Penumbra

Penumbra is adapted from Georg Buchner’s Lenz of 1836. It allows the viewer to interactively navigate a software generated extreme wildfire, using real-time motion tracking of the viewer’s gaze and movement. It comprises a range of site specific and geolocated applications. Extreme wildfires are an entirely new paradigm of fire, unprecedented because of their unpredictable behaviour, monumental scale, extraordinary speed and ability to create their own weather system. This was particularly evident in Lahaina, Hawaii, this year, which was assaulted by three fire storms from different directions. Rather than watching these wildfires as a news thread, Penumbra takes us into the heart of a wildfire and allows it to speak to us with its own powerful voice, full of sadness and trepidation as it immerses us inside our problematic future. Based on real world wildfire data and a geolocated landscape, Penumbra forms a very small part of a much larger five-year project titled Burning Landscapes funded by the Australian Research Council.