ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Will your grandkids build only digital sandcastles? What ghosts may roam the riverbanks of tomorrow's virtual nature? Hear Sami-language novelist Sigbjørn Skåden and game designer Ismet Bachtiar and host Christine Cynn how the idea of virtual nature entered the X fiction world, now being developed for publication in 2019. Personalize a scenario with the online story generator on the hello X WRITE page at https://hellox.me/write/
Virtual nature was originally proposed by writer Sigbjørn Skåden as a substitute for the actual outdoors for X in 2068 in Northern Norway. Ismet and Christine are currently setting a new short story within the fictional virtual nature for an augmented reality story experience X50, to be launched in central Tromsø autumn 2019. Listen to the three discuss privatization, sea level rise, nostalgia and loss in the Arctic. We discuss what places we might like to upload into virtual nature for X, and the stories attached to these places.
Virtual nature is one element in a fiction world being developed in experimental story workshops with writers, artists, scientists and young people in Northern Norway and internationally. The first story experiments date back to 2011 and became intensive in 2016 as the core project of the startup arts/media organization Ice-9 in Tromsø, Northern Norway. For more information listen to episode 1: Who is X? and read ABOUT hello X and Ice-9 here.
More from Sigbørn Skåden on the ghost children that live on the riverbanks by his childhood home in Northern Norway (from https://www.versopolis-poetry.com/poet/67/sigbjrn-skden)
Notes From a Backwoods Saami Core (from 19 to 24)
Note 19
Down by a place where two rivers meet there is a meadow. If the time is right he who passes here will hear infants crying. These are the unwanted new-borns, left here to die by a desperate father or mother. Every seventh year these children return to the place where they were abandoned. We call them eahpádusak, human apocrypha trapped between existing and never having existed. That is why they return. That is why they cry. Only by performing an ancient baptising ritual all may be alleviated. Only then it will all be over.
Original text prepared for a workshop with teenagers in Longyearbyen, Svalbard October 2018 by Sigbjørn Skåden with performance maker Leo Kay (UK). More about the development of this character and scenario in the hello X MEET forum:
X is a young woman, 23 years of age. She lives in a town by the sea. X is single, but shares a three bedroom flat with two other people. Her work is an administrative officer position at the local branch of a global clean water resource company called Mountain Fresh. The company owns all lakes and waterways in the region surrounding X’s town, and clean water is being carried in pipes down to the seashore and pumped onto tanker ships that transport Mountain Fresh clean water to destinations around the world.
Question 1: What would X be like if you were to decide? Describe her in 3 words.
Question 2: How does X feel about being single?
Question 3: What is it like to work for Mountain Fresh?
X’s town is governed and regulated by the municipality, but in addition to the surrounding water resources Mountain Fresh has bought up all land in a huge belt completely surrounding the town, so every passing in and out of town by train, bus or car is taxed by the company. If you however travel by air you avoid the Mountain Fresh travel tax, so air travel is cheaper and preferred by most people in town even for relatively short distances. Also the sea has not yet been opened for private ownership, so it is possible to travel for free by boat to places outside the Mountain Fresh Belt, by locals simply referred to as “The Belt”. But boats are in demand, and thus expensive.
X is an only child and was not raised in the town where she lives, so she has no family there. Her parents live in a smaller township 25 minutes away by mini plane, 1 hour by train, 1,5 hours by bus. When X goes travelling outside The Belt it is most often to visit her parents.
(Consult X’s economy below to answer questions)
Question 4: How does X travel when she goes outside The Belt?
Question 5: How often does X go to visit her parents?
Question 6: What are X’s parents’ jobs?
X adores nature. “Nature” is also the name of a nature reserve developed by Mountain Fresh, a part of the The Belt that has not been developed for industry. Here it is possible to experience unspoiled nature, there are spots for camping, a lush forest with loads of paths and also a lake and a river that haven’t been piped. Since X works for Mountain Fresh she gets discounted tickets for Nature. She also has access to a nature VR app, that offers a copy of Nature in The Belt as one of the options. It almost feels like being in nature for real, the only thing the app lacks is a smell function.
Question 7: How often does X go to real “Nature”?
Question 8: What is X’s favourite destination in the VR nature app?
Question 9: How does nature feel when there is no smell?
X goes for walks in town, most often down to the shore. Sometimes she buys a wrap and a bottle of water from one of the vending machines on the shore and just sits there looking out to sea. When X was little there used to be seagulls everywhere, but now there are almost no seagulls left. The seagulls that have survived have all moved into towns, and there is actually a pack of 10-12 seagulls still in X’s town. But they behave weirdly, not at all like seagulls behave in her nature app. They move in packs, like wolves used to do, and normally you don’t see them at all, but if they suddenly appear where you happen to be they have been known to attack people, especially if they walk alone. When X goes to the sea shore she always carries a solid umbrella, even if it doesn’t rain. But it rains pretty often anyway.
Question 10: What is the content of X’s favourite vending machine wrap?
Question 11: What does X think about seagulls?
Question 12: What have the locals named the pack of seagulls that hang out in town?
Question 13: What other things could X do in her spare time and what would it cost?
X’s economy
The currency X uses is the global currency bitcoins. Bitcoins are split into centibicoins and then into millibitcoins.
Bitcoin value in 2068
1 bitcoin = 100.000 old Norwegian kroner. (ONC)
1 centibitcoin (1/100 bitcoin) = 1000 old Norwegian kroner.
1 millibitcoin (1/1000 bitcoin) = 100 old Norwegian kroner.
Earnings
X’s yearly wages: 10 bitcoins
Expenses X must pay
Yearly rent: 5 bitcoins
Yearly food expenses: 4 bitcoins
Things X might buy (she needs to prioritize)
A small private boat: 25 bitcoins
A small private car: 1 bitcoin
MF tax for cars driving through “The Belt”: 5 centibitcoins
Flight to parents’ town: 2 centibitcoins
Train to parents’ town: 7 centibitcoins
Bus to parents’ town: 5 centibitcoins
One day in “Nature”, MF company discount: 25 centibitcoins
VR equipment for nature app: 1 centibitcoin
Yearly subscription to nature app: 5 millibitcoins
Walk to seashore: Free
Umbrella: 5 millibitcoins
Vending machine wrap: 2 millibitcoins
Half litre bottle of Mountain Fresh water: 1 centibitcoin
LINKS:
More writing from Sigbjørn Skåden: https://www.versopolis-poetry.com/poet/67/sigbjrn-skden
About Ismet Bachtiar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ismet-bachtiar-4532a051/
Personalize an X story on https://hellox.me/write/
https://www.facebook.com/message2X/videos/1939985352744254
