MYRIAD. Where we connect. I VR Experience

MYRIAD. Where we connect I VR Experience invites visitors to experience the real-life migration stories of three animals - the northern bald ibis, the arctic fox and the green sea turtle - in a poetic virtual reality experience. One travels along wind and ocean currents, across continents and through soaring mountain ranges, icy landscapes or through deep seas as the animals make their way around the globe - narratives of real migrations based on intuitively graspable data. As visitors explore the three migration stories, they receive background information about the animals and their interconnectedness in the global ecosystem. However, the VR installation also makes clear how human intervention, whether the littering of the oceans for the green sea turtle, indirect effects such as the Syrian war for the bald ibis, or the melting of the polar ice caps for the arctic fox, can make the animals' migration more difficult, alter it or even make it impossible in the long term. The audience witnesses haunting struggles for survival that put the animals' amazing capabilities to the test. The bald ibis is a whimsical, peculiar looking bird, at once impressive and historic. Depictions of the bald ibis have even been discovered in the hieroglyphics of the ancient Egyptian Temple of Horus. Until the 17th century, it was native to the Middle East and Central Europe, before its population was nearly wiped out by excessive hunting and other human-induced factors. Afterwards, it has survived only in zoo populations. Now scientists are working to reintroduce the birds to their original habitat through an elaborate reintroduction project. As far back as 115 million years ago, the green sea turtle's ancestors swam the world's oceans. And yet it struggles to survive after birth. Due to natural predators such as sharks, and increasingly the threats of fishing and marine pollution, only a fraction of hatchlings makes it to adulthood. Yet the green sea turtle has astounding capabilities that have not yet been fully researched. It is believed that with the help of the Earth's magnetic field and the smell of the water's composition, the turtles are able to navigate back to their own beach to lay eggs years after hatching. These are the very same beaches where they themselves once crawled out of their nests to the sea. The VR Experience follows a female turtle as she swims more than 2,300 kilometers through the ocean to the Brazilian coast after her birth on Ascension Island, returning to her birthplace 20 years later to lay eggs of her own. For the arctic fox, the fight for survival is also becoming increasingly difficult. It is threatened by invasive species, is still heavily hunted for its fur, and climate change and Arctic melting are drying up its food sources. Whole populations have been threatened with separation as natural migration routes across the ice are no longer possible. MYRIAD follows the true and incredible story of an arctic fox from Spitsbergen which travels 3,506 kilometers across the polar ice on its way to Canada in just 76 days. In the VR experience, visitors are able to get up very close to the animals, becoming acquainted with the world from their perspective. The VR Experience is an emotional and informative adventure.