Tracing a Seeping Terrain

The Heidelberger Kunstverein announces the inaugural exhibition by Eloïse Bonneviot and Anne de Boer in Germany. The project is a culmination of their work to date and explores cultural responses to the accelerating ecological crisis through game mechanics. "Tracing a Seeping Terrain" is an interactive installation forging new avenues for aesthetic and environmental engagement. The experiential and entertaining aspect of the game is presented as a possible way of facing issues of climate change, where feelings of guilt and powerlessness often prevail. Specially conceived for the Heidelberger Kunstverein, it presents an amalgamation of interactive sculptures connected to various loudspeakers and a virtual landscape. Central to the experience is the engagement of the visitor, whose actions shape the appearance of the landscape and its soundscape. Within the game's narrative, visitors take on the role of active agents who influence the ecological state of the world they have entered. Equipped with various tools based on RFID technology, visitors can trigger events. The landscape undergoes a metamorphosis: The climate, geology, buildings, and ecosystems change, deteriorate, or accelerate. Alongside the computer-generated fictional landscape demonstrating possible ways to imagine the ecological, the exhibition encompasses works that draw inspiration from real-world governmental initiatives. These initiatives utilize satellite imagery and geospatial data to create maps for emergency response efforts, such as the Copernicus Emergency Management Service, developed by the European Union and the European Space Agency. They provide information on flood-prone areas, potential landslide zones, and other hazards. In this context, De Boer and Bonneviot explore the impact of data on our relationship with ecological systems, shedding light on how these technologies communicate and simulate natural environments. They also consider the emotions evoked by the dissemination of such data. The exhibition playfully explores the interplay between our digital environments and the ecosystems they seek to represent, fostering a discourse at the intersection of data, technology, and ecology. Supported by Innovationsfonds Kunst des Ministeriums für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg