The Patagonia Experience is an immersive art exhibition about Patagonian culture, ecology and conservation science.
Winner of the University of Oregon’s Center for Science Communication Research award for Art and Science Communication, the Patagonia Experience includes screenings of the documentary “Patagonia’s Ice Field of Dreams,” an adventure film about young Patagonians seeing their glaciers for the first time.
After the film’s premiere, we opened the multimedia exhibit. At the heart of the experience is a Virtual Reality tour of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, where participants are transported to a drone’s view above the landscape.
Over the course of the exhibit’s 3 days, over 80 people completed the VR tour of the Icefield, learning about its hydrology and how climate change is affecting the region.
While participants waited to access the VR headsets, they read posters about Patagonian culture, environmental movements, natural history, and conservation efforts.
Finally, participants got their hands on Patagonian craftsmanship, with wools, felting, knives and mate gourds, books of portraits and poetry by Patagonian authors, and indigenous arts including Kaweshkar canoes made of sea lion fur and Mapuche-Huilliche reed weavings.
