CLIMATE IMAGINATION

SensUs XR Panel, Presentations & AR Showcase
Friday, 23 October 2026 · 14:30–16:30 EEST (Riga)
// 07:30–09:30 EDT (Toronto) // 13:30–15:30 CEST (Karlsruhe) // 19:30–21:30 CST (Taiwan)

SensUs Workshop — Artistic Presentations (Case Studies), XR Showcase & Collaborative Research In the framework of RIXC Art Science Festival 2026 — Climate Imagination

Led and moderated by Rasa Smite and Jane Tingley

Working group facilitators: Rasa Smite, Jane Tingley, and Patrick Borgeat (group allocation to be confirmed)

Venue: National Library of Latvia, Level 11, Riga

Participation: Open and hybrid (onsite and online). To receive the Zoom link, please register via Eventbrite.

Introduction

How can sensing technologies, immersive environments, and artistic experimentation extend our perception of environmental change and open new ways of engaging with more-than-human worlds?

This workshop introduces SensUs, an evolving international platform for artistic research in augmented and extended reality, developed by RIXC and its collaborators. Building on the RIXC Festival 2026 theme Climate Imagination, it brings together artistic experiments, international collaborations, and collective research exploring how environmental sensing, data visualization, immersive experiences, and situated artistic practices can contribute to new forms of environmental perception and extended realities.

On Extending Climate Realities

Rasa Smite

How can sensing technologies and immersive environments extend our perception of climate change beyond what is immediately visible or accessible to human senses?

Building on the RIXC Festival 2026 theme Climate Imagination, this presentation explores how artistic research can move from imagining environmental transformations toward sensing, experiencing, and engaging with extended climate realities.

Drawing on Kathryn Yusoff and Jennifer Gabrys’s understanding of climate imagination as a means of developing new ways of sensing, thinking, and responding to environmental change; Chris Salter’s examination of how sensing machines mediate and transform human perception; and Emanuele Coccia’s philosophy of sensible life, which reconsiders the relationship between life, images, and sensory experience, the presentation proposes extending realities as an artistic and research-based approach to engaging with more-than-human environments.

Through examples from environmental sensing, immersion studies, and artistic experimentation, the presentation introduces SensUs, an evolving international platform for augmented and extended reality developed by RIXC and its collaborators. Rather than creating virtual worlds detached from physical environments, SensUs explores how environmental data, sensing technologies, and situated experiences can be translated into spatial and augmented-reality encounters, expanding our capacity to perceive and relate to ecological processes and transformations.

The presentation also considers how these artistic methodologies and international collaborations can open new directions for research and experimentation, connecting Climate Imagination (Riga 2026) with Extending Realities (Liepāja 2027).

References

1.Yusoff, Kathryn, and Jennifer Gabrys. (2011). “Climate Change and the Imagination.” WIREs Climate Change, 2(4), 516–534. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.117
2.Salter, Chris. (2022). Sensing Machines: How Sensors Shape Our Everyday Life. MIT Press.
3. Coccia, Emanuele. (2016). Sensible Life: A Micro-ontology of the Image. Fordham University Press.

Workshop Structure & Contributions

Part 1 — Extending Climate Realities: SensUs AR, Non-Human Perspectives & Data Visualization

The workshop opens with Rasa Smite’s conceptual introduction, followed by Jane Tingley’s perspective on non-human sensing, environmental data visualization, and artistic approaches to more-than-human environments.

Artists from the Canadian SensUs collaboration with SLOlab at York University — Zhino Yousefi, Hrysovalanti Maheras, and Ilze Briede / Kavi — present their works and experiments, alongside Latvian artist Zane Zelmene, who introduces her previously developed SensUs AR work exploring latvāņi (giant hogweed) and its environmental and ecological implications.

The presentations are accompanied by showcases of SensUs AR works, allowing participants to encounter and explore artistic experiments developed through the platform. The format and location of these showcases will be announced.

Part 2 — Extending SensUs: Artistic Fieldwork & International Collaborations

The second part brings together international SensUs collaborations developed through different artistic methodologies: Nordic-Baltic slow travel as artistic fieldwork, residency-based artistic research in Taiwan, and the expanding NAIA Karlsruhe collaboration, including connections with South Korea.

These approaches explore how movement, observation, analogue and digital technologies, situated encounters, and collaborative exchange can generate new artistic experiences and extend the SensUs platform.

Contributions include invited Nordic-Baltic artists (to be confirmed), Daria Mille (NAIA Karlsruhe), and PoHao Chi, Caitlin, Mu-Tuan, and Chia-Yi Chen (Taiwan, remotely).

Part 3 — Collaborative Research: Three Parallel Working Groups

The workshop concludes with three parallel working groups, including one dedicated to remote participants. Facilitated by Rasa Smite, Jane Tingley, and Patrick Borgeat (group allocation to be confirmed), the groups explore:

1. Extending Climate Realities — environmental sensing, immersion studies, and artistic research methodologies.
2. Non-Human Perspectives & Data Visualization — more-than-human perspectives, environmental data, and sensory experiences.
3. Inside SensUs: Building AR Experiences — a practical exploration of the SensUs platform, creative tools, and possibilities for developing new AR works.

