“Symbiosis” Virtual Reality Exhibit at Portland Art Museum

Experience Portland Art Museum’s newest exhibit, “Symbiosis,” from Nov. 12 to Feb. 12 at the Center for an Untold Tomorrow building at 934 S.W. Salmon St., Portland. The exhibit is an immersive sci-fi storytelling installation by Dutch design collective Polymorf combining VR headsets and sensors, haptic suits, soft robotics, and taste- and smell-based elements. Symbiosis is a performative, multiuser and multisensory installation in which the human body will be outfitted to merge with technology and nature.

This Extended Reality (XR) storytelling experience will transport participants 200 years into the future where a rich biosphere of mixed life-forms has taken over the earth: human-animal, and human-machine hybrids. In a performative installation allowing each participant to embody one of these symbiotic life forms, they will use all five senses to transform into entirely new beings and envision a post-human world where there is no competition, only symbiosis.

Tickets are $30 or $25 for Portland Art Museum members at portlandartmuseum.org/exhibitions/symbiosis/. Group sales and corporate reservations are available upon request at development@pam.org. Regular museum admission is $25 for adults or $22 for college students and seniors age 62 and older. Admission is free for children 17 and under. A paid adult must accompany children. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays.