Encounters in the Virtual Gardens is a collaborative 360° web and video project that explores shared narratives of experiences of social isolation, virtual dislocation and the need for interconnectivity and adaptation during these times. This project offers an expanded cinematic experience that takes viewers through a online journey where they can explore three surreal 360° environments inhabited by animated-collages of isolated bodies. By scrolling and clicking around different elements of the project, viewers trigger a series of sounds, text and images. 

For the first phase of the project, a small number of participants were invited to two workshops to reflect on how we communicate, interact and inhabit physical and virtual spaces during a global pandemic. Participants were invited to explore ideas of how we have re-constructed our surrounding and the way we interact with others during this period of self-isolation and social distancing, while collaborating with the artists, Santiago Tavera and Milton Riaño on the creation of 360° videos and animations. ​Through this workshop and the use of 360 technologies and different audiovisual production techniques, the participants became digital bodies that inhabit the three virtual gardens. This workshop was mediated by curator, Mariza Rosales Argonza.