The Enchanted Forest: Satellite Canopies & Digital Understories

2017
Video; research; simulation; VR video
Created at the Nature, Art, and Habitat Residency in Sottochiesa, Italy Exhibited: The Other Art Fair 2021 / FEMMEBIT Twitch Stream “Nature Club” 2020, FEMMEBIT Fest Los Angeles CA, 201 / Spring Break Art Fair, Los Angeles CA, 2020 / The Night Gallery, Chicago IL, 2018


“The International Space Station ✞ will be visible from Sottochiesa, Italy for 4 min. Max Height: 70 degrees, Appears: NW, Disappears: SE.” [Received Tuesday 11:57am, Wednesday 10:57am, Thursday 9:57am, Thursday 11:57am, Friday 10:57am…] -- Text Message from SpotTheStation

From satellite ✞ sensors to virtual reality content, forests are being scanned, replicated, and rendered to resolve our current climate reality and to escape into an entirely different one. The Enchanted Forest documents the movement of a forest monitoring sensor on the International Space Station ✞ and imagines how our networked landscapes, seasons, and internal bodily rhythms might be transformed by these new celestial technologies. Combining a site located in Sottochiesa Italy, interviews with Agronomist Patrizio Musitell, satellite locator applications, and popular VR forest environments, the short film proposes a 4-minute ecosystem that appears and disappears with the passing of the International Space Station ✞, our new artificial moon. Within each 4-minute scanning season (the average consumption time of a song or YouTube video), VR visitors migrate, drawn into the fleeting landscape.