One of our themes for the now-postponed i-Docs conference back in March this year was ‘climate and ecological emergency’, and we had a number of excellent presentations lined up on this topic. To offer an alternate outlet for some of these presentations, we first hosted two climate conversations on Immerse – the first between Lizzie Warren and Michaela French which you can read here, and the second (to be published soon) between Bronwin Patrickson and Tom White. Now, we have invited three more i-Docs speakers for this online panel discussion about i-docs practice and climate crisis, each with an immersive media project to share – Elizabeth Miller, Lena Dobrowolska and Mitch Turnbull.
Elizabeth Miller, Professor of Communication Studies at Concordia University, will present her project Swampscapes: a VR and multi-platform exploration of Florida’s most endangered ecosystem, the Everglades. It aims to reconnect viewers to the beauty of swamps and the vital role they play in filtering water, fostering life, and buffering storms. Through passionate local guides, immersive landscapes, and an interactive Swamp Symphony, the documentary project leads users into the depths of Florida’s swamps and to the people who care about them.
Still image from Imperfect Meshes: Stories from the Hurricane
Artist Lena Dobrowolska will share her project Imperfect Meshes: Stories from the Hurricane, in which she explores the aftermath of Hurricane Michael – a climate intensified category 5 hurricane that made landfall on the Florida panhandle in October 2018. Through a combination of photogrammetry models, field recordings, oral testimonies and a hurricane simulation placed within a VR environment, Imperfect Meshes narrates complex, invisible and long-lasting climate trauma of the hurricane.
EarthSongs
Documentary filmmaker Mitch Turnbull will present her mixed reality experience EarthSongs. Delivered via the Magic Leap One headset, EarthSongs presents an immersive exploration of natural, wild soundscapes utilising spatial computing technology, object based audio and abstract 3D interactive digital imagery. EarthSongs offers an alternative route to understand and connect with nature by deconstructing wild soundscapes and delivering a playful and artistic immersive experience. It utilises the affordances of interactive mixed reality technology to deliver a personal and intimate encounter that taps into an intuitive link with the natural world.
Professor Liz Miller
Elizabeth (Liz) Miller is a documentary maker and professor who uses collaboration and interactivity as a way to connect personal stories to larger social concerns. Her films and interactive multi-platform projects on timely issues such as water privatization, refugee rights, gender issues and environmental justice have won awards and influenced decision makers. Her work has been broadcast on international television, streamed on Netflix and featured in galleries, climate conferences and at festivals including Hot Docs and SXSX.edu. Liz is a Full Professor in Communications Studies at Concordia University in Montreal and her book “Going Public: The Art of Participatory Practice (2017) has been integrated into educational curricula. She has partnered with organizations including UNESCO, International Association with Women and Radio and Television, Witness and Wapikoni on human rights, new media and advocacy training.
Lena Dobrowolska
Lena Dobrowolska is an artist working with a combination of documentary photography, artist film, installation, room size virtual reality experiences and research. Since 2012, she has been working in collaboration with Teo Ormond-Skeaping on projects relating to climate change and the Anthropocene or what she prefers to call the Capitalocene. Her works document vulnerability to, and responsibility for climate change as well as the resilience and adaptation efforts of marginalised communities in an attempt to imagine and make possible a climate just future. Her recent research has investigated the link between climate change and displacement, non-economic Loss & Damage and the moral and climate leadership of the Global South. Lena is the recipient of the 2019 Coalition for Art and Sustainable Development Prize (COAL) and the 2016 Culture and Climate Change: Future Scenarios Networked Residency prize. In 2019 she presented her work at UNFCCC COP25 in Madrid to climate negotiators and displacement experts.
Mitch TurnbullMitch Turnbull is a multi-nominated and award-winning natural history and conservation documentary filmmaker and XR creator with over twenty years experience in the UK & US. She has made films, live shows, media and XR content for a variety of broadcasters, studios and organisations including, BBC Studios, Oculus, Disneynature, Discovery, National Geographic, UN, RYOT and The Royal Foundation. Mitch has acted as a BAFTA VR Advisory Associate, contributed to UK Digital Catapult industry papers and is a South West Creative Technology Network Immersion Fellow with a research focus on how immersive technology can influence opinion and change behaviour.