The expressions and documenting of modern conflict, natural disasters have shifted to the digital realm.

Those exiled, those having to move and migrate and those inflicting harm have the internet to document atrocities through mediums we know very well, such as social media, videography and photography. Conflict and contention do not only terraform physical landscapes, architectures and natural environments but the untangle landscapes of collective memory thereafter leave a footprint in the digital landscapes through the use of digital documentation.

Now, in the rise of the new generation of the internet, in the form of AR/VR/XR and web 3.0 -comes a new medium to investigate and document disputed landscapes. The question then arises, how does belonging, exile, war, movement, migration connect to digital storytelling, memorabilia and identity? These seemingly unconnected, intangible phenomena, have very sensitive intrinsic meaning and intersections that call for exploration and the forensic of their effects on the art and architectures by those who experience them.

Digital rezoning as digital Terraforming

The physical wounds and transformations of conflicted, disputed landscapes come from radical, robust machinery and armour or neglectful abuse of the natural land. The counter-effect of this would be digital interactive artworks, expressing imagination, memory and blissful hope of how territories SHOULD look and function. Live Architectures a series by Net-AR as example, has created a series of interactive artworks reshaping, rezoning and rethinking by manipulating Google Earth photos. This digital terraforming calls to new imaginations in otherwise disputed spaces, creating new hypothetical place and imaginaries.

Digital Storytelling through the land

While land is certainty bound to the stories of people’s memory, identity and movement, s virtual storytelling shifts the main character and the focus back to the land. ‘Le Lac’ by Nyasha Kadandara, an award-winning VR documentary, personifies the journey of Lake Chad, telling stories of climate change and insurgency of Boko Haram. The lake herself invites the viewer into her home, an invitation and monologue of her tiresome and vulnerble journey through VR.

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