For the 2020 virtual burn Portalis De Communicatio (PDC) was uploaded into BRCvr, one of the recognized Burning Man multiverses for virtual burners to experience at full scale. This year’s VR format allowed participants to be transported off into the cosmos and explore fantastical realms. Portals have been hidden throughout each "level" taking virtual burners through a maze of otherworldly experiences.

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The full scale physical artwork is currently planned to be installed at Black Rock City in 2022. While experiencing PDC on the actual playa, participants can record messages with the understanding that their audio clips will be radio telescoped off planet into the cosmos. Additionally, the recordings are filed in an online database that plays on a continuous random loop from each of the surrounding figures. The audio files are filtered so that the voices on the recordings are unrecognizable. Listening to the previously recorded files gives waiting participants examples to help them decide who they might want to leave messages for and what they may want to convey.

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The ongoing, ever evolving goal of PDC is to shift the relationship between an art object and a viewer to that of an interactive framework and participant. The participant is given platform to say whatever they want to whomever they want while maintaining anonymity and the recordings are accessible to anyone and everyone. This allows participants to express themselves without fear of judgement or reprisal which encourages catharsis. Furthermore, empathy is created by hearing our common fears, anger, pain, sorrow, desire, and joy; the entire gamut of human emotion that we all uniquely experience. Finally, by transmitting these messages off planet, PDC is democratizing the voice of humanity, originally conceptualized by the Voyager space probe and it's Golden Record.

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Experience Portalis De Communicatio in VR for yourself here.