Shifting

Climate change is disrupting ecosystems, causing biodiversity loss and instability. The olive tree (Olea europaea), which has shared a deep bond with humanity for millennia, is now moving to higher altitudes, unable to remain in its traditional habitat. This change goes beyond species migration, it signals a shift in the relationship between humans and nature.

Shifting is a single-player, controller-based digital experience that immerses participants in a speculative landscape shaped by sound, sculpture, and ecological symbolism. Wearing headphones and using a controller, the audience navigates an imagined terrain where layered olive tree forms emerge and real-time plant vibrations, translated into ultrasonic sounds that guide their journey.

Blending science fiction aesthetics with ecological symbolism, the work imagines a future where humans must tune in to non-human rhythms to navigate the world. The ultrasonic plant sounds act as cryptic navigational signals, leading players toward hidden sculptures that seem to pulse with memory and myth. As participants roam freely, sometimes guided, sometimes lost, they assume the quiet role of a seeker, an environmental wanderer within a living, breathing speculative world.
By blending natural rhythms with digital abstraction, Shifting offers an open-ended space for reflection, where the viewer’s attention becomes the main narrative. It aims to create a moment of quiet introspection in contrast to the overwhelming noise of the climate crisis, reminding us to pause, listen, and reimagine our place within a shifting ecological landscape.