Amazon - Raised Up Sky
A virtual reality artwork
With 390 billion trees, the Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest.
With 16,000 individual tree species, it is the most biodiverse place in the world.
As the ancestral home of more than 400 tribes, the Amazon is a site of synergy between man and nature like nowhere else in the world.
More than ever, people are seeking to connect with nature. The desire to understand the science behind some of our planet’s untouched terrains and tap into our innately felt kinship with these environments has made us curious to explore deeper. There is a growing pull to experience these rich natural spaces through the lens of the indigenous communities who inhabit them.
Raised Up Sky responds to this call by using virtual and augmented reality to create a fully immersive and interactive digital artwork that takes viewers on a journey deep into the scientific and spiritual currents of the forest.
Gameplay
After putting on a headset, the user finds themselves amidst the vibrant undergrowth of the Amazon. Here on the forest floor, they become aware of a magnificent tree.
As the gameplay unfolds, the user experiences the tree in three layers, flowing from one to the next in a cycle. These layers take the user progressively deeper into the tree, beginning with its appearance from the outside, then going inside the tree to look at the scientific processes happening within the trunk and below ground, and finally transitioning deeper into the realm of spirit known to the Amazon’s indigenous people.
Layer 1: Photorealism
The day/night cycle
The first layer shows the tree we are most familiar with. This encompasses its physical presence in size and stature, the way light filters through the canopy to illuminate the colour and texture of its bark, and the rippling of its leaves in the wind. Because light is so central to the way we perceive the tree at this objective level, Layer 1 highlights the effect of natural sunlight on the tree’s physical form by recreating the cycle of day to night, and night to day. This photorealistic layer is built around drone-captured photogrammetry scans from the Amazon.
Layer 2: Science
The carbon cycle
Layer 2 takes the user behind the superficial exterior of the tree. The user is transported into the tree’s teeming inner life, discovering the dynamic scientific processes that lie beneath the tree’s seemingly static existence.
Drawing on conversations with leading scientists, Layer 2 uses virtual reality to reveal the carbon cycle (the respiration of the tree, the transfer of water, photosynthesis) and the sharing of nutrients through the sophisticated mycelial network underground. Owing to input from foremost scholars in plant physiology, the animations rendered in Layer 2 are evidence-based and scientifically robust.
Layer 3: Spiritual & Cultural
The life/death cycle
In this final stage, the elements of the physical world fall away and the user is plunged into a parallel plane of spirit and emotion. The purpose of this layer is to offer a portal into the indigenous worldview of the Amazon’s native communities. In this worldview, “the trees are our brothers,” their lives intimately connected with ours. This is a realm of interconnectivity, where consciousness is reimagined and the cycle of life and death is redefined.
Layer 3 brings the Raised Up Sky experience full-circle by inviting comparison with the user’s own inner world, beneath the physical self we can see.
C. G. Jung, The Philosophical Tree
Documentary
The film documents the creative evolution of the project, as Joseph Michael explores our physical, biological and cultural links to trees in conversation with scientists and indigenous leaders.
The documentary tracks Michael’s process as he endeavours to produce a digital journey of consciousness from the user’s eyes, through the mind and into the heart of the Amazon.
Directed by Jen Raoult - Format: 4K - Runtime: 19:05min
Conceptual Development
The design process began in 2019, when New Zealand-based creative agency Arko started working with a number of creatives including Kelvin Loh, Steven Lambert and Weta Workshop to produce the previsualisation compositions.
The starting objective is to recreate the experience of walking in the Amazon rainforest for an urban audience, successfully achieving its uniquely captivating sense of scale. This goal has driven the project through the initial iterations of data collection and design which now position the artwork to be developed into something incredible.
For Creative Director Joseph Michael, who lived in Brazil for four years, designing this digital artwork means building a virtual world that will allow people to commune with the Amazon rainforest in a magical way. By using groundbreaking technology to place users in the heart of the Amazon, the aim is to create an artwork that offers a virtual crossing into the “unseen realm,” the subsurface universe where the spacetime division between humans and the natural world collapses.
Arko has collaborated with industry specialists and world leading production studios in New Zealand, Brazil, Germany and the USA to build a digital tree repository of the Amazon rainforest. Specifically, the team has developed expertise in capturing LiDAR, multispectral data and drone-captured photogrammetry.
Arko’s previous international installations and activations have closely aligned and been sponsored by a number of international companies including Nikon, Samsung and Musto. We have also developed close relationships with Unreal Engine’s partner companies, Capturing Reality and Disguise.
Assets
The following Dropbox link contains the prototypes we have developed in the Unity and Unreal Engine platforms:
Click to view Dropbox folder - Raised Up Sky - Prototype Assets.
Team
Joseph Michael, Artist
Joseph Michael is a visual artist and photographer based in Auckland, New Zealand, widely known for his large scale installations fusing technology and art. Joseph is a has created nearly 20 unique installations to date, and is currently Artist in residence at Auckland University of Technology AUT and an Edmond Hillary Fellow.
Helen Klisser During, Art Advisor
Helen Klisser During is an art advisor who has championed global art projects for over 25 years. Helen has curated hundreds of exhibitions which have been at the forefront of the contemporary art world, for example, exhibiting Christo’s ideas for The Gates project three years before it was realized in Central Park. An art world insider, Helen nurtures relationships among individuals and institutions to create significant cultural initiatives.
Peter McMenamin, Producer
Peter McMenamin has brought together a number of Joseph's installations, notably executing the financial production of Antarctica - while you were sleeping at the United Nations in New York City.
Antonio Donato Nobre, Scientist
Antonio Donato Nobre is an esteemed scientist and researcher at Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (National Institute of Amazonian Research, INPA). Antonio is one of the most well-known academics in Brazil. Lead academic on projects in the Amazon involving more than 1000 scientists globally. His work has over 8000 citations, and earned him a current h-index of 42.
Ninawa Inu Huni Kui, Leader of the indigenous Huni Kui people
Ninawa Inu Huni Kui is a change-maker and committed campaigner for the vital issues impacting indigenous communities.
Ninawa was recently featured in an EarthX documentary alongside other indigenous speakers and allies including legendary environmentalist Jane Goodall.
Dr Tatiana Schor, Scientist
Dr Tatiana Schor is a leading researcher in environmental sciences and the Amazon teaching at Universidade de São Paulo and UFAM (Universidade Federal do Amazonas). Tatiana is also Executive Secretary of Science, Technology and Innovation at SEDECTI (Amazonas Government).
About the Artist
Joseph Michael specialises in large-scale installations, and has produced multiple innovative and groundbreaking projects over the past five years. He is highly motivated by developing and integrating new technology, and experimenting with it to achieve his vision.
Michael cemented his name as a master of time-lapse photography in his 2013 installation dark cloud / white light where he shot and exhibited 12 stunning 24-hour time-lapse landscapes. Over 130,000 people have viewed this exhibition to date.
In 2016, Michael began the release of his ‘Antarctica - while you were sleeping’ series. First, on the Auckland War Memorial Museum, visited by over 20,000 people. Then, in September 2019, when Michael and his team transformed the United Nations HQ in New York City into a gigantic iceberg, featuring numerous climate activists including Greta Thunberg ahead of the United Nations Climate Action Summit.
Visit joemichael.co.nz to see the latest media articles and updates.
