Signs of Life is an ongoing series of “camera trap operas,” whereby large data sets containing images of wildlife are scored by musicians and performed live for an audience.

Episode 1: Directed by Chase Niesner. With musical accompaniment by AfterEnya (Chris Mckelway and Matthew Doyle) and Georgia Lill. Scientific study design and data collection led by Chloe Nouzille with the National Park Service. Curated by Luis Motta of ATTOM.

Grand Theft Eco is a three-part animated “machinima” series about environmental change and its consequences for a major metropolis. In collaboration with the Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies at UCLA (LENS), the animation is being developed on the basis of “modding” the storyworld of the video game Grand Theft Auto V to produce a new vision of ecological futures in Los Angeles.

Produced by Danny Snelson and Ursula K. Heise. With visual direction, cinematography and editing, by Chase Niesner and Alexander Shassetz. Virtual Worldbuilding by Danny Snelson and Angel Tolentino. Written by Emma Barnosky, Ursula K. Heise, Reuben Martens, Spencer Robins, Samantha Solís, Shouhei Tanaka, and Clara Wilch.

Ponder Soda Co. is a science fiction experiment and a soda company conceived and produced in New Mexico as a collaboration between Chase Niesner and the artist Alison Veit. Ponder Soda proposes a world where soda is made at a monastery that is also a long-term ecological research station.