Nature's Evolution - using technology

Artist Ginny Ruffner imagines how nature evolves following an environmental apocalypse. And visitors to the museum in Washington DC can download an app that uses augmented reality to show how the evolution takes place.

How nature evolves

'Walk into a first-floor room at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the high-ceilinged space looks, at first, quite desolate. Tree stumps made of glass sprout from five rock-like mounds, and at the center of the room, nestled in a sixth craggy habitat, stands a tree made of copper and glass. Otherwise, the landscape seems barren and nearly sapped of color.

But grab one of the red-cased tablets off the wall or unlock a smartphone, and the exhibition springs to life with an augmented reality display. Aim the device’s camera at the tree rings, and inventive flora of the future appear, gently swaying in a virtual breeze. The exquisite world created in the museum's new exhibition 'Reforestation of the Imagination' comes straight from the mind of the Seattle-based artist Ginny Ruffner, who decided to ponder the imponderable—in the aftermath of an apocalyptic mass extinction event, how might life on Earth continue to evolve and thrive?' (taken from the site)

And for those of you who have seen the Dinosaur r'Evolution exhibition at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart, you may already have experienced this amazing augmented reality. If you haven't, then be sure to visit it in Launceston at the Queen Victoria Museum at Inveresk.

It is worth a look!!

I took these photos of the augmented reality at the Dinosaur Symposium in Hobart earlier in the year.

The dinosaur is at first just a skeleton

The dinosaur then magically become flesh and wanders around

The developer of the program then has multiple dinosaurs (holograms) all over the stage

Saving the Tasmanian Albatross

Albatross Island, off Cape Grim in the far north-west corner of Tasmania, is both wind-swept and remote, but it is home to some 5,000 Albatross. Living up to 40 years they have a wingspan of up to 2.5 metres and are a beautiful, majestic bird. And although they spend much of their lives at sea, Albatross Island welcomes each couple, which mates for life, every year to breed and raise just one chick.

The marine environment is now changing through increasing sea surface temperatures and acidification, as well as altered wind patterns. The Albatross's prey is decreasing and they are forced to spend more time at sea in search of food.

Unlike other birds, these Albatross cannot just move to another location; they have evolved over the centuries to be in one particular place and cannot adapt to the changing environment. Less than half of their fledglings now survive to return to the island each year and their numbers are declining.

But the Tasmanian CSIRO is attempting to arrest that decline.

Scientists are now attaching miniature monitoring devices to the birds in the hope of gathering data that can help them understand the issues affecting them. And they are building artificial nests that are designed to withstand the rapidly changing Bass Strait weather, and have already seen a 20 per cent higher success rate with fledglings.

These magnificent iconic birds deserve our respect - and we applaud the CSIRO for their action.

Information from The Power of One, AFLOAT.com.au, May 2018.

Photographs courtesy of Tasmanian Albatross Fund (www.tasmanianalbatrossfund.com.au/)