ART*VR: More-than-Human Perspectives

What stories emerge when we look at the world through the “eyes” of trees, animals, plastic particles, or even AI? And what if we already are all of these entities to some extent? This curated VR section opens worlds where human perception merges with vegetal, animal, and synthetic forms of life.

The philosophical term more-than-human, rooted in ethnography, ecology, and posthumanism, highlights the interconnectedness of all beings and the constant interactions binding them together. Critiquing anthropocentric hierarchies, it proposes multispecies coexistence. Virtual reality here becomes a medium through which audiences embody this expanded kinship and search for new forms of empathy and speculative imagination in a world shared with countless others.

This selection takes the concept a step further, adding VR and technologies it uses — artificial intelligence, digital landscapes, game interactions — to the mix. Just as we cannot disconnect from the bacteria in our gut, we cannot separate from technologies: no digital detox erases the fact that they shape how we live and think. The chosen works show the more-than-human as an active participant in our present history. Nature breathing with us, plastic hybrid bodies of the future, or dreamscapes where the boundaries between self, nature, and technology dissolves: each project envisions humans not at the centre, but as one node in a vast web of existence.

This section is a part of Festival ART∗VR. You can find more information about the selected films on artvr.cz/en/programme.