An Indigenous Future
Toronto Reimagined
Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square is flooded in knee-deep water, trees grow through cracks in the sidewalks and vines stretch across downtown buildings, while Torontonians grow food on rooftops and commute through the city via canoe. That’s the “Toronto of tomorrow” reclaimed by nature and indigenous culture in the interactive VR project Biidaaban: First Light directed by Lisa Jackson and produced by the National Film Board of Canada. In experiencing this new Toronto, users are encouraged to think about their place in history and ultimately their role in the future. Through its effective use of spatial navigation, Biidaaban has changed the way I perceive my city and the people who inhabit it now.
I entered Biidaaban through a VR headset provided in a private booth set up at Nathan Phillips Square. As with most VR experiences, it is necessary to physically move in order to change the view or interact with the space. Curtains created an environment that helped my mind focus on the surrounding visuals rather than what lay beyond the booth making the simulation feel more immersive. However, at times, it could feel limiting. The environment created in VR was so compelling, that I wanted to be able to further inspect it.
Throughout the narrative, each participant visits different settings such as a flooded Ossington subway station with vacant canoes, a nearby rooftop overlooking a green and deserted Nathan Phillips, and the square itself among other areas. We were not asked to complete any tasks or go to a specific checkpoint but rather given the freedom to roam. In her influential book, Hamlet on the Holodeck, Janet Murray discusses the narrative possibilities of new media and claims that “the ability to move through virtual landscapes can be pleasurable in itself, independent of the content of the spaces”. I realized this to be true as I was eager to explore as much of each familiar yet totally reinvented location as I could without feeling the pressure of having something to do.
Although Lisa Jackson chose not to guide or provide any explicit motive or direct explanation within each setting, the stark change in so many familiar Toronto neighbourhoods and landmarks made an impactful statement. The imagined scenery reflects an indigenous perspective when it comes to nature; one of give and take, of peaceful exchange. Frequent writer and journalist on interactive gaming, Emily Bembeneck, argues that: “locations carry meaning in themselves and communicate temporal significance through their changes” . Witnessing an urban environment transformed by nature made me wonder what it was like when Indigenous people inhabited Toronto, and of all the stages that got us to where we are today. I also began to question my own influence on our increasingly urban, concrete, and artificial world.
Additionally, I found the agency granted from spatial navigation made the experience more compelling and realistic. The ability to freely examine and analyze our surroundings is an accurate representation of how we move through our world. This goes to show, as Janet Murray further suggests, that “when fans are able to explore the world, ask questions of it, and discover new and consistent facts about it, then their belief increases as a result of their actions and they experience the active creation of belief”. It felt as if I had travelled through time and was dropped off in this frighteningly real and new world that was mine to explore. The experience became so authentic and immersive that at one point I looked down expecting to find my feet in the visuals.
The creators allotted a short yet satisfying set amount of time for the user to explore each site. As a result, I naturally increased my awareness of every detail and sound of my surroundings; wanting to soak it all in before travelling to the next setting. Despite my attentiveness and scrutiny of all the details, the lack of guidance and the limited time resulted in me missing some aspects or objects within each setting. That gave myself and many others added incentive to experience it again. One user mentioned after her second time in Biidaaban that she looked specifically for a turtle perched on a rock, an object she had missed the first time, but found satisfaction and excitement once she successfully found it.
This heightened state of consciousness stayed with me even after the experience was over. When I walked home from the square, I made an effort to listen to the languages spoken and written around me, and take note of the passing faces and landscapes. As such, I believe that the creators of Biidaaban achieved their mission of guiding people to think about their reality and surroundings of the time in history they are currently experiencing. Fully being present in this different and new world allowed a more personal connection to it. I had not known the intended outcome for the project before going in, but still found myself pondering my place in time and history as the creators hoped for.
