The Rite of Ten Winds

Bloc Projects, Sheffield, 2026

2-7 MAY 2026

The Rite of Ten Winds is a new interactive VR experience by artist Yambe Tam, which envisions a future symbiosis between science and spirituality, nature and technology in the British countryside. These new relationships unfold through a series of neo-Pagan purification rituals, drawing inspiration from emerging greenhouse gas removal methods, as well as Zen Buddhist and Shinto practices which recognise nature as a sovereign force.

Each ritual examines the key role of more-than-human beings across five virtual environments: a stone circle in a basalt quarry, a labyrinth raceway pool churning with microbes and algae, a pyrolysis chamber in a miscanthus field, a haunted peatland, and an AI-plotted woodland. Viewers’ presence and participation are required to move these slow ceremonial experiences forward, which condense natural rhythms of algae, bacteria, fungi, crops, trees, and rocks into human timescales.

These rituals are positioned as part of a crucial cultural shift, which imagines how sacred places and practices can reorient human motivations toward long term ecological stewardship. They propose a future where biosphere and technosphere converge to reawaken a lost kinship with the earth and combat the climate crisis.

Programming by Albert Barbu.

Music Composition by Seán Clancy.

Supported by CO2RE Hub, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council. Additional support by Broadway’s Near Now using public funding by Arts Council England.