UP/N/ROUTED is an immersive artwork explored through a VR headset. The work portrays a virtual slice of the landscapes I grew up in: the hinterland around an unspecified town in rural NSW. The VR environment is set in a drought-affected gully, surrounded on both sides by eroded river banks.

The focal point of the space is a single, highly detailed, Eucalyptus Camaldulensis - river red gum, an iconic native Australian tree. This central tree, built by digitally scanning the surface of a real-world specimen, rises high above the landscape. The scene is scattered with detritus, rocks and weeds that poke through the sandy riverbed.

The gully also bears signs of human habitation: a ponderous pivot sprayer rests among the crops to the west of the gully. A stormwater overflow pipe juts from the eroded embankment, which is topped by a rusted chain-wire fence of the kind that ubiquitously demarcate light industrial estates on the edge of rural towns where human inhabited zones blend into sparser countryside.

While in its default state the work pursues a visual aesthetic that is representative of the natural physical world, it also contains fantastical elements: Distorted orbs float in the scene that when touched transform the visuals with digitally-filtered overlays.

When exhibited in a gallery the user can explore the work by donning the VR headset and walking in the physical space, with their movements matched in the virtual space. The virtual tree is spatially mirrored in the gallery space with a tree analogue constructed from a hills hoist clothesline festooned in pseudo-foliage made from scavenged cables.