This speculative virtual experience challenges the way we think about trees, by showing the effect of deforestation through a community of trees.
Based on the scientific fact that trees have family-like communities, sharing nutrients and knowledge and sending out stress signals when communication is no longer possible.
The experience takes the viewer through the story of an intact community of trees that get ripped apart by deforestation, leaving the audience feeling sorry and connected to the lonely survivor, no longer able to connect.
The immersive VR storytelling aims to invite the audience to feel with a species that is not yet considered to have feelings and interactions on a complex level.
The aim of this project was to create a way for humans to connect and feel with trees to become more aware of their social behavior and connection with each other. During my interviews and conversations, we talked about the speculative method of humanizing nature to achieve a change of perspective. However, This term sounded wrong. Why do humans only accept what is human? Should we humanise nature to be able to feel with plants or should we start to naturalise humans instead?
