Mushroom Cloud is a multi-faceted, participatory, and immersive art experience in Miami, FL, and other coastal cities endangered by rising tides. This artwork exists in augmented reality (AR); in sculptural objects; in the embedded and associated expository “Blueprint” and writings; in the conceptual framework of the blockchain; and in the form of NFTs.
I created an animated AR artwork of a mushroom cloud over the ocean to underscore both the destruction and fragility of all interdependent ecosystems, and to signal human responsibility. As a destabilized ocean stealthily encroaches on all coastlines, the mushroom cloud by contrast arguably remains the most recognizable symbol of man-made cataclysm. Our extractive disrespect for nature has turned nature against us, and we are unprepared for its impact.
The AR drawing explodes up from the ocean surface and then transforms overhead into a cloud of a different kind; a resilient and generative mycelial network (fungal colonies which form the connective tissue of all carbon-based life on earth) in the sky.