
MOTHER OF
THE FOREST
2019
Media:
Virtual Reality Experience
Role:
Director, Artist, Screenwriter, Developer
Client:
Collaborated with Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, Sequoia Parks Conservancy, CFC Media Lab & OCAD University
Mother of the Forest is an immersive, virtual reality experience that explores a sequoia tree's ecosystem through embodied perspectives of symbiotic species impacted by climate change.



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Mother of the Forest (2019) is an immersive, virtual reality experience that explores a sequoia tree’s ecosystem through embodied perspectives of various species. Through the use of 360 video, digital environment design, and interactivity, Mother of the Forest pairs scientific information from Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks with artistic creation to exhibit the hidden truth, beauty and precarity at play in this ecology. Through the illustration of symbiotic relationships, it asks users to contemplate their own role in intertwined ecologies impacted by human activity resulting in biodiversity decline and climate change. In doing so, it depicts the complex webs of a sequoia forest that needs us, just as much as we need it.


A Co-Production of
Director
Producer
Narrator
Music
Field Recordings
Field Recordings Sound Specialist
Field Recordings Project Manager
CFC Production Manager
OCADU Project Supervisors
Kylie Caraway
Ana Serrano
Krista Simonic
Brett Caraway
U.S. National Park Service
Dr. Jacob Job
Erik Meyer
Joseph Ellsworth
Dr. Haru Ji & Dr. Emma Westecott
Special Thanks to the OCADU Digital Futures Program, Sequoia Park Conservancy, and Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks
Mother of the Forest was Kylie's MFA Thesis Project in the Digital Futures program at OCAD University.
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What The Futures: Digital Futures Graduate Exhibition Show
TMAC Centre. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. April 2019.
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OCAD University's GradEx 104
OCAD University. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. May 2019.
Digital Futures Graduate Medal Winner
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FITC: The Technology and Creativity Conference
Hilton Toronto. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. May 2019.
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Canadian Film Centre Garden Party
Canadian Film Centre. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. June 2019.
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Canadian Film Centre BBQ Fundraising Event during TIFF
Canadian Film Centre. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. September 2019.
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FIVARS
TMAC Centre. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. September 2019.
World Premiere
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Busan International Film Festival
Busan Cinema Center. Busan, South Korea. October 2019.
International Premiere
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Planet in Focus Film Festival
Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. October 2019.
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National Park Service invited exhibition and talk
Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park. Three Rivers, California, United States. October 2019.
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Giant Sequoias & Climate Change: A Virtual Reality Event
New Roads School. Santa Monica, California, United States. October 2019.
In collaboration with Sequoia Parks Conservancy, New Roads School, and Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks.
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ReFrame Film Festival
VentureNorth. Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. January 2020.
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HotDocs International Film Festival
HotDocs Ted Rogers Cinema. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 2020.
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EXHIBITIONS
PRESS
PROCESS
Through this research project, Mother of the Forest aimed to answer the following research question:
In what ways might immersive experiences represent a sequoia tree’s ecosystem, in order to communicate to users various perceptions of time and space, symbiosis, climate change, and environmental changes over time?
I explored the answer to this question using a speculative fabulation, research-creation methodology: