Natalia Cabrera - Portfolio

Role: Co-direction, creative technologist
Technologies: Unity, Blender, XR Interaction Toolkit and the AIRE platform
Date: 2021

Project Description

The second installment in the Symbiotica series, this multi-user XR installation is based on a fictional lichen and invites participants to embody symbiotic entities that collaborate in the erosion of a rock/sculpture to generate fertile soil. Designed for three simultaneous users, each person inhabits a different symbiotic avatar: a cyanobacterium, an alga, or a fungus. Through choreographed movement, vocal emissions, and shared gestures, participants weave ephemeral connections that sustain an interdependent network. The experience offers a sensory reflection on non-verbal coordination, collective agency, and the possibilities of cohabiting from a more-than-human perspective.

The installation is centered around a physical sculpture representing the rock, merging real and digital elements through Mixed Reality technology using Meta Quest 3 headsets. It was created during the international Spatial Affairs residency at the Museum of Art and Photography (Bangalore, India), organized by HEK (Switzerland), MAP (India), and Tabakalera (Spain), with the support of Pro Helvetia and the technical collaboration of iart, developers of the AIRE platform for multi-user XR experiences.

My role was co-creator and creative technologist. Together with Juan Ferrer, I took part in the conceptualization, research, and XR experience design. I developed mechanics inspired by symbiotic systems and interspecies coordination, as well as integrated sound, visual, and spatial elements to create a situated sensory experience. I implemented the design of virtual environments and multiplayer dynamics in Unity using the XR Interaction Toolkit and the AIRE platform, in collaboration with the iart technical team. I also actively participated in the research residency, collaborative prototyping process, and installation setup.