Image Credit : PHORIA & ARUP
Project Overview
We often disconnect what we know about Climate Change from how we choose to live our lives. But what if immersive storytelling could break this pattern of behaviour? Could we REWILD the planet for future generations?
As a world first in social and persistent Augmented Reality, REWILD Our Planet features a multiplayer mechanic designed to advocate for collective climate action. It is a multi-sensory experience that repairs the connection between human beings and the planet. It can operate in any exhibition space, making it truly scalable to the world. The experience has launched at three renowned venues: ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, Dolby Studio in New York City and We The Curious in Bristol (UK).
The core experience unified a series of unique social interactions that have begun to unearth new techniques in how technology-enabled social design can bring people together to take action and prevent the rapid loss of nature.
REWILD Our Planet combines powerful content from the Netflix Original Series Our Planet with the WWF’s Voice for the Planet campaign, to give visitors a newfound digital voice. The aim is to spark cross-generational conversations about how to rewild, rebalance and restore Earth’s diverse biomes.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Core Partners: Netflix, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Google, ArtScience Museum by Marina Bay Sands
Supporting Partners: Arup, Dolby Soho, We the Curious, University of Melbourne, Silverback Films
Creatives: Trent Clews-de Castella, Rayyan Roslan, Joseph Purdam, Samuel Tate Goudie
Operations & Logistics: Steven Kounnas & Dean Kominek
Developers: Lachlan Sleight, Lucas Hehir, Ben Ferns, Yu-Jen Lu, Ian Ulpiano, Phill Moon, Jesse Harrison, Sana A. Siddiqui
3D Animation & Modelling: Blair Burke, Trisha Chhabra, Gauthier Basse, Hoa Thi Thanh Bui
VFX: Broomstick, Steven Cheah
Platform & Crater Design: Hustwaite Butcher, Travis Gemmill, Luke Neil
Sound Design: Josh Mitchell
Behind-the-Scenes: Rush Entertainment Group, Ursula Lane-Mullins, Eneasi Teaupa, Gemma Hannan, Kick Off Communications
Project Brief
At the 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos, Sir David Attenborough and WWF called for a New Deal for Nature and People in 2020. They urged key decision makers from across the globe to take action on climate change, sustainable development and nature. Their idea is that with collective action it is possible to reverse the momentum of global ecological loss.
With only three months to build a bespoke AR operating environment, PHORIA created an experience that would highlight the solutions as much as the problems.
This followed in the footsteps of Into the Wild, Google Zoo’s AR project with ArtScience Museum and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. The challenge with past projects and AR, is the fact that these new tools are traditionally locked off from a shared engagement, consequently becoming anti-social.
However, new advances in Augmented Reality in partnership with PHORIA and Google, have unlocked a complimentary process where AR and social connection can come together to drive climate action and support a more social sustainable society.
Project Innovation/Need
PHORIA has been building out the foundation for a unique software solution that can unify multiple users within the same physical space, allowing a shared experience. This was built on PHORIA's tool CAPTUR3D that extended the REWILD Our Planet application on a dozen devices simultaneously.
With our platform CAPTUR3D, the team 3D scanned and aligned a digital twin with each venue, to create a scalable AR network that could operate in three cities simultaneously. Using Google’s ARCore technology, combined with our own in-house alignment system, we were able to bring visitors together in a shared AR hub and connect them in a way never achieved before.
CAPTUR3D's software-server was responsible for managing visitor movement against the backdrop of powerful audio-visuals from Our Planet. The server kept all devices in sync with split-second accuracy, ensuring that immersion remained consistent and the feeling of purposeful collaboration wasn’t disrupted.
What was made apparent through the project was the technology alone was not the sole solution. However, when mediated and extended through an attendant such as a WWF ambassador, the story was amplified through the power of human-led, technologically enabled social interaction.
The impact of these new types of social AR experiences is currently being researched in partnership with the University of Melbourne's Interaction Design Lab. This will help set new standards for future projects of the calibre that set out to bring people together and help support pro-social sustainable action.
Design Challenge
Visual iconography was used to foster interaction and overcome language barriers, while a minimalist physical design ensured accessibility for all ages and abilities.
Maintaining alignment within the AR networks at each venue, without disrupting visitor interaction, was a significant development challenge. As activations were taking place all over the world, we created a robust local network that could manage dozens of connected devices remotely from Melbourne.
We also worked to create a balance between focal points in the 2D and 3D content at different stages of the experience.
Future Impact
With interaction as the core driver of the system, we built the user journey around a compassion-driven narrative that could bring people together. With REWILD Our Planet, we encouraged visitors to learn, play and act. We wanted them to embrace a renewed sense of optimism about environmental conservation efforts.
Learn: A world first spatial-multiplayer voting system meant visitors could vote with their feet. By standing in the zones corresponding to each biome, visitors decided together which dewilded biome to explore.
Play: To rewild the 3D landscape, visitors needed to combine efforts by moving around the space and interacting with each other.
Act: At the end of the experience, visitors were asked to join Sir David Attenborough in making a pledge for the planet. These pledges persisted between experiences, making this a unique way to continue building impact over time.
Systems - Social Design
Social design applies a design methodology and intervention to tighten the social fabric that holds us together. Addressing issues of social inequality, such as poverty or social isolation, social design is the pathway to a more just and sustainable society.
All systems are designed to serve a purpose – and that purpose is to serve people. Systems design optimises systems performance by systematically focusing on the human component - human capacities, abilities, limitations and aspirations.
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