This environment is about the choice to be in a relationship with nature; and what it means to make that choice with intention.

The world we live in has conditioned us to see nature as a resource, a backdrop, or a problem to solve. But nature exists before us and will exist after us. What is at stake is not nature's survival but our relationship with it–and whether we choose to tend that relationship or abandon it.

The experience: Visitors enter a glowing forest canopy. The environment is already alive- it is bustling with greenery and flora and fauna and it is already beautiful. It does not wait for human presence to begin. Inside, they find a shrine–an offering bowl. Outside the canopy, a collection of foraged offerings sits waiting: seeds, crystals, marbles; small things from the living world. The visitor must choose to pick something up, carry it inside, and place it in the bowl; offer it to the environment surrounding them inside the canopy. The gesture is voluntary, quiet, and is an ancient process. There will be ambient nature sounds and a peaceful melody playing softly in the background to add to the immersion.

When an offering is made, the forest responds–fireflies bloom, the light warms, sakura petals fall. The environment did not change because of human presence; it simply responded to the human choosing to have an active relationship with it. This shows how the world recognizes care when it receives it.

This gesture of offering exists across almost every culture that has maintained a deep relationship with land; Hinduism and Buddhism, Indigenous offerings to the Earth and similar practices for their land, Celtic traditions of leaving something for the living world, etc. These acts of reciprocity have existed within us for a long time, but as humanity’s soul dampens with rapid corruption in society, extreme technological advancement, violence and rampant greed, we have been losing our ways. Ways of remembering that we are not separate from nature but part of it, and that the health of that relationship requires tending.

The emotions I want visitors to carry out are vulnerability–in acknowledging that our current relationship with nature is broken and requires change–and also peace. A sense that a different world is possible. That the future can be soft and full and reciprocal. That healing is available if we choose it. I want a user to understand the relief of existing in this slow, careful manner with nature, and the rewarding feeling of caring for something without ulterior motives. Simply to care.

Additionally, this message matters a lot to me personally. I’m deeply passionate about the environment and genuinely desire a world like the one this installation imagines–where humans, animals, and nature coexist without hierarchy, where reciprocal care replaces extraction, where capitalism and technocentrism don't determine our relationship with the living world. I didn’t explore this utopia as speculative; I explored it as a proposal for something I believe is the answer, and is possible with enough intention and effort.

the idea: the choice to be in a reciprocal relationship with nature is the most important and most neglected act available to us.

the experiential intent: visitors move from passive observer of a living world to active participant in it, through one small, ancient, voluntary gesture.

the contextual frame: in a world structured around extraction and consumption, choosing care is a radical act. this installation proposes that the oldest human practices–offering, tending, reciprocity–are also the most urgent.

audience: this environment is for everyone, because we all need a reality check on our treatment of nature. wherever you come from, whoever you are, we all live inside the same system on the same Earth, and we are failing it. This experience invites a user to step outside of our corrupt world, and remember a different way of being. It hopefully will provide a feeling the user carries with them, as they move on with their lives; to care for our planet, because we only have one singular chance.

Project name context::: ‘Apricity’ is the warmth of the sun in winter–warmth despite cold surroundings; which is the emotional experience I want visitors to have. (that rare feeling of being warmed by something ancient and gentle when everything around you is harsh.) They're entering a world that feels warm and alive and possible despite the cold reality of the world outside the canopy. despite extraction, despite capitalism, despite our broken relationship with nature. It is also an archaic word, which connects to my theme of ancient practices and ways of being that we've lost and are rediscovering.