisa Jinxuan Zhang

Lisa is currently a BA Art History student at the University of Warwick. She works on artistic research and practice to explore the intersection of art and technology, focusing on the cybernetic feedback loop within the interactive art, particularly the dynamic relationship between audience and artwork.

Alex Xiaonan Guo

Alex is a curator based between London and Beijing. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Alex’s work navigates the complex and entangled relationship between humans and technology. In 2025, Alex co-founded Project sitnaltA, an experimental curatorial initiative that unfolds through three exhibitions in London. Using fictioning as a curatorial methodology, the project explores sociocultural and philosophical questions that humanity may face amid accelerating technological and ecological transformations.

Disha Gupta

Disha is an art director and a photographer currently pursuing an MA in Design for Art Direction at the University of the Arts London. Her practice explores how objects, bodies, and narratives inhabit digital spaces, with a particular interest in digital intimacies and speculative archiving. Drawing from visual culture, network aesthetics, and internet folklore, her work investigates how storytelling evolves in hybrid and immaterial environments