ATMOSPHERIC FOREST
VR installation by Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits

ZHdK Immersive Arts Space
Toni-Areal, Research room 3.F03
Pfingstweidstrasse 96, Zurich

Exhibition & Research Viewing Sessions

15–26 June 2026
Mon–Fri, 11:00–18:00

A virtual reality experience exploring relations between forest ecosystems, atmospheric processes and climate change through environmental data visualization and spatial sound in immersive environments.

The exhibition includes a short research questionnaire conducted by environmental psychologists.

Public Events

Reception — Friday, 19 June, 18:00
Finissage — Friday, 26 June, 18:00

Free public admission during reception and finissage.

VR Visits by Registration

Due to limited capacity (2 VR headsets), weekday visits require advance booking.

Register to reserve a free 15-minute VR experience slot:
https://xoyondo.com/dp/r3gg53sz5j9jkwo

Atmospheric Forest visualizes the complex relations between the forest, climate change and atmosphere. Trees are not only oxygen generators, but they breathe as well, and emit large amounts of volatile organic compounds into the air – we recognize it as a habitual scent of the forest. Scientists have long known about the link between a fragrant forest and the warming climate, but are uncertain about the impact and scale. 

Atmospheric Forest VR artwork is the outcome of a three-year artistic research project on Pfynwald, an ancient Swiss Alpine coniferous forest suffering from drought due to climate change; the scientists from WSL Research Institute have turned this forest into a “living observatory”. 

To create the Atmospheric Forest VR artwork, the artists scanned the Pfynwald creating a virtual point cloud environment, and visualized the data provided by scientists. The data sets collected during one growing season included measurements of volatile emissions, resin pressure in pine tree trunks and changing weather. The artists transformed these data into animated particle flows, revealing the complex interaction between the forest ecosystem and atmospheric processes. 

The viewer can navigate through the emitting trees and virtual forest with observation towers, pink labels attached to the plants, measuring 'bonds' around the trunks, and other scientific 'artifacts'. The viewer also can observe the forest from the bottom up, and follow the path inside the tree trunk to go far up above the forest, becoming a part of the emitting ecosystem…

Uncertainty regarding the forest emission effects on climate change remains. However, the visualized data patterns show that with climate change we are set for a more fragrant and more 'atmospheric forest' in the future. 

The VR installation is exhibited as a part of mit dem PgB Projektteam  „Von der Behauptung zur Evidenz“ (ZHAW und ZHdK) von Swissuniversities 

Originally Atmospheric Forest (2020), VR experience and immersive artwork by Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits is a part of the “Ecodata–Ecomedia–Ecoaesthetics” research project (2017–2021), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation,  hosted by the Academy of Art and Design (FHNW) in Basel (PI Yvonne Volkart), in collaboration with the scientists from Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL).