The End, and the Beginning is a virtual reality sound garden where elements from both the prehistoric and the contemporary world are combined, referencing ancient cosmology while tying in contemporary environmental themes, such as the sixth mass extinction and climate change.
The participant enters a biosphere, an environment in transition where past and present overlap, virtual and physical intermingle, and potential and actual manifest simultaneously. The biosphere is waiting to come alive, but the viewer is also reminded of the devastation of nature as they look beyond to an all-too-familiar forest of burned trees.
Interaction in this environment is a form of connection. Through the participant’s movements and interactions, the environment responds with sound, evolution, and growth. The player’s life-bringing actions in the virtual garden mirror their potential to nurture and sustain life in the real world.
This work was deeply influenced by Donna Haraway’s Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene, both conceptually and structurally. I deliberately designed the immersive experience without a conventional narrative or heroic quest. Haraway’s critique of the male-centered “prick tale” challenges stories of human progress built around conquest, competition, and the destruction of whatever stands in the hero’s path. These patterns also appear in video-game narratives, where a male protagonist typically defeats enemies, overcomes obstacles, and claims territory.
In The End, and the Beginning, each viewer moves through the space differently, discovering an individual life story rather than following a single heroic narrative. The work replaces conquest with encounter, allowing meaning to emerge through exploration, association, and attention.
