WILD NATURES team participating in inaugural WORLDING Lab

We’re excited that Wild Natures, a co-created initiative with artists and young adults on probation, has been selected to be part of the inaugural WORLDING programme developed by Unity Technologies and the Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab.

About Wild Natures

Young people and artists will explore the intersection of criminal and environmental justice, through the co-creation of an interactive gaming artwork.

Led by artist Hwa Young Jung, Wild Natures considers ideas of what is ‘natural,’ what belongs where and who makes these decisions. This will be explored from the perspective of young adults on probation.

Often an unrecognised voice in the environmental discourse, marginalised young people will have space to share, imagine and create future states, climates and communities.

WORLDING is a first of its kind research and development initiative, exploring climate futures at the intersection of documentary, land-use planning, speculative modelling and game-engine technologies. The WORLDING 2022 workshop brings together an international cohort of five teams with storyworld projects in development for a week-long, intensive knowledge-sharing programme.

Wild Natures lead artist Hwa Young, with artist Angela YT Chan and AND Director Ruth McCullough are participating in a series of intensive workshops over two weeks in September & October, where they will be given the opportunity to develop the project with researchers and makers from MIT, Unity team members and expert collaborators from gaming, music and the performance industries.

They will be exploring the possibilities for 3D game-engines for community-based, cross-disciplinary approaches to both imaginative and tangible climate futures.

“Now more than ever, we need to forge shared narratives about the world that we live in today and the world that we want to build for the future. Technology can help us visualise and communicate those worlds, and Unity is thrilled to support changemakers and worldbuilders who are doing this important work” said Marina Psaros, Head of Sustainability at Unity.

Find out more about the programme on the WORLDING website, as well as the amazing cohort of projects selected through the international open call.

Wild Natures is led by socially engaged artist Hwa Young Jung.
The WORLDING workshop was supported by Angela YT Chan, and produced by Abandon Normal Devices.
The project is developed in partnership with The Howard League for Penal Reform and criminologist Dr. Will Jackson from Liverpool John Moores University