Get lost in the 2D version of a new virtual reality film by digital artist Rick Farin. Multidisciplinary artist Gaika, who provided original music for the film, is our oracle and guide, as we find ourselves on a reflective journey down a de-evolutionary path, “retracing the bell curve of technological advancements, and questioning the materiality of our devices and minds,” LA-based Farin says.

Presented with a sensory-stimulating world where computer and nature are synthesized together on a cellular level, we encounter a myriad of mutated anthropological sites: the caves of Lascaux, a Gothic Cathedral, a primeval forest. “These locations have been infected by a neural-net generated virus,” Farin explains. “Trained on religious iconography and images of microchips, they have produced digital dioramas in which one can revere the symbiotic relationship between technology, thought and nature.”

Farin, who has a Bachelor of Architecture from Cooper Union in New York, says that throughout his studies he was "very interested in the intersection between technology, fiction, and architecture. I was never into the making of buildings but rather the creation of cinematic, fictional worlds. Architects are all science fiction writers." He is currently taking an MA in Fiction and Entertainment at the SoutherN California Institute of Architecture, where he's working on an immersive project.  

Created in association with the Royal Academy of Arts, Cathedrals is a response to Invisible Landscapes, an extensive program at the London institution’s Architecture Studio exploring experimental interventions and the impact of emerging technologies on architecture and society. As its final act, ‘Imagination’, the program will focus on the work of pioneering architectural practices—Gilles Retsin Architecture, ScanLAB Projects, Keiichi Matsuda and Soft Bodies—examining the relationship between virtual and augmented-reality technologies and physical space—how it shapes the way we look at the world around us, both now and in the near future.

Invisible Landscapes is at the Royal Academy of Arts until 1 April. Dates and tickets to Gaika's Heaters 4 The 2 Seaters tour are available here.

Featuring music from Bon Music Vision