This project was created in the context of the workshop VIRTUALLY REAL? THE ART AND SCIENCE OF DESIGNING IMPACTFUL (OR EVEN TRANSFORMATIVE?) VIRTUAL EXPERIENCES as part of the UBI Summer School 2024.

The idea is to foster connectedness between humans and nature, by letting immersants embody a central part of nature, important to humans and nature alike - a tree.

We follow the concept of a transformative experience, as proposed by Stepanova et al. in "Virtual Reality as a Tool for Inducing and Understanding Transformative Experiences".

In their Transformational Framework, they propse that a Perceptual Experience can offer "a new perspective on an intellectually familiar concept", which can result in a Cognitive Shift of the immersants. This cognitive shilft unltimately can foster a Behavioural Change.

Inspiration for our virtual experience are similar projects by our workshop lead Bernhard Riecke.