"In the middle of the road of my life

I awoke in a dark wood

Where the true way was wholly lost"

- Dante Alighieri

There is a magic to nature.

It connects us to the essence of human spirit and being. As a species we have long sought solace in nature. Birdsong and sunlight through the treetops making light of our troubles. But the magic also has a darkness to it. To be lost in nature is to be terrified, to experience self doubt, to embrace those fiery inclinations that our superficial selves would rather do without. Meaningful experiences touch both the light and darkness of the human experience.

Can this be replicated in a post-physical world?

We are spending less time in the physical world (let alone the natural world). Our attention used to be wholly in our physical environment. That attention has eroded significantly thanks to the advance of technology and our dependence on our devices. Projecting that advance into the next decade with smart headsets getting cheaper and smaller, could all our attention be in the digital world? Technologist Shaan Puri muses that the Metaverse isn't a place but a moment in time. A moment in time when our digital life is worth more to us than our physical life.

Would meaningful experiences still exist?

The panel

We are bringing together an expert panel for this discussion.

Ahmed (Ace) Salama + Anna Reeves (A.Ray)
“We explore visions of future worlds across multiple mediums”

Futureology is a futurist arts collective with interdisciplinary artists Ahmed (Ace) Salama (two time Directors Guild Award Nominee and Webby Honouree) and Anna Reeves (A.Ray) (“One to Watch”/finalist B&T Women In Media Awards 2019) who have a collective background in art, story making, technology, film, UX design, law, theatre, startups, innovation, VR story design, game design, social change and sustainability. “The Metaverse Store (https://themetaversestore.co/)- EST 2042- is our first art installation featuring virtual products from an imagined future embodied in a real world retail store to explore what might surprise or terrify us about the newly evolving metaverse, set against a backdrop of a planet in recovery 20 years from now.” See Trailer for Installation here:

https://vimeo.com/725197735/5050b962ee?fbclid=IwAR29JQm-ZMYgVkhTdedhGWX1-DA_BSYgN7xN9GlNjnpZjecDebqHpWebfQk

Trent Clews-de Castella: As Co-founder and CEO at PHORIA (https://www.phoria.com.au/), Trent's mission is to create software and content that can transport you places. He believes that through the power of immersive media, we now have the tools to experience the world at our fingertips. He has been deeply immersed in the worlds of Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality for the last three years

Joseph Purdam, Joseph is an award-winning XR Producer / Director using our ever evolving mediums of storytelling to share the narrative of our planet and its inhabitants. Joseph's aim is to expand our understanding and empathy through immersive content and experiences, enabling a deeper connection to our planet, its wildlife and our people. The overarching goal, to show us all as we are, one.

Anna McCracken - Director at Anna & Friends, https://www.annamccracken.com/

Anna is a social strategist, storyteller and adventurer, starting her career in Social Work before moving into human rights law. Anna's nomadic lifestyle over the decade has allowed her to travel to nearly every nook and cranny in Australia, listening deeply to the stories of communities and working in partnership to translate these to government & business in creative ways. Anna’s lived experience of managing lifelong chronic health issues has influenced her drive to challenge the current business as usual paradigm.. Anna works across Australia weaving her depth of experience, her personal story and her deep love of storytelling and nature to guide businesses into relational ways of being.

Alison Hill - Managing Director, People and Parks Foundation, https://peopleandparks.org/

Alison is a passionate advocate for connecting people to nature for both health and wellbeing, and environmental outcomes. She recognises that access to nature is a health equity issue, and something we all need to protect and promote wholistic health. "Healthy Humans Need Healthy Habitats to Survive and Thrive."

Beer, wine, soft drinks and snacks will be served to all attendees at this event.

Contact the host of Nature and the Metaverse: Finding meaningful experiences in a post-physical world