Patricia Zimmermann, Charles A. Dana Professor of Screen Studies and Director of the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, co-authored an essay on the VR project SwampScapes for Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism with Dale Hudson from New York University Abu Dhabi (Afterimage (2021) 48 (4): 43–60.https://online.ucpress.edu/afterimage/article-abstract/48/4/43/119153/Project-Review-SwampScapes?redirectedFrom=fulltext)
Water, land, animals, trees, plants, flowers, insects, and humans are entangled with past and present racism and colonialism, built environments, park systems, speculative development, industrial agriculture, and political corruption in the complex ecologies of South Florida’s Everglades.
SwampScapes [http://swampscapes.org] by Elizabeth (Liz) Miller, Kim Grinfeder, and Juan Carlos Zaldivar (2018) is a multi-platformed co-creation that offers a mosaic of multiple issues, politics, and environments in South Florida. As co-director and co-producer Miller puts it, “swamps are everywhere.”
The project consists of an extensive, information-rich website; an interactive Virtual Reality (VR) documentary; seven VR films; a photo exhibition; a swamp symphony; 360-degree landscapes; maps; and educational materials for middle school, high school, and college students.
