The narrative of the Book of Revelation is not just one of apocalyptic destruction; it is also a journey of salvation and unveiling. The Book's positive culmination is expressed in the creation of a heavenly city – referred to as New Jerusalem – that arises from the remains of the old world.
A New Jerusalem is an immersive virtual reality installation that seeks to embody the spirit of this prophesised city. The artwork manifests as a beautiful and illuminated metropolis that is based upon Revelation’s architectural descriptions, and can be experienced through two distinct perspectives as witnessed and related by the Book's narrator, John the Seer.
Unlike other pictorial visualisations of this biblical prophecy that have been created throughout history, the underlying structure of A New Jerusalem is generated solely from the text of Revelation itself that has been translated into a data code form and rendered in four-dimensional virtual space (XYZ plus time). However, the imagined cityscape is also constructed using current Google Maps data of present day Jerusalem, thus offering the possibility that – in the words of theologian Professor Edward Adams – "the new creation is not a wholly unrecognisable place, even if the new Jerusalem is like no city the world has ever seen". Within this context, the artwork asks viewers to contemplate why we should care about our present society and environment if promises of "a new heaven and a new earth"