Earths to Come is a virtual journey, guided by spatialized sound and immersive animation, into the profound depths of a love poem. Painterly, penciled moving images, interweave with original vocal music conjuring a sense of intimate presence to find vastness and insularity in the simplicity of an 8-line poem by queer icon Emily Dickinson. Earths to Come takes its title from Dickinson’s poem “I have no life but this.” Rather than illustrate the poem, Rose Bond’s penciled animation evokes a sensation of the deeply personal engagement held within its lines. Her hand drawings re-form and choreograph motifs from the poet’s home, her handwritten drafts and the everyday landscape in 1860s western Massachusetts. 

Earths to Come premiered at the 2024 Venice Biennale Cinema Immersive as a communal VR theater location-based experience (LBE) sited within a geodesic dome. Spatial sound was realized in a 15.1 channel diffusion system and broke away from the aurally constructed illusion of the “sweet spot” as it re-centered throughout the collective body of listeners. Space became a dynamic field where acoustic perception unfolded in relation to movement, position, and the presence of others.  

Earths to Come arose organically from the interplay of diverse languages, temporalities, and sensibilities. In this sense, it does not merely advocate for a democratization of listening, but embodies a model of operational democracy, in which the appreciation of individual contributions gave rise to a collective and coherent aesthetic system. The work suggests that nothing is more immersive than reality itself—not only in its tangible dimension, but also in its subtler layers: dream, memory, and imagination. It is in this liminal space that the work takes shape.