ASH MEMORIES - VR experience

Virtual museum of fragments of Karst areas affected by fires during summer 2022’s drought

I could survive the disappearance of all the cathedrals in the world, but I could never survive the disappearance of the forest that I see from my window every morning.

Ermanno Olmi

July/August 2022: as a consequence of a long drought, a series of fires devastate some wooded areas of the Karst, a cross-border area between Italy and Slovenia.

According to researchers from the Environment and Territory group of the Department of Agri-food, Environmental and Animal Sciences of the University of Udine, the first estimate of the damage caused by fires (both on the Italian and Slovenian sides) is over 3700 hectares of burnt woodland. Almost 194,000 cubic meters of lost biomass.

The fire has destroyed 32% of the forest stock in the areas affected by the fires.

The recovery of the burned territories could take between 10 and 20 years.

“CENERE MEMORIE” (“ASH MEMORIES”) is a virtual reality experience built with some fragments of Karst areas, collected through 3D scans during the days following the fires.

Like inside a museum, we observe these destroyed leftovers and we listen to the voices of the people living inside the affected areas, telling us what was their experience in fighting the flames.

Each 3D scan is the return of a memory: splinters that emerge from the ashes of burnt trees, and that do not want us to forget what happened. Sharp memories, angular and shattered details.

After all, memory never corresponds perfectly to the reality of lived experiences. Rather, it carries with it only some distinguishable signs of the past, it involves us with different senses and in this way it is capable of bringing the past to the surface, imposing itself on our conscience. Memory is not a simple data archive, but it is something alive that changes with us and modifies our lives.

We believe that memories of this kind, those rising as consequences after a natural disaster, find a common ground in human experiences: our minds are connected in a common sense of sorrow, because, after all, we feel as we are loosing our unique and only Home.

These common feelings are comparable to the ones rising from observing a war scenario. By sharing such evidence, we hope people to become more aware on what to expect in the future years.

Increasing awareness by envisioning such bad scenarios is one of the possible tools (and a powerful one) we can use to move people to act towards a more eco-friendly behavior.

Any fool is capable of destroying trees: they can neither defend themselves nor escape.

(John Muir)

a project by Francesco Scarel 3D scan Stefano D’Alessio, Francesco Scarel, Giacomo Bompan 3D composition the Goodbread Company sound design TreeOrganico - Emanuele Pertoldi, Andrea Peluso, Camilla Isola production Gruppo Area di Ricerca - Dobialab with the participation of CEVI - Centro di Volontariato Internazionale, Udine

francescoscarel.com