SXSW VR Experience The Atomic Tree Now Available On Within

The SXSW festival took place earlier this month in Austin, Texas, with plenty of immersive 360-degree films and experiences for guests to enjoy. Today WITHIN has announced that one of those films, The Atomic Tree is now available via its virtual reality (VR) app. The Atomic Tree is a ten-minute journey into the life of a very special tree – a 400-year-old Japanese White Pine bonsai that survived the atomic blast in Hiroshima. Adapted from David Haskell’s book The Songs of Trees, the short film was directed by Adam Loften and produced by Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, the creators of award-winning VR experience Sanctuaries of Silence. The synopsis explains that: “The Atomic Tree is a journey into the memories of one of the most revered trees in the world’s 400-year-old Japanese White Pine bonsai that witnessed and survived the atomic blast in Hiroshima. From Japan’s ancient cedar forests and Buddhist temples to the family home in Hiroshima where the pine was nurtured for five generations, this VR experience explores the unbroken chain of living stories held within the rings of this tree. The delicate shape of this bonsai contains sacred forests, human family, and deep time, inviting us to reflect on the living strands of kinship that are woven between human and non-human worlds.”