The Climate Awakening was an ambitious attempt to use Virtual Reality to wake people up to the Climate Emergency that we are facing as a civilisation. Sea levels don`t care about whether your conservative, liberal, socialist, communist or fascist. All it knows what to do, is rise.

I wanted to open the experience with the earliest prediction of Climate Change. Hieronymus Bosch painted an early depiction of how humanity could eventually destroy the planet titled “The Garden of Earthly Delights“ around 1500. This is to make you realise how long we have been aware of this ecological disaster. This Virtual Experience holds irony considering Climate Change isn`t so virtual, it`s real. 

I specifically wanted to focus on the threat of rising sea levels and how it affects the most vulnerable locations on earth. Ironically the latter half of the virtual experience takes a twist into showing you how droughts can also form due to extreme heat temperatures. Between the drought and rising sea levels experiences, I have incorporated an open virtual gallery of the most influential climate deniers who either: fund fossil fuel companies, are journalists denying climate, or are corrupt politicians denying the science. This gives you a reminder of who is destroying your future ecologically.

The audio experience is what brings this piece to life. Hearing the voices of the citizens of Manila screaming as their houses become flooded, brings shivers up your spine. Hearing the voice of a little girl from Sweden who campaigns against Climate Change, could bring tears to some. Leonardo DiCaprio`s narration guides your mind through the visuals of what you see and feel. It all means to be confrontational and urging

The Experience Ends with a photograph of Greta Thunberg, today in the contemporary era. You started this experience from a painting in 1500, and now you finish it in 2019. Today we have to face our greatest challenge as a species. I urge you to take some action in joining groups such as extinction rebellion, individually we cannot make a difference, but together, we can overcome the greatest hurdle ever thrown at the human race.