Umwelt is a playful digital meditation on the idea of home, habitat and the environments we create to make community. Using the aesthetics of zoos, terrariums and ant-farms, Umwelt is a digital display that provides the viewer an intimate glimpse into a virtual environment. The term Umwelt is used to describe a living organism’s specialized or particular perception of its world. Here, this environment is populated by “Osvalden,” virtual organisms who eat, sleep, defecate, dance and die in within the confines of the display . The creatures are experiencing “life” in their own “Umwelt “ as we peer at them from ours.

Performed in 2005 at the Scope Art Fair in NYC and at the Revolving Museum in Boston,  Ratboy was a low-tech virtual reality experience. Audience members were outfitted with special goggles and headphones and sent into the cave of the mysterious and obnoxious RatBoy.