readilyavailablegamesengineUnity,^2 with their resultingwork
resemblinga computergame or animatedvirtualenvironment.
Unlikemany other VR or 360-degreeworks,DidYouAskthe
River?has no linear narrative;rather,it offers the user (along-
side their on-screencharacter)a spaceto inhabitand explore.
While makingmy way aroundit, I am remindedof mediatheo-
rist Janet H Murray’sargumentthat, ratherthan ‘a film to be
watched’,VR is ‘a virtualspaceto be [...] navigatedthrough’.^3
However,I feel like somethingof a novicein this context,
unsureof whereto go and what to do. After spendingtoo long
gazingat a barbecue,I pick up the lipsticknearbyand smearit
on my face – an actionemphasisedwhen I catch my avatar’sre-
flectionin the mirror again.I also noticethat, regardlessof what
I am doing,the rabbitsin my vicinityare multiplying,reaching
plagueproportions.Turningmy body in the space,I spy a pokie
machineand cannotresist. With unprecedentedluck, I win the
jackpoton my first spin. But this is a bittersweetvictory:as
coins tumbleout of the tray, trees aroundme collapse.DidYou
AsktheRiver?constantly makes me aware that every action
has consequences.
DocumentarytheoristElizabethCowiehas suggestedthat,
in documentaries,false causalrelationshipsare createdto
make the depictedworld knowable.^4 Throughlinear sequen-
cing, for instance,viewersare encouragedto draw links bet-
ween consecutivesequences.However,in the virtualworld
ofDidYouAsktheRiver?, the key causalrelationshipsare
formedthroughan embodiedexperience:personalgain leads
to environmentaldestruction.Movingto the other side of the
space,I find some hand grenadesand watchthem explodeas
I throw them into the distanthorizon.Detonatingsome dyna-
mite causesindustrialfactoriesto springup from the water.
After some movement,I approacha vast open-cutmine.
Progressingfrom there, I pick up a spray-paintcan with the
idea that I’ll do a drawing;however,blobs of colouredpaint
pour out onto the rocks.EverythingI touch is ruined,I see
destructionloomingat every turn, and I cannotstop.
In a discussionof the logic behindDidYouAsktheRiver?,
Ross claimsthat she was interestedin exploringhow greed
is facilitatedby the VR mediumitself, with the virtualspace
provokinga mentalityof grabbingat whateveris on offer.^5
Certainly,within the world that Ross has created,the more one
engageswith objects,the more devastationis wreakedon the
environment.DocumentarytheoristKate Nash suggeststhat
the embodied‘I’ that wandersthroughVR’s simulatedspace,
which is both real and not real, is ‘fundamentalto [the] creation
of meaning’.^6 AlthoughI am embodiedas a fictionalcharacter,
I also feel confrontedby, and question,my own destructivede-
sires – both in the simulatedspaceand in the world outsideit.Not empathy, but something else:Awavena
Despitemuch discussionaroundVR’s ability to evokeempathy
in audiences,^7 more productivepossibilitiesfor this emergent
technologyare increasinglybeing championedby both practi-
tionersand theorists.Wallworth’sformidabletwo-partmixed-
reality VR pieceAwavenaaffordsits audiencean encounternot
only with the Yawanawápeopleof the Amazon,but also with the
materialityof the Earth. This is an experiencethat makesfull use
of multipletechnologiesin order to simulatehow humanpercep-
tion of the forest can be heightenedby shamanicmedicineritual.
After seeingWallworth’spreviousVR work,Collisions(2016)- which tells the story of Indigenouselder Nyarri Nyarri Morgan’s
first contact with Western culture – Yawanawá chief Tashka invited
the filmmakerto come to the Amazonto make a similarpiece.
Tashkarecogniseda synchronicitybetweenVR and traditional
Yawanawámedicine,feelingstronglythat this technologycould
emulateshamanicvisionstates.Ratherthan attemptingto
foster an experienceof empathywith the Yawanawápeople,
Awavenais – in the wordsof its promotionalmaterials– ‘a gift
from them, to those who will virtuallyvisit their forest and re-
ceive this transmission’and ‘a gift that [...] can shift our con-
sciousness,changingthe way we perceive the world we know
and the decisionswe make’.^8
Wallworth’sdirect engagementwith the Yawanawáunder-
scoresthe ethic of collaborationthat is intrinsicto her practice.
DiscussingCollisions, for example,i-Docsco-directorMandy
Rose contendsthat, ratherthan adoptingobservationalmeth-
ods, Wallworthmakesuse of cinemavérité strategiespioneered
by FrenchethnographicfilmmakerJean Rouchthat result in a
‘joint’ approach‘in which the subjectinfluencesthe filmmaking
processand outcome’.For Rose, this produces‘less a feeling
of being there’,and more somethingattunedto the perspec-
tives of those who actually‘are there’.^9 From my experience of
it,Awavenacould be describedin similarterms.Virtual realityasshamanic medicine
In the first part ofAwavena, a seventeen-minutefilm, the viewer
is seatedin a chair in front of a significant-lookingbook. We
then enter the narrativeworld throughopeningthe book; in
voiceover,we hear the translatedstory of the first femalesha-
man of the Yawanawá,namedHushahu.The first half of the film
tells her backstory:travellingby canoedown the river, perform-
ing ritualsin the villageand honouringthe dying shamanelder
Tata. Throughoutthese scenes– filmedin 360-degreevideo –
we are an invisible presence, and the images are represented
as indexical.
After spendingsome time in this world,we graduallycross
a bridge,which is both literal and metaphorical.Arrivingat the
forest,Hushahuthen beginsher shamanictraining,and her
transformation,by drinkingtheunitea (more commonlyknown
in the West as ‘ayahuasca’).As Hushahu’sstory progresses,the
technologyused inAwavenaalso changesto better simulatethe
transformationsin both shamanand world:from that which is
knownto other ways of seeing.We begin to perceivethe forest
landscapenot as the solid mass that it is usuallyrepresented
as in the filmedimage,but rather as composedof tiny particles.
Theseimageswere createdfrom meticulousscans of the forest
using a devicethat captureddata at 300,000pointsper second,
therebyrenderingthe forest in a biologicallyaccuratemanner.^10
Additionally,night cameraswere employedto capturefluores-
cing species,which becomevisibleover the courseof our un-
foldingjourney;in this way, the technologyhelps to illuminate
the creaturesand phenomenathat the Yawanawá‘have always
known’.^11 The representationalstrategiesused by Wallworthand
her team to visualiseHushahu’sexperiencesresonatewith the
secondof two documentaryapproachesidentifiedby visual
anthropologistJay Ruby. The first is to imprintthe filmmaker’s
vision on the world and the material;this positionsfilmmak-
ing as a ventriloquialact throughwhichthe directorspeaks.
The other is to attemptto rendertheir subjects’experienceof
the world throughavailablefilmic techniques.^12 InAwavena,
Wallworthhas incisivelyused technologyto capturefirsthand
accountsof the Yawanawá’straditionalcultureand worldview
via Hushahu.The medicine-inducedjourneyis long and chal-
lenging for her – and for us, as we listen to and see this world84 • Metro Magazine 201 | © ATOM