Elevator Pitch "Fading Forest"
Imagine this! What if you were to enter into a space, greeted with an amalgamation of brightly lit, acrylic "trees," elegantly towering over your head and hanging on the ceiling above you? Musical sounds of wildlife and gentle rustling of leaves envelope the atmosphere of the forest. Suddenly without a warning, the equilibrium becomes disrupted! The lively music turns into petrifying chainsaws and one of the trees is no longer greenly illuminated. You are awakened with the harsh reality that a tree has been chopped down (its physical aesthetic changed from upright to bent). Simulations of forest fires "engulf" the forest, with the green illumination of the trees changing to red. Accompaniments of crackling and depressing fusions of tones ravage the atmosphere. You are subjected further to experience an emulation of real forest data from an online platform through our installation (speaker and light outputs). Our aim at Fading Forest is to have you, as the participants, as the keys to reversing the acts of deforestation, through a simple touch of an RFID tag and through your own desired light source.
Experience & Interaction Models
What if we had each of the 12 trees represent for example 3 million trees (36 million trees in total), 5 trees can be cut down (15 million) and all 12 trees can be set on fire (36 million). According to the Global Forest Watch statistics of the whole Canada, over 36 million trees have been lost between 2001 to 2016. We can use the Global Forest Watch data to emulate a similar result to how many trees have been lost due to acts of deforestation as well as how many have been recovered due to reforestation. For example, to arrive at approximately 36 million in loss, 12 trees need to be lost, which would be in the first cycle of the chopping and forest fire modes. Once they are lost, we can have an output from the speakers saying “36 million trees have been destroyed, Canada has a tree cover loss from their boreal forest of 36,012,930 between 2001 to 2016.” In this case, if 3 trees were replanted, the output would be, “you have replanted 9 million trees, Canada had a tree cover regain of 9,107,212 between 2001 to 2016." This process can be done for as many countries as we would like. An appropriate scaled number will be chosen based upon the data gathered from the countries we would like to include. There will be a continuum number of trees destroyed and replanted, which are increased after every cycle of activation.
- Integrating the sound of animals and insects to provide a more immersive and realistic feel to the forest space. Beginning with a serene and lively atmosphere, it aims to display deforestation through a repeated cycle of calmness to despair.
- Visitors will be subjected to spontaneous sounds of chainsaws that would output through the surround sound speakers in ACW 103.
- Essentially, for the users, they will have no idea when the acts of deforestation will occur within the space. This would further provide the users with an element of surprise and the feeling of not being in control of what is happening initially. A wake up call to reality!
- Once the chainsaw sounds are activated, two servos will cause the acrylic rod on top to bend on one of the ground trees. The flower neopixel(at the bottom of the rod)and the neopixel strips(inside the tube) will shut off, signifying the destruction of the tree. This would further symbolize despair and the probable element of extinction of the wildlife.
- When a tree is being “cut” down, the trees on the ceiling will also have neopixel strips that would initially mirror all the light actions of the ground trees, thereby, they will also turn off.
- The installation will also allow the users the opportunity to “replant” the “tree” through the use of an RFID tag, sewn on a glove (Reforestation).
- This will trigger the servos/ stepper motors which will allow the bent “tree” to return to its original position.The visitors will be "thanked" through a display of multicolored lights as well as the tree returning to its original upright position. This is symbolic to the physical regrowth process of reforestation. In the sound representation of regrowth, the sound starts at a slow tempo, then gradually elevates to fast tempo.
- The multi coloured neopixels would eventually change to the green again, emphasizing the end of the growth process and a new tree has filled the space.
- Visitors can extinguish the fires through a simple flash of any light source eg. their phones, on a photoresistor.
About the Boreal Forests
References to Other Works
Piet Mondrian(Artist)
From Literal to Abstraction
Image 1: Boreal Forest(Literal)
Image 2: The Hague
Image 3: The Red Tree(1905)
Image 4: The Grey Tree(1912)
Image 5: The Flower Tree(1912)
Image 6: Pic of our tree
Technical Proposal
Platforms
1. Tree Structures (Ground & Ceiling) for the physical platform
2. Using Global Forest Watch online platform for obtaining factual and statistics(towards installation display).
Software and Hardware Essentials
Arduinos Laptop
Ground & Ceiling Trees Spotlights - ACW 103 NeoPixel Strips
Led Strips Acrylic Tubes (ground and ceiling)
Acrylic rods (ground and ceiling) Servo Motors
Speakers (sound output) - ACW 103 3D printing (for parts of framework)- ACW 103, Bergeron Centre Transmitters and Receivers (communication) Photoresistors (water rep.) Jumper Wires
Users
RFID Tags
Cotton Gloves with the RFID tags glued on them
Sound Platform
Arduino to Max Msp(output through the surround sound speakers in ACW 103).
Flow Chart
Neutral Trees(1st Mode)
Neutral(brown neopixel strip and green flower neopixel )
Sound - magical forest
This mode is the initial starting of a calm and peaceful forest for visitor experience.
Chopped(2nd mode) Neutral(brown neopixel strip and green flower neopixel )(magical forest sounds)->light turns off on both ceiling and ground(auto)(chainsaw sound is activated)-> two servos bends tree from 0 to 45 degrees(working trees).
Regrowth(3rd mode)
RFID tag tap->multi-coloured for the ceiling, working and dummy trees(both flower and neopixel strip)(rebirth/regrowth sounds activated)->servo moves from 45 to 0 degrees->green(all trees)(both flower and neopixel strip)(returns to magical forest sounds). Forest Fire(4th mode) Green(all trees)(magical forest sounds)-> red(all trees and the show lights)(burning, crackling sounds are activated)-> shine light on photoresistors(turns off red show light)(turns off burning sounds)-> green(all trees)(returns to magical forest sound).
Global Forest Watch Data(3.5 - 4.5 mode)
Activated based upon how many trees were destroyed and how many were recovered on the installation->outputs forest data through based on the countries from Global Forest Watch through lights(flashing) and speakers->modes continue to activate.
Possible solutions for not having all music playing at once if different modes have been activated.
Chopping and Regrowth Modes Have the mode of chopping go through each tree one at a time. This would essentially be the second mode after the neutral tree(brown). The magical forest sound from the neutral tree mode is stopped completely once a tree is chopped.Only when someone replants that tree, the regrowth music is activated, then another tree is chopped once the previous tree is green.Therefore, all the music plays for the tree that has been chopped and replanted only. The magical forest sound does not reactivate until all the working trees have been replanted one by one.
Forest Fire Mode
After the visitors get to experience the new green forest cycle for a while(5 minutes), the forest fire mode activates which shuts off the magical forest sound and changes to the burning and crackling sounds. Thereby, all the trees change to red(one after the other). Only when all the trees have been changed to green again, then only the magical forest sound is reactivated.