Next Nature
The Next Nature Network’s Next Nature Series leaps far into the future to present people with four alternative realities to help us better understand the challenges humanity faces and the power that we have to dictate our future. Next Nature Network created this VR experience in 2016, setting up pop-up shops to premier their futuristic worlds. People would pop on headphones, gloves, and a headset to become fully emerged in these four realities. Nature, technology, and our relationship with the world are guaranteed to evolve, and society must choose how to navigate those changes. The creators see four likely scenarios: The Garden of Eden, the Modernist Dream, the Techno Favela, and the Hypernatural Resort. Each is pretty much as it sounds, with a different degree of technological dependence and immersion in nature. The Next Nature does not necessarily explore how humanity is to successfully reach one of these four proposed realities, nor does it explore how humanity is to overcome the challenges facing humanity today with climate change and environmental degradation. While dealing with the more immediate future is not the goal of the project, it would be interesting to see a part of this experience prompt action and reflection on what steps humanity can take to reach a better and different future, so as to not promote a mindset that humanity will be able to reach one of those futures with little work done in the present. However, it is an interesting thought experiment, though it is unclear how the project will continue in the future beyond pop-up experience shops, and the Next Nature Network does appear to be working on other experiences that deal with the future of food, family-making, and other futuristic thought experiments for the public.
Categories
Aesthetic/Leisure, Immersive Technology, Psychology
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