Simone Eisler's Future Nature

Future Nature was an AR experience created for Simone Eisler's work in the 2021 Floating Land outdoor art exhibition in Noosa. Her sculptures explored ideas of physical transformation, species evolution, adaptation and the threat of climate change across human, animal and plant worlds.

The digital layer was designed to add another dimension to the visitor experience. Using a mobile device, visitors could move through a virtual underwater scene and hear from a character connected to the themes of the artwork.

Designing AR for an outdoor public art setting is different from designing for an indoor gallery. The experience had to work around an open site, natural light, visitor movement, technical constraints and the way people would approach the artwork without the support of a controlled exhibition environment.

The challenge was to create a digital layer that felt connected to the artist's physical work and the surrounding site, while keeping the interaction simple enough for a public outdoor context.

The final experience allowed visitors to use their mobile device to enter a virtual underwater scene. The digital layer added atmosphere, movement and character-led interpretation around the physical artwork.

Rather than adding information as a separate text layer, the experience used sound, character and spatial framing to help visitors feel closer to the themes behind the work.

This project shows how a digital layer can support an artwork without replacing it. The physical sculpture remained the centre of the experience, while the AR layer added atmosphere, context and an additional way into the artist's ideas.

It also shows the practical difference between indoor and outdoor digital experience design. The site, lighting, movement and lack of controlled visitor flow all shaped the interaction.

Future Nature connects to my current practice because it explored how digital experience can sit beside a physical object or place and help people understand it in a more embodied way. The current work is often lighter and more mobile-web focused, but the same question remains: what kind of digital layer helps someone understand what they are encountering without pulling them away from it?