Poster Statement 

June 13-15, CCCB Vestíbul Theatre 

Keywords: ecological thinking, technological art, virtual reality, new perceptions, awareness

El Bosque unites ecology and art-technology. Its objective is to investigate virtual reality and its expressive possibilities from an artistic perspective to generate an immersive environment through a reflective, perceptive and sensitive experience regarding ecological awareness and thinking. Union of digital universe, generated through virtual reality and a real one, through the creation of a physical installation.

“El Bosque: the development of an immersive environment in Visual Reality. An artistic approximation to environmental awareness” starts from a wide artistic perspective of research in Ecology and Virtual Reality. With an inter- and trans-disciplinary approach, the aim is to give an experience in Virtual Reality as an artistic practice while demystifying progress from an eco-feminist viewpoint.
The main objective is to develop a theoretical-practical project in an immersive environment while generating empathy for terrestrial ecosystems and non-human factors. Viewing El Bosque as a threshold from which to reˇect on the dichotomy between culture and nature, rede.ning the relationship between the environment and society. At the same time re-thinking the forces of nature as non-inert acting forces, as proposed by Bruno Latour in the Theory of the Actor Network, understood as a set of shared methodological principles and not so much as a theory in itself. We therefore want to respond to the questions: What kind of future awaits us and our forests? What will be our role in the system of the Earth? And especially, How can we integrate non-human factors in historical narratives?
Starting from theoretical reˇections removed from apocalyptic positions, we look into the concepts of artists such as Nathan Shafer, Stephanie Dinkins, Koert van Mensvoort, Dominique González-Foerster, Jakob Kudsk Steensen or Daniel Steegman, and scientists and thinkers like Suzanne Simard, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Donna Haraway, Bruno Latour, Felix Guattari, Timothy Morton, Byung-Chul Han, Andreas Malm and Rosi Braidotti.
We propose the value of interdisciplinary actions and the art-science-technology relationship with society. VR technique and technology as a tool and context enables us use strategies combining experiments, research and creativity. The challenge is to create a VR experience to consider questions on how to improve people’s lives, stabilize the climate and protect the natural world. http://www.forest.upv.es

• El Bosque, a multidisciplinary group made up of researchers from the Faculty of Fine Arts (Department of Sculpture and Department of Drawing) and the Higher Technical School of Geodesic, Cartographic and Topographic Engineering (Department of Cartographic Engineering Geodesy and Photogrammetry), Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain.
  Researchers: Dolores Furió Vita, M. Ángeles López Izquierdo, Laura Silvestre García, Fernando Buchón Moragues, Jorge Padín Devesa, Cristina Fito Micó, Mar Aragó Miñana, Victoria Febrer.