Relocating the real: experiencing nature in the fifth dimension

To address the theme of the panel, Art, Environment, Interdisciplinarity: New Perspectives in Australian Art Practice, this paper looks at the potential in my work to create an opportunity for a subjective experience of the virtual representation of a natural phenomenon, as a way perhaps, to consider deeper questions about life and the future of our planet. I will discuss various aspects of my interdisciplinary practice-led research project Grow: visualising nature at nanoscale, to show how my investigation into the visualisation of virtual datasets of germinating seeds is leading to the creation and resolution of a major body of work for examination. I will describe how the virtual data from 4D Micro-CT enables an audience to experience seed propagation at a scale enlarged well beyond the natural proportion of the original process. Because I do not want to create purely didactic or illustrative works with this science and technology, I will also discuss how I intend to engage the viewer by using phenomenological methods in order to create sensation, meaning and affect in my work. Therefore I will elucidate why I am proposing that an individuals subjective experience of virtual nature in this work can be considered as an additional fifth dimension.