We are pleased to learn that "Synocene", an art-science-policy project and artwork developed by artists Sam Nester and Marina Wainer with JRC researchers and EC policy officers from the Directorate-General of Environment has been showcased at VOICE Artist Showcase in London.
About the event
The "VOICE Artist Showcase, Practising Eco-Social Futures", brought together members of the VOICE consortium, artists, and a wide range of stakeholders at the Royal College of Art in Battersea, London, in March 2026. Their contributions reflected months of collaboration with communities across Europe, offering insight into local community approaches to ecological and social challenges. The programme combined presentations, screenings, and participatory formats, demonstrating how eco-social practices are shaped through artistic research, experimentation, and care. Rather than focusing solely on final outputs, the event emphasised process, opening up conversations around methods, collaboration, and the evolving role of art in addressing pressing environmental and societal issues.
A video of Synocene was showcased throughout the event.
About Synocene
Synocene is an immersive 360° spatial sound installation that explores a de-centered view of our anthropocentric experience of the natural world. Voices of local communities, the sounds of Natura 2000 forest sites, and the contributions of artificial intelligence all work to imagine a future beyond the Anthropocene. This project is an ever-evolving attempt at a human/non-human/more-than-human perception of the natural world.
Audiences to this work will discover the many narratives created by human experiences of nature in a hybrid writing with AI, along with forest soundscape recordings from within Natura 2000 sites. To achieve the current version of the installation, a citizen engagement workshop took place in the Glengarriff Harbour and Woodland Natura 2000 site (Ireland) with a local community.
Details
- Publication date