EXIT (installation view at UNSW Galleries), 2008-2015. Collection Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris © Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Mark Hansen, Laura Kurgan & Ben Rubin, in collaboration w/ Robert Gerard Pietrusko & Stewart Smith. Photo © silversalt

Natural disasters displace twenty-six million people per year. For perspective, that’s one person every second – or at least two or three since you opened this page.

Combine this number with the millions displaced by violence, economic uncertainty, global warming and deforestation, and you’re faced with what is described in this project’s notes as “a picture of a planet in trouble.”

UNSW Galleries latest installation EXIT visualises this state of urgency on a mammoth scale.

The 360-degree immersive projection zooms in on the perils of the present day, offering a terrifying glimpse of the worst that is yet to come. Taking the form of a large-scale, chaotic animation, EXIT visualises the cold, hard truths surrounding human migration in a world that is fixated on borders. Watch as temperatures soar, sea levels rise, and indigenous land and cultures are diminished beyond repair. Accompanied by the hums of rapid industrialisation and the fading sounds of countless endangered languages, every orbit of the Earth around the elliptical screen brings an additional layer of urgency with it.

Reminiscent of a dystopian computer game, EXIT was created out of data collected from over 100 credible sources. The statistics were run through a programming language where facts are translated into a visual and aural panorama that is too enormous and affecting to ignore.

Incomparable to anything we see in the media, EXIT is devoid of political commentary, and by no means plays the blame game. Instead, the team of talented designers have left the data to speak for itself – and it speaks loudly, in a way that must be experienced first-hand.

Shown at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, EXIT is a powerful example of art’s ability to inform and affect. Catch this important exhibition at the UNSW Galleries until the 25th of March.

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WHAT: EXIT
WHO: Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Mark Hansen, Laura Kurgan & Ben Rubin, in collaboration w/ Robert Gerard Pietrusko & Stewart Smith
WHEN: 7 Jan – 25 March, 2017
WHERE: UNSW Galleries, cnr Oxford St and Greens Rd, Paddington
HOW MUCH: Free – more info here