The Alluvials is a multi-level video game and film that examines the impact of drought and water scarcity in a near-future LA. Told through a variety of non-human and elemental perspectives, including the LA River, a field of Joshua Trees, a pack of wolves that roam the city and a raging wildfire, The Alluvials is a multi-species exploration into the effects of a heating planet and the subsequent climate crisis.

Each level takes on a different gaming genre (first-person shooter, walking simulator, open world, puzzle platform) and reimagines it through a speculative ecological lens. The story unfolds within several custom-built game environments including ‘modded’ versions of the fictional city of Los Santos from Grand Theft Auto 5, 3D scans of LA captured by drone, and ‘hallucinations’ created by merging historical images of the LA river with existing proposals for its redevelopment. The work uses ideas from queer and posthuman game theory to look at different ways of experiencing time and the body. It offers a new sense of agency through gaming  at a time when Los Angeles is dealing with its worst-ever drought and wildfire damage.

Acknowledging Indigenous knowledge and relationships to water, particularly the Tongva People of the Greater Los Angeles Basin, Alice’s project looks to the city’s deep past and underscores nature as an intelligent system and a technology in its own right. By highlighting the consequences of treating water as a commercial resource, rather than a right and necessity for both human and non-human life, The Allulivals invites players to consider their role within the water systems of the future.