Desierto Recordado is an immersive virtual reality work that reconstructs four pivotal periods in the history of the Chihuahuan Desert—the largest desert ecosystem in North America. Through 6DoF free navigation and interactive mechanics involving objects and characters, visitors traverse environments shaped through environmental storytelling, where the landscape itself operates as a living archive of geological and human transformation.

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Spanning from the Mesozoic Era to the 16th, 19th, and 21st centuries, the narrative moves from paleontological origins toward historically grounded environments intertwined with the materialization of each period’s imaginaries and belief systems. This temporal arc traces the metamorphosis of a territory shaped by multiple forms of violence—ecological, theological, colonial, industrial, and those linked to contemporary organized crime—while revealing how cultural and symbolic motifs persist across centuries and contribute to the contemporary identity of northeastern Mexico. The project’s historical framework was developed in close collaboration with historian Andrés Gordillo López.

Interactive mechanics place participants within ethically complex situations, from determining the verdict in an Inquisition-era witchcraft trial to intervening in the forced recruitment of children within contemporary narcotrafficking. These decisions transform the virtual environment and frame history as a situated and subjective experience, inviting participants to question the forms of violence normalized in each period.

The journey begins around a desert campfire accompanied by Canto Cardenche—a traditional a cappella singing practice from northern Mexico now at risk of disappearance—emerging as a living lament that embodies the region’s historical wounds and resilience. Blending documentary structure with allegorical elements and critical imagination, the work unfolds as a poetic exploration of territory, memory, and identity.