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DETAILS

Earth-Stepper unfolds as a digital folk fable, following a mythic family and a chorus of animal voices on a pilgrimage shaped by ecology, kinship and burial. Across videoworks, soundtracks and virtual worlds, the exhibition presents a series of digital dioramas informed by personal loss and the possibility of renewal. Beetles rejoice, butterflies grieve and rabbits tell tales, carrying fragments of story and song across screens and spaces.

At the centre of the work is an interactive virtual environment composed of wetlands, gardens and burial mounds. As visitors move through this world, texts and sounds are gradually revealed, invoking the logic of videogame walkthroughs and electronic folk music. The narrative follows a mother and son returning a father’s body to his homeland; barred from entry, they bury him beyond the gates with three seeds in his mouth, from which a forest grows. From this act, the story branches outward — into songs, voices and shared memory.

Rather than treating virtual space as escapism, Earth-Stepper approaches it as a site of lament, care and reconnection: a place to imagine an inclusive, contemporary British folk tradition grounded in land, language and community. Developed through practice-led research and collaboration, the work brings together technology, ecology and storytelling to consider how traditions are carried forward, reshaped and held in common.

CREDITS

Artist: David John Scarborough
3D Design & Animation (Additional): Ama Dogbe
Electric Guitar: Issac Robinson
Vocals: Claire Lleshi
Vocal Dubbing (‘Flowers Gone’): Tayler Fisher
Installation: Geoff Diego Litherland

Earth-Stepper was created through research developed with AA2A at Nottingham Trent University, Morphe Arts, New Media Art Club, Six Minutes Past Nine, and was supported by Arts Council England and Near Now.

Earth-Stepper interpolates ideas, excerpts and samples from:
adam amir - Seasoning A Kid: A Search for a Practice of Place
Daisy Black - The Time of the Tree: Returning to Eden after the Fall in the Cornish Creacion of the World
Jeremy Harte - The Mystery of the Green Man
Joanna Calo - The Bear, Season 3, Episode 7, “Legacy”
J.R.R. Tolkien - The Riders of Rohirrim
Pete Seeger - Where Have All The Flowers Gone?
Pete Seeger - Where Have All The Flowers Gone?, arr. Sybarite5
Robbie Arnott - Limberlost
Robert Macfarlane - Landmarks
Robert Macfarlane - The Old Ways
Samuel Beckett - Waiting For Godot
Sarah White - The Quivering Ocean: The Paintings of Magdalena Gluszak-Holeska
Stephen Foster - Slumber My Darling, arr. Charnwood Community Choir
Unknown - The Wanderer, tr. Dr. Ophelia Eryn Hostetter
It also features excerpts of interviews with Corita Kent, Robert Macfarlane and David George Haskell

MATERIALS

Coming soon.

EXHIBITION

Solo exhibition at Haarlem Artspace.

© David John Scarborough 2026

Underlands