Novocene - A possible Future

Novocene is a mixed reality experience unfolding an interactive narrative about the Anthropocene, the current geological era, entirely dominated and shaped by humans. Accordingly, the polar ice in this interactive video installation is melting soon and the climate crisis will sink the analog exhibition environment under a virtually rising sea level. Until then, this 3D Experience looks questioningly at all kinds of technical solutions and ideologies that are presented to us. Are these part of the solution and can they rid us of paralysis to finally take action?
At first, a pair of mixed reality glasses lies inconspicuously on a tree stump in the exhibition space. The felled tree is an improvised construction made from temporary materials such as wood, cardboard and plastic. Viewed through the headset, it unexpectedly sprouts young, virtual shoots and branches and grows to new life. As the plot unfolds around this tree sculpture, the viewer can construct a monument for an alternative future from the artefacts and totems of a proverbially lost civilization.
The interactive experience thematizes human impact on nature and inevitably leads to the question: Is it even possible to deal artistically and aesthetically with something as colossal as the climate crisis and its destructive consequences? How can the narrative of the possible end of all narratives succeed? Is it possible to strike a fine balance, hopefully somewhere between instruction and fatalism on the one hand and naïve ignorance and faith in technology on the other? Critical voices from the field of neuroscience tend to deny that humanity, in its subjective constitution, is capable of processing a challenge of such complexity and temporal horizon at all. Another prominent thesis is based on the imprint of the evolutionary pressure to adapt. According to this theory, egoism steeled by competition thwarts collective, global action. Consequently the hope remains that we will develop the ability for this action