Simulate/Adapt/Immerse (SAI): An environmental guide for queer bodies in a post-apocalyptic underwater virtual realm

We are interested in the construction of virtual spaces as alternative experiences for ‘queer bodies’ to be outside of imposed structures. Moving away from patriarchal conventional constraints over our bodies and the spaces we occupy, we intend to create emancipatory virtual experiences, by examining notions of being, displacement, belonging, representation and adaptation. Today’s globalized reality and the ubiquity of digital media, allows us, marginalized bodies to be part of collective ideas to construct our own realities. Realities of environmental pollution and war, have only propelled subjects to become their own guides of adaptation and survival.

For this residency, we will work with underwater 360° video footage we recorded in the Caribbean landscape of San Andres, Colombia, which we found to be a paradise slowly being overtaken by touristic contamination of plastic and forgotten objects. A series of five 360° videos will showcase a simulated and mutated post-apocalyptic aquatic site. This will be a net installation project that will include virtual animations along with gifs, sounds and text. The goal is for this project to become a tool guide on how a queer body can adapt in this ‘other’ world and to bring environmental consciousness. The videos will be online for people to explore them by scrolling around and discover new types of species of animals and plants. They will have access to the work as a web experience, an AR project with the use of a smartphone and an immersive experience with the use of a VR headset.