Most Ancient

Diatribes is a surreal virtual reality narrative exploring climate anxiety through the psychological barriers that prevent us from confronting ecological collapse. Rather than issuing calls to action, it turns inward, revealing the stagnation that accumulates when we struggle with the incomprehensible. Participants are placed inside an obstacle course where emotions become architecture, interactions become metaphors, and the body becomes a tool for reflection. Inspired by philosopher Timothy Morton's concept of climate change as a "hyperobject," a phenomenon so vast it can be understood intellectually but never fully perceived, Diatribes uses surrealism to illuminate the gap between knowing and feeling.

The experience unfolds across four interconnected rooms: Avoidance, Blind Hope, Mourning, and Reflection. In the Avoidance Room, a sensory overload of food distracts the player, symbolizing our tendency to consume rather than confront. The Blind Hope Room critiques the allure of quick fixes; here, the player must continuously pump air to keep plants alive, emphasizing the need for sustained, collective effort. In the Mourning Room, marbles representing lost species are thrown down a spiraling wishing well, evoking grief and cyclical time. The Reflection Room invites players to consider what enables, or prevents, them from confronting the climate crisis.

These spaces are linked by transitional passages that shift the player from intimate encounters to a distant perspective on the climate crisis. One passage places players inside an endless stream of flood imagery. Fearmongering headlines and absurdist humor are plastered across half-submerged walls, echoing the experience of scrolling through climate news while the world outside quietly decays. These shifts reflect how perception changes with proximity, where collapse moves between the real and the abstract.

A narrator who is part self-help guru and part fortune teller is always close at hand. Players may feed the narrator coins in exchange for advice, which ranges from insight to rambling diatribes. The narrator reflects the competing commentary that shapes contemporary conversations about climate change, leaving players to decide what is worth believing.

Diatribes is an attempt to confront the emotional extremes that define our relationship to crisis, the way feelings ricochet between urgency and numbness, clarity and denial. Although the threat is increasingly visible, its scale remains difficult to grasp. By translating these internal conflicts into physical experience, the work invites participants to sit with that contradiction: to feel what we already know. Forms do not take shape so much as disfigure, and visibility itself becomes uncertain. This is the realm of change.

About the Artist

Most Ancient designs printed books and virtual worlds. Our work explores themes of climate anxiety, emotional geography, and the invisible systems that shape people’s perceptions. We design for slowness, creating immersive experiences and artist’s books that invite reflection, disorientation, and new ways of sensing the world.

Our projects have been supported by Meta, HTC, Gray Area, and Kala Art Institute, and featured at Printed Matter, Sónar+D (2025), IndieCade (2024), and Slamdance (2025). Our books are in the collections of MoMA, SFMOMA, and the Library of Congress. Members have also taught immersive storytelling and interactive design at Stanford, CCA, Pratt, and Otis.

Our Team: Veronica Graham - Director / Writer / 3D Artist Julia Kim - Music Composition / Sound Designer Holly Newlands - Gameplay Programmer / Technical Artist Sharleen Chen - Creative Lead / Interactive Design / 2D Artist Megan Clement - Voice Actor