"USYNLIG NISSE" or "Invisible Gnome" is an Android smartphone game crafted with the purpose of improving our ability to blend seamlessly into natural environments while traversing its trails. Inspired by explorations and strolls in Norwegian forests, this experimental game is a direct response to the rising imprint of human presence and its detrimental effects on non-human ecosystems. Enhanced by an AI system and combined with Augmented Reality, the app possesses the capability to analyze and categorize various human-made sounds generated by the player during their expedition. Upon completing each trail, participants are rewarded with points and corresponding rewards in proportion to their concerted efforts to maintain discretion and harmonize with the natural surroundings.

USYNLIG NISSE is a work in progress, conceptualized and designed by Dr. Erik Geslin. Christian Kollbaer, a NUC alumni has also actively contributed as a Unity developer. 

"BBEE," or "Becoming Bee," is a PC and VR video game that invites players to step into the shoes—or rather, the wings—of a bee. This virtual experience offers a unique glimpse into a bee's challenging life amidst the Anthropocene era. While primarily designed for online gaming, its adaptability makes it suitable for exhibitions in museums, galleries, and other public spaces.

Guided by a bee's viewpoint, players immerse themselves in a day's labor within the microcosmic world of this vital insect. Visualized through intricate point clouds, this perspective reveals the bee's struggle to distinguish healthy plants from those tainted by pesticides. "BBEE" is intrinsically biocentric, drawing us to center our awareness on the existence of even the tiniest life forms. It confronts players with the striking reality of these creatures, presently imperilled due to human activities and lack of care.

BBEE is a work in progress, conceptualized and designed by Dr. Erik Geslin in collaboration with Dr. Filipe Pais.

Early on, artists recognized the transformative power of play and began integrating it into their works for diverse purposes – from escapism and social construction to subversion and criticism of society, politics, and even gamification systems.

Playmode, a collective exhibition curated by Filipe Pais and Patrícia Gouveia, brings together a diverse range of artworks that explore social, political, environmental, and existential issues, viewed through the lens of games and playfulness. Featuring the contributions of over 40 international artists, the show made its debut at MAAT in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2019, and subsequently went on a journey to CCBB in Belo Horizonte (03.2022), Rio de Janeiro (07.2022), São Paulo (10.2022), and Brasília (02.2023), in Brazil. The two iterations of the exhibition attracted more than 245,000 visitors.

Among the showcased artworks, pieces like "Everything" by David O’reilly (2017), "Phone Story" by Molleindustria (2011), "San Andreas Streaming Deer Cam" by Brent Watanabe (2016), and "Huni Kuin" by Guilherme Meneses, Bobware, and Beya Xinã Bena, are deeply connected with the non-anthropocentric research strand at the core of CNAP. Hence, this show, and the research behind it, are one of the inspiring foundations of the CNAP.  

"USYNLIG NISSE" or "Invisible Gnome" is an Android smartphone game crafted with the purpose of improving our ability to blend seamlessly into natural environments while traversing its trails. Inspired by explorations and strolls in Norwegian forests, this experimental game is a direct response to the rising imprint of human presence and its detrimental effects on non-human ecosystems. Enhanced by an AI system and combined with Augmented Reality, the app possesses the capability to analyze and categorize various human-made sounds generated by the player during their expedition. Upon completing each trail, participants are rewarded with points and corresponding rewards in proportion to their concerted efforts to maintain discretion and harmonize with the natural surroundings.

USYNLIG NISSE is a work in progress, conceptualized and designed by Dr. Erik Geslin. Christian Kollbaer, a NUC alumni has also actively contributed as a Unity developer. 

BBEE (2023)

"BBEE," or "Becoming Bee," is a PC and VR video game that invites players to step into the shoes—or rather, the wings—of a bee. This virtual experience offers a unique glimpse into a bee's challenging life amidst the Anthropocene era. While primarily designed for online gaming, its adaptability makes it suitable for exhibitions in museums, galleries, and other public spaces.

Guided by a bee's viewpoint, players immerse themselves in a day's labor within the microcosmic world of this vital insect. Visualized through intricate point clouds, this perspective reveals the bee's struggle to distinguish healthy plants from those tainted by pesticides. "BBEE" is intrinsically biocentric, drawing us to center our awareness on the existence of even the tiniest life forms. It confronts players with the striking reality of these creatures, presently imperilled due to human activities and lack of care.

BBEE is a work in progress, conceptualized and designed by Dr. Erik Geslin in collaboration with Dr. Filipe Pais.

Playmode
(2019—2023)

Early on, artists recognized the transformative power of play and began integrating it into their works for diverse purposes – from escapism and social construction to subversion and criticism of society, politics, and even gamification systems.

Playmode, a collective exhibition curated by Filipe Pais and Patrícia Gouveia, brings together a diverse range of artworks that explore social, political, environmental, and existential issues, viewed through the lens of games and playfulness. Featuring the contributions of over 40 international artists, the show made its debut at MAAT in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2019, and subsequently went on a journey to CCBB in Belo Horizonte (03.2022), Rio de Janeiro (07.2022), São Paulo (10.2022), and Brasília (02.2023), in Brazil. The two iterations of the exhibition attracted more than 245,000 visitors.

Among the showcased artworks, pieces like "Everything" by David O’reilly (2017), "Phone Story" by Molleindustria (2011), "San Andreas Streaming Deer Cam" by Brent Watanabe (2016), and "Huni Kuin" by Guilherme Meneses, Bobware, and Beya Xinã Bena, are deeply connected with the non-anthropocentric research strand at the core of CNAP. Hence, this show, and the research behind it, are one of the inspiring foundations of the CNAP.