Humanature Relationships During the Anthropause was a collaborative installation developed during a residency at the B2 Center for Media, Art, and Performance by artists and CMCI alumni Roberto Azaretto, Joanne Marras Tate, Brad Gallagher, and Steven Frost. Inspired by Joanne Marras Tate’s dissertation research, the project invited audiences to consider how human-made sounds affect whales, and how the global slowdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, known as the "Anthropause," created new opportunities to study whale communication in quieter oceans.

The installation featured a 270-degree video environment, projection mapping, and motion capture, creating an immersive audiovisual experience. The actions of vistors would change the sound and images in the installation, mirroring and abstracting the impact human interaction has on whales in the wild. A complementary reading room allowed visitors to explore whale recordings, explore artifacts from CU’s Natural History Museum, and learn more about the environmental consequences of underwater noise pollution.

Humanature Relationships During the Anthropause was made possible through the generous support of the B2 staff and was presented with funding from the College of Media, Communication, and Information, the Roser ATLAS Institute, NEST Studio for the Arts, and the Media Archaeology Lab.

The installation was open to the public in September 2023 at the ATLAS B2 Center on the University of Colorado Boulder campus.