23. Wild Avatars: Nature in Virtual Reality - with Marshmallow Laser Feast

Aug 7, 2024

Ersin Han Ersin, director of the artist collective Marshmallow Laser Feast, chats about their groundbreaking virtual reality work focused on nature. They delve into the emotional and sensory impact of immersive art that fosters deep connections with the environment. Combining science and creativity, they highlight projects like 'Observations on Being' that explore biodiversity. The conversation also touches on the concept of 'braincasting' and the idea of experiencing life from diverse ecological perspectives, urging listeners to embrace a more empathetic understanding of nature.

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ANECDOTE

Viewer's Overwhelming Tree Embodiment

Alexa describes removing the headset and seeing her breath visualized entering a tree in real time.
She reports being stunned to tears by how vividly the VR conveyed nature's invisible processes.

INSIGHT

Perspective Shifts Make Ecology Tangible

VR can convey invisible vibrancy of life by changing embodied perspective rather than presenting facts.
Perspective shifts and shapeshifting make complex ecological processes emotionally tangible.

ANECDOTE

From Forest Visit To Species Avatars

Ersin recounts the Abundant Normal festival in a temperate rainforest that inspired In The Eyes Of The Animal.
He describes scanning the forest and remapping LiDAR data to simulate mosquito, dragonfly, frog, and owl perceptions.

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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to breathe yourself into your own body? To flow with the out-breath of trees into your own fractaling lungs, to dance ribbonlike into an ancient ceiba’s vasculature, to stitch an ecosystem together as a mycelium highways sparkling with energy? In this episode we explore the transformational potential of virtual reality through the work of Marshmallow Laser Feast, an artist collective that has emerged as a leading VR creators in the last decade.

They exhibited internationally from London to New York, Melbourne to Seoul, their work included in major exhibitions at institutions including the Barbican Centre, Saatchi Gallery, Sundance Film Festival, and SXSW. 'In The Eyes Of The Animal' was nominated for the Design of the Year by Design Museum Beazley Awards and won the Wired Innovation Award (2016). Most recently, the team at MLF won the Tribeca Film Festival Storyscapes Award for Innovation in Storytelling and Best VR Film at VR Arles Festival for ‘TreeHugger, Wawona’.

Ersin Han Ersin is the director of MLF and describes to us how they use dazzlingly aesthetic real-time VR experiences to explore the invisible perspectives of nature’s lifeworlds – and how they are constantly pushing the bounds of what technology makes possible in expanding our ecological sensitivities. I enquire into:

Who they need to speak to in order to create their masterpieces and translate the umwelts of other species? What other scientists, poets, musicians, make this possible?
What is it that virtual reality can create that no other medium can?
What is the building block of a multisensory story?
What are some of the astounding ways that other beings experience the world that are divergent from the human?
How could global education be redesigned based on kinesthetic educative tools like VR?

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Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock & Ellie Kidd

Photo credit: MLF exhibition at AMCI in Australia (photo from their website)

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