Aquaphobia

2018 - Advanced Technology (Advanced Technology)

Jakob Kudsk Steensen

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The virtual reality work Aquaphobia by Jakob Kudsk Steensen examines it’s title subject matter – the fear of water. Inspired by psychology studies used to treat aquaphobia, the work employs VR technology to merge imagery of past and future geological landscapes, as well as external ecosystems with internal psychoscapes. Steensen mobilizes the visual exploration of the fear of water to transform viewer’s perceptions on water-related climate change, such as rising water levels. While traveling through mud, water, plants, and subterranean infrastructure, the viewer is guided through the five stages of a break-up narrative by a water microbe. Throughout the journey, an aquatic alien recites a poem about a break-up between the landscape and the viewer. The five parts reference a common five-step treatment that patients with aquaphobia undergo. To create this virtual landscape, the artist used satellite imagery, as well as soil and rock types that Steensen photographed.

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Jakob Kudsk Steensen employs a formally rigorous approach to creating multi-layered VR environments that engage with the contemporary issue of extinction. Eschewing the idea that VR offers a potential “solution” to the disappearance of biodiversity, Steensen aims to reflect rather on the deep sense of loss surrounding extinction and the poetics of hybrid relationships between nature and technology. His works often exist as omnibus collaborations drawing on the creative input of musicians, writers, scientists, and developers, and are staged in spaces that combine tactile materials with impeccably rendered virtual worlds.

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Colors:

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• ecology.n.01
• environmental.a.02
• climate.n.01
• relationship.n.02
• geology.n.01
• poetry.n.01