A prototype of a project created for two assessments of my MA in Virtual and Extended Realities. For one assessment, I put together a project grant application, for the other I created a prototype of the idea in OpenBrush.

Short summary of the project from the grant application:

Talking to the Future is a VR experience about the communication of the dangers of nuclear waste to Earth’s future inhabitants. Based on existing suggestions, this experience allows participants to explore future landscapes. It encourages them to ask the question: How do you talk to people 10,000 years in the future?

A longer description of the project's content from the application:

This project will tackle the issue of our responsibility to the people of the future, in this case specifically the question of communicating the importance of leaving nuclear waste repositories undisturbed. It will draw on previously suggested solutions.
We will design three environments based on proposed solutions to evoke different atmospheres. Participants will be able to choose which order they would like to go through the environments in a menu screen. The 3D artist and UI designer will work with OpenBrush and Unity.

1.  Spike field
This environment will be composed of skyscraper-sized spikes jutting out of the ground at various angles. As it is explored, a message can be found in different languages (English, Russian, Arabic, and Mandarin), inscribed onto the spikes, concrete blocks, and rusted signs. Occasionally, a glowing “ray cat” will cross the path, becoming brighter every time. There will be little sound – wind whistling through the spikes, distant thunder, the occasional metallic clang. The aim is to create an isolating and menacing atmosphere.
2.    The Atomic priesthood
In this section, participants will witness a ritual of the “atomic priesthood”. This will take place in a location with a large, black stone circle on the ground. Leaning into the aesthetics of various folklore and major religions, a ritual, focused on the location, will be conducted by a group of mysterious figures. Words from a warning message will be repeated in a hymn-like tune, accompanied by a rhythmic beating of staffs against the ground. The aim is to create the atmosphere of a warding ritual, impressing that this place is meant to be avoided.
3.    Blue Forest
Based on an entry to an artist’s competition by the French National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management (Andra), this section is centred around a forest where the trees change colour if they grow where nuclear waste is buried. This will be the most familiar environment to participants, with the calming sounds of a forest, and native trees. The further they move towards the radiation source, the more intense the colouration of the trees will become. Along the way, participants will encounter woodland animals with similar mutations as the trees. This will create a peaceful, yet unsettling atmosphere.
At the centre of each environment, participants will be prompted to go underground. If they do so, they will be transported to the nuclear waste storage facility – a dim, sterile place – and be told of the place’s purpose through voice-over (subtitles available). They can refuse to go underground and receive the same information while still above ground, with a note that we were successful with our goal. Participants will be able to explore the environments with the use of a VR headset and hand-held remotes. They will be able to move around through point-and-click motions.

Talking to the Future does not aim to offer a definitive solution, but rather to encourage people to engage with this issue by introducing them to it and prompting them to think of the problem of nuclear waste storage in their own environment. Currently, the UK has no chosen location and there is no official plan for long-term communication of the danger, but it has been a discussed issue since the 1970s and will certainly arise again.