Introduction
Set in the far future, you are an undefined lifeform who has become conscious in an unfamiliar underground cave system.
The Last Time I Saw Snow is a user-device-activated mixed reality immersive experience that explores concepts of humanity, earth ecology and deep time.
Users must interpret the symbols and unlock the vault to reveal the preservation of the natural world preserved in mixed reality.
Funded by UKRI, the project employed 21 young arts graduates through the Kickstart scheme to create a ground breaking fusion of projection mapping, AR, AI, kinetic interactives, and immersive sound design. The experience premiered at ArtSect Gallery before adapting for London Film Festival Expanded 2022 where it was nominated for Best Immersive and XR Art Experience.
The project is now being developed into a larger scale immersive experience.
You awake somewhere unfamiliar.
You feel.
Feeeeeeeeel.
Feeeeeeeeeeeeel.
You feeeeeeeeel unfaamiiliaaaar.
You sit for a while.
Dumbfounded.
You have no idea how long you sit there for, then for some reason you wonder what ‘the time’ is, …. What is the time? What is the… what is… what is… time, hmmm, fuck, you really should know that, shouldn’t you?
Looking down at your…um, at your…
You look down.
You know looking down is useful, but you can’t quite figure out why.
Suddenly.
A strange pokey thing.
“Ouch”, you seem to have made a noise.
After a moment of scrunching the densely packed features around the spot where the poking occurred, you become aware that there is some kind of retractable covering system that has protected the poking target. Some liquid seems to be building up around the cover but you are relatively confident that you should be able to retract the cover.
You retract the cover.
Not one, but two covers.
And before you, in that instant you ponder, perhaps, the most amazing thing you think you have probably ever perceived, glorious, like two great arches, smooth and wet. You are fairly certain they have a name, something like trees, or bees, hmmm.
They are apparently attached to what you suppose must be you. As that thought occurs, it sends a strange shiver down your back.
You.
What the actual fuck does that mean…
…and what is that chattering clicky, clicky, clicky noise?
It appears that you have been rubbing your lower limbs with your upper limbs, everything feels a bit stingy.
Everything feels a bit stingy,
Stingy and new.
Singy and new and quite damp, which you don’t like.
There’s not much else to behold, you seem to be struggling to see anything further away than the limbs and pokey bits, but nonetheless, you begin to become aware of your surroundings.
You can hear something indistinct, it sounds like it might be another you, like you.
The echo is distant, but it seems to be calling out.
“Snow, Snow, Snow”
Story
In the mid 21st century climate breakdown leads to uncontrollable sea level rise, driving humanity to the fringes of the ecosystem.
Sentient technology begins to adopt warnings of The Atomic Priesthood; an order created to design perennial hazard deterrents for future civilisations who may not share any linguistic base with ours.
Your role in this, as yet is unknown, you awake in an unfamiliar underground cave system, unsure who, what or where you are, you must interpret the warnings and discover the secrets of the anthropocene vault..
Inspired by climate breakdown, lockdown and the increasingly challenged human experience, ‘The Last Time I Saw Snow’ is an immersive experience that explores possible deep futures of humanity and Earth ecology.
Snow Queen AI
The Snow Queen has a key role in our narrative, protagonist or antagonist, it’s unclear, left alone for millenia even artificial intelligence can wander. The queen has lost their daughter Snow, it’s been a while since they’ve been seen, by anything.
Played by Anna-Maria Nabirye, the Snow Queen Interactive at LFFE was a hybrid machine learning and voice acted babbling artificial intelligence, lost in a vortex of infinite thoughts and desperately searching for someone or something.
“Early AI experiments led to curious results, future updates must not experience loss.”
Totems
3D projection mapping and augmented reality on custom shapes and sand. A sculptural allegory for a decaying civilization.
"Through the haze, you notice more symbol’s that set off your scanning device. Suddenly the room transforms, strange glyphs appear, glowing through the shroud, they tell the story of an ancient civilisation."
_tree
3D projection mapping and augmented reality on petrified wood and sand.
Nature will evolve, it will find ways to adapt.
“But, how did a tree grow down here?”