No one knows what the Earth could look like after humans die out, but by visiting the art exhibition Solastalgia it’s possible to get close to experiencing some likely outcomes, Vísir reports.
The exhibition opened yesterday at the National Gallery of Iceland, where guests are invited to enter a digital world and see how humankind has dealt with the Earth.
“When people come to the exhibition, they always see their surroundings as reality. They see ruin and devastation,” says Pierre-Alain Giraud, director of the exhibition.
Guests view the exhibitions through virtual reality glasses. They are given the opportunity to explore the Earth as it may look after the end of humanity, where a mysterious digital cloud powered by a strange machine is the only thing that’s left. The visuals reflect the tension between the freeing power of technology and scientific predictions for a bleak future.
“Now people are trained to connect to each other in a very strange way. But this is interactive, everyone who comes to the exhibition experiences it in their own way, and meets different ghosts,” says Pierre-Alain.
While guests walk around the ruins, ghosts and other creatures appear. The set design was imported from France.
“But of course the stones and sand are from Iceland,” says Pierre-Alain, with co-director Antoine Viviani adding: “The ghosts are Icelandic.”
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