Kelsey Boncato

The film traces the cultural and environmental influences of a soil-dwelling, pathogenic fungus, Coccidioides immitis, and its associated disease, valley fever, in California's Central Valley. Interweaving past, present and mythological time, the film draws upon historical and cultural references, including the plight of migrants during the Depression, the spread of the disease in recent years, contemporary theories of climate change, and the significance of the desert wind in ancient Assyria. In Ruperto and Keagy’s film, natural phenomena remain neutral, fleeing from any kind of judgment and avoiding binary oppositions of positive and negative, destruction and regeneration, life and death.

Get lost in a hand-drawn landscape of bristlecone pine trees, sculpted organic matter, and transmuted strains of earthy-electro sounds. A timed, meditative experience begins as the user glides through the sculptures and spatialized musical elements of the virtual space by swinging their arms with touch controllers as if walking.