Thinking like a mountain

'Thinking like a mountain' is a meditative game that allows the game player to interact with a digital deserted rocky landscape. By using hand-tracking technology, the player can travel through the landscape, past large pools and mountainous terrain, ‘scratch’ big rocks into smaller ones, and pile the smaller rocks on top of each other – eventually to reform large rocks, gradually reshaping the landscape that is first encountered. In the game, the player is encouraged to entangle themself within the environment, ceremoniously reconstructing and deconstructing the field of vision. This work results from Grogan’s research at SPACE on the practice of horticultural therapy, a range of treatment programmes which are designed to improve mental and physical well-being through the pursuit of outdoor green activities. Grogan’s research explored the potential use of technology for the development of such treatments in a time where physical mobility is challenged and reconfigured. The work speculates on the facility of the digital realm as a proxy space of reconfigured boundaries. It uses repetitive frictionless gestures to create a type of catharsis moving from the virtual to physical realm. This work has been developed with the support of the Arts Council England, Fluxus and SPACE. Grogan has collaborated with Grisha Kashtanov and Ivan Puzyrev for the development of the VR game, and Tim Crombie for its sound design. Recent exhibitions Grogan has participated in include ‘Matter in Mind’, Alkinois in Athens (2021); ‘Peeping through the looking glass’ at SET Lewisham in London (2021); ‘Off-Biennale’ in Budapest (2021); ‘Worst Case Scenario’ at Kqora in Paris (2021); ‘Deep Play’ at SPACE in London (2021); ‘Sea-Change’ at Arnis Residency in Germany (2020); ‘Lunar-Sting’ at La Becque Artist Residency in Switzerland (2019); ‘Here, We, Go’ at Mansions of the Future in Lincoln (2019); ‘The Future World of Work’ at FACT in Liverpool (2019). *Release date to be soon announced on instagram: @thomgrog