Holograms of award-winning vocalists take flight as virtual reality dance show tackles climate change
- Aria – a live and online after-dark, multisensory, experiential production – features Denmark’s Theatre of Voices and Hong Kong Children’s Choir
- Performances in Hong Kong Park’s conservatory will be among highlights of this month’s ReNew Vision – New Vision Festival’s transitional online platform
Artists have long celebrated the beauty and power of the natural world. But as concerns grow over global warming and the melting polar ice caps, rising levels of toxic smog polluting cities and deadly wildfires ravaging forests, they have become increasingly vocal about safeguarding the planet.
They are now using art, theatre, dance and music as platforms to call for change and urgent action to tackle the climate-change problems threatening the Earth’s future before it is too late.
We wanted to make [the public] aware of the things we take for granted, like air. Climate change is established science, but somehow people don’t feel it affects them
Many artists have embraced technology, such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to heighten the emotional response of audiences.
One of the most talked about works on show at last year’s Venice Biennale arts exhibition, in Italy, was Serbian performance artist Marina Abramovic’s dramatic VR installation, Rising, set in a stormy polar landscape, which saw her avatar trapped in a glass tank as it filled with water.
Audiences could stop the water by pledging to protect the planet – or do nothing and watch her avatar drown.
In New York last summer, artist Valentino Vettori invited a group of contemporaries to create a 15-room pop-up exhibition, Arcadia Earth, featuring installations made of recycled waste.
