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# Daniel Ernst’s Great Orator went flat for gamescom
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/daniel-ernsts-great-orator-went-flat-for-gamescom/
- Published: 2026-09-22T18:53:35.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T18:53:34.000Z
- Description: The Hague artist showed a non-VR cut of a diorama about a dead TV medium on A MAZE’s stand
- Author: Kill Screen Staff
- Tags: News, vr, diorama, gamescom, A MAZE, ai, Art, steam

gamescom is where the games industry does its *loudest* business, and in the middle of it, on [A MAZE.’s Digital PlayGround stand](https://gamescom.a-maze.net/?ref=killscreen.com), sat a diorama about a dead TV medium who became an AI. The Hague artist [Daniel Ernst](https://www.theshoeboxdiorama.com/?ref=killscreen.com) spent the fair showing the flat, non-VR cut of *The Great Orator*—and pitched [the outing](https://www.instagram.com/p/Dcn9vsFDSKt/?ref=killscreen.com) as exactly what it looks like: “fellow subversive artists in the heart of the gaming industry,” with time set aside to see the con “from a consumer perspective.”

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/0:30 

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The first 30 seconds of **The Great Orator*’s teaser, muted; [the full version with sound is on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/431380/?ref=killscreen.com).

Ernst has been building VR dioramas for over a decade under the Shoebox Diorama banner—*Die Fernweh Oper* won the [Golden Calf for Best Interactive](https://www.filmfestival.nl/nieuws/jury-report-golden-calf-for-best-interactive-2019?ref=killscreen.com) at the Netherlands Film Festival in 2019—and *The Great Orator*, which premiered in competition at Venice Immersive last year, is the most ambitious of them. 

The premise is very [Amee Semple McPherson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aimee%5FSemple%5FMcPherson?ref=killscreen.com): a TV medium who died at the height of fame lives on as an AI, merged with followers into a shared consciousness. Point at any object, however small, and the Orator produces a story about it. Every oration begins as a prewritten text by poet Thomas Möhlmann and is expanded in real time, folding in live news from your world. Ernst’s [artist statement](https://voicesofvr.com/1771-environmental-storytelling-in-the-great-orator-vr-diorama-with-generative-ai-experiments/?ref=killscreen.com) is blunt about the target: “It feels as though reality is what you make of it, and feelings outweigh facts.”

Killscreen has been arguing that games’ diorama instinct is undervalued [since at least 2016](https://www.killscreen.com/29-wants-talk-otherwordliness-place/). Next stop is home turf: the [Netherlands Film Festival](https://www.filmfestival.nl/?ref=killscreen.com) in Utrecht, tomorrow through October 2.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/09/great-orator-ss2.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/09/great-orator-ss3.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/09/great-orator-ss4.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/09/great-orator-ss5.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/09/great-orator-ss6.jpg)

Story spaces from **The Great Orator*. Images: The Shoebox Diorama.

Work like this falls between every desk—too art for the games press, too game for the art press. That gap is Killscreen’s entire beat, and the newsletter that covers it is free.

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