‘A house is never the same after a river runs through it …’
Dr Tom Doig worked with XR (Extended Reality) artists Isobel Knowles and Van Sowerwine to help them create an immersive and affecting new artwork about Australia’s unprecedented 2022 climate-change disasters: The World Came Flooding In.
The installation – which features virtual reality, projections, miniatures, photographs and sound – tells stories of flooding in West End (Meanjin Brisbane), Maribyrnong (Naarm Melbourne), Ballina, Gympie and Lismore.
Tom co-wrote and voiced his story of being flooded just six weeks after moving from Aotearoa New Zealand to Meanjin, to commence work as a Lecturer in Creative Writing (see ‘Living underwater in Brisbane’).
Isobel Knowles and Van Sowerine used cardboard and other simple materials to painstakingly recreate the lost homes of each storyteller in miniature. Then, via photogrammetry, the rooms are translated into purposefully lo-fi virtual reality worlds.
The World Came Flooding In premieres at the Melbourne International Film Festival on 21 August: https://miff.com.au/program/film/the-world-came-flooding-in
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/1052852048
Written, Directed, Co-produced and Animated by Isobel Knowles & Van Sowerwine
Featuring: Tom Doig, Antoinette O’Brien and Marina Perkovich
with flood-affected residents from Ballina, Gympie, Lismore & Maribyrnong
https://www.isobelandvan.com/the-world-came-flooding-in