Invited international contributors, including Sabrina Durling-Jones (Dubai) and Nina Czegledy (Toronto), will introduce short prepared perspectives as starting points for discussion. Additional participants and selected open-call contributors will be invited to join the collaborative exchange.

Featured Installation & SensUs XR Showcase

Alongside the workshop, Jānis Garančs presents a stereoscopic installation and data visualization interface, accessible throughout the afternoon. An informal demonstration during the break before W3 creates a transition from questions of sustainable digital production toward spatial interfaces, environmental data, and extended realities.

Alongside the presentations and discussions, participating SensUs artists will share and demonstrate their AR works developed through the Canadian, Nordic-Baltic, Taiwanese, German (Karlsruhe) and other international collaborations. Selected works will be accessible for viewing and exploration during the workshop, offering opportunities to experience the artistic approaches discussed in the sessions. Further details about the showcase format and location will be confirmed.

Outlook 2027 — From Climate Imagination to Extending Realities

16:30–17:00 · Rasa Smite and Philippe Sormani

The workshop leads into a closing discussion introducing the conceptual direction of RIXC’s Extending Realitiesprogramme for Liepāja 2027, connecting artistic experimentation, collaborative research, sensing technologies, and new approaches to extended realities.

Programme — 14:30–16:30 (onsite and online) 

Part 1 — SensUs AR platform: Non-Human Perspectives & Environmental Data Visualization

Part 2 — Extended SensUs, Inside SensUs and International Collaborations

Two parallel Sessions: 15:35–16:15

Two facilitated working groups invite participants to explore different approaches to extending environmental perception and developing future SensUs artistic collaborations:

Group 1 (Onsite + Online). Artistic Case Studies & International Exchange
Group 2. (Onsite only) SensUs XR Experimentation & Collective Discussion

Participants & Contributors

Workshop leaders and facilitators

• Rasa Smite — RIXC / SensUs, Latvia–Switzerland
• Jane Tingley — SLOlab, York University, Canada
• Patrick Borgeat — SensUs AR, creative development

Canada — York University / SLOlab

• Zhino Yousefi
• Hrysovalanti Maheras
• Ilze Briede / Kavi

Nordic-Baltic SensUs collaboration

• Invited Lithuanian artists and Nordic-Baltic collaborators (to be confirmed)

Taiwan — remote

• PoHao Chi
• Caitlin
• Mu-Tuan
• Chia-Yi Chen

Karlsruhe / NAIA

• Daria Mille
• Additional NAIA collaborators (to be confirmed)

Invited international working-group contributors

• Sabrina Durling-Jones — Dubai, remote
• Nina Czegledy — Toronto, remote
• Additional selected open-call contributors

Featured installation and showcase

• Jānis Garančs — stereoscopic installation and data visualization interface

Workshop Leaders — Biographies

Rasa Smite (Latvia/Switzerland) is an artist, researcher, and curator working at the intersection of art, science, and emerging technologies. She is co-founder and director of RIXC Center for New Media Culture in Riga and Principal Investigator of the SNSF-funded research project Immersion Studies for Climate Experiences at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). Her artistic research explores environmental sensing, climate data, immersive environments, and more-than-human relationships. Together with Raitis Smits, she has developed internationally exhibited artworks, including Atmospheric Forest and Solarceptors. She is also co-initiator of SensUs, an international platform for artistic experimentation with augmented and extended reality.

Jane Tingley (Canada) is an artist, curator, and Associate Professor of Computational Arts at York University in Toronto, where she directs the Sympoietic Living Ontologies Lab (SLOlab). Her interdisciplinary practice combines interactive installations, responsive environments, and networked technologies to investigate the complex relationships between human and non-human systems. Through projects such as Foresta-Inclusive, she explores environmental sensing, data visualization, and the hidden interconnections of living ecologies. Her artistic research creates embodied experiences that bring together technological experimentation, ecological awareness, and more-than-human perspectives.

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16:30–17:00  Closing Session: Outlook 2027 — From Climate Imagination to Extending Realities

Friday, 23 October 2026 · 16:30–17:00

Rasa Smite and Philippe Sormani

A closing discussion introducing the conceptual direction of RIXC’s Extending Realities programme for Liepāja 2027, connecting artistic experimentation, collaborative research, sensing technologies, and new approaches to extended realities.

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IMPORTANT — VENUE CHANGE!

17:00–18:00 · Break & Transfer to RIXC Gallery

Following the Outlook 2027 session at the National Library of Latvia, the festival programme continues at a new venue: RIXC Gallery, Riga.

18:00 — PROMPTED EVOLUTION

Exhibition Opening & Wine Reception

Artists: Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits
Venue: RIXC Gallery, Riga

All workshop participants and festival guests are warmly invited to join the exhibition opening and reception.