Tree Official

This virtual-reality project transforms you into a rainforest tree. With your arms as branches and your body as the trunk, you’ll experience the tree’s growth from a seedling into its fullest form and witness its fate firsthand.

Bogota International Film Festival, Bogota, Columbia

World Economic Forum, Tiajin, China

World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland

Forests are critical to the survival of every living thing on earth. They’re a source of air, water, shelter and medicine. Forests are also our best defense against climate change.

The Rainforest Alliance has conserved millions of hectares of forestland worldwide, in partnership with indigenous forest communities, farmers, governments, companies and people like you.

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“Virtual reality has been an increasing Sundance focus, and this project is especially ambitious. Participants won’t just be handed a headset and told to have fun.”

“An attendant wafts a pressurized container of pure earthiness toward me as I wiggle through a hole in the soil and slowly creep toward the sky. I observe fluttering birds, scurrying insects, and monkey shenanigans before bursting through the canopy and gazing at a startlingly beautiful sunset.”

“Tree experience was equal parts chilling and exhilarating.”

“I watched one woman come out of VR crying, having so fully identified with the now fallen tree.”

“Produced by passionate artists, producers, and programmers…the experience features wind, fire, and smells. I loved the earth smell that accompanied me from seedling to sapling. “

“The cocooned use of the headset and earphones is very personal, while 360-degree perspective lets you see what another person sees, and walk in their shoes. But even more so, these works taps into the need for action, beyond emotion.”

“There’s more to the story than the perspective of a growing tree.”

“Besides the rich soundscape, it’s fascinating how the piece melds VR with physicality: before each person starts the experience, they’re asked to actually take a seed and place it in soil behind them, symbolizing their virtual avatar’s creation.”

“As the directors of creative agency New Reality Company, Porter and Zec believe that additional sensory stimulations like vibration and heat make Tree a valuable call to action for inspiring viewers to protect rainforests.”

“Tree, from the duo that offered the powerful war experience ‘Giant,’ tracks you as you move from a seed under the ground to a towering sentry of the rainforest.”

“Tree represents both a continuation of that level of intense personal experience and a departure in technological innovation and creative storytelling terms.”

“With precisely controlled physical elements including vibration, heat, fan, and body haptics, the team created a fully immersive virtual reality storytelling tool, where the audience no longer watches but is transformed into a new identity.”

“It’s incredibly confronting, very moving, and it gets the message across in only a few minutes with a story with an incredible arc,” [Sundance programmer Hussain] Currimbhoy said.”

“An interactive and realistic Amazon environment.”

“And a three-hour wait accompanied “Tree,” a haptically enhanced virtual experience by artists Milica Zec and Winslow Porter that follows the life cycle of a rainforest tree.”