Plants for the climate
...
Briefing
For the exhibition RETHINKING CREATIVITY, we develop a playful and creative interaction where visitors can learn more about the carbon cycle, and understand the effect of reforestation on the climate. Research data is visualised and facilitated through the engagement of the visitor. Using the interactive maps developed by the Crowther lab, visitors predict how the carbon cycle and climate will change under increasing human pressure, and how we might restore earth’s ecosystems in the fight against climate change. By using these visualised data, by interacting and playing, the visitor becomes part of the global ecosystem and the worldwide reforestation project. At the same time, they experience the haptic, emotional and aesthetic effect of plants, tapping into the natural fascination humans have for forests. This exhibit should both instil hope and inspire action.
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The interaction could and should be more than only a virtual simulation, but a mixture of a physical, haptic experience, combined with virtual elements. Simone Bucher van Ligten
Setting
- 65" Touch Display
- 20 IR Tracking Devices / Objects
Time Period
6th of November – 29th of November 2019
Cooperation Partner
Lecturers
Jürgen Späth | juergen.spaeth@zhdk.ch
Martin Dušek | martin.dusek@zhdk.ch
Students
01 Sophie Anderhub 02 Damaris Büchner 03 Andreas Bütler 04 Roman Engler 05 Fabian Fry 06 Tim Fuchs 07 Andreas Fürer 08 Pascal Jeker 09 Andy Kirk 10 Yao Liu 11 Sonjoi Nielsen 12 Shafira Maharani Nabiila Nugroho 13 Anurag Rao 14 Paméla Schmidinger 15 Yangzom Sharlhey 16 Danuka Ana Tomas 17 Tamara Trabucca 18 Zoë Urand
Groups
We will work in groups of 2x5 and 2x4 students.
- Team 01: Sophie Anderhub, Andreas Bütler, Pascal Jeker, Paméla Schmidinger
- Team 02: Damaris Büchner, Fabian Fry, Sonjoi Nielsen, Anurag Rao, Tamara Trabucca
- Team 03: Roman Engler, Tim Fuchs, Yao Liu, Yangzom Sharlhey, Zoë Urand
- Team 04: Andreas Fürer, Andy Kirk, Shafira Maharani Nabiila Nugroho, Danuka Ana Tomas
Project phases
Week 1 (CW45) – Explore, Requirements Gathering, Data Literacy
The explore phase is our hard drive for all relevant information about our users and their needs as well as the general context in which our application is embedded. Trends & Technology, Competitor, Facts, User, Needs, Insights etc.
Week 2 (CW46) – Design Concept, Storytelling
In this phase, the visual concept and storytelling for the overall installation are developed. What do visitors see when they approach the installation and nobody interacts? How are they asked to interact? What can visitors influence by interacting with an input object? What influence does it have if several visitors interact at the same time? What kind of content should the visualization convey? What kind of information or message can the viewer draw from the visualization?
Inspiration
- Put the products on the able
- Social lounge tables for international automotive fairs
- Salz weltweit
- Textilwerk Bocholt
- HERE make the Future Mobility Visualizer
Week 3 (CW47) – Visualization, Microinteraction
In the third week you create and define the visualization and microinteractions.
Week 4 (CW48) – Prototyping
Working prototype which shows the most relevant screens and the microinteractions.
Resources
Videos
Recommended
- Tom Crowther speech (Please watch this before your visit to Crowther Lab on 07.11.)
- Global Tree Restoration Potential
- Overview
- Part 1: Introduction
- Part 2: Methodology
- Part 3: Results
Optional
- Environmental activists Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot have helped produce a short film highlighting the need to protect, restore and use nature to tackle the climate crisis.
- The Carbon Cycle explained:
Minute Earth provide scientific explanations for non-scientists: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeiYXex_fwgYDonaTcSIk6w
Reading
Recommended
(The videos above summarise these two technical papers so please do not feel intimidated by them!)
Optional
...
5 key messages
- Forests play a huge role in regulating the climate
- The climate is changing - if we continue business as usual, the area of the world's forests will shrink.
- Increasing forest cover will be a critical tool in combating climate change. (We estimate 0.9 billion hectares can drawdown 2/3’s of anthropogenic carbon in the atmosphere.)
- There are many other benefits to forest - it’s not just about carbon drawdown but also air filtration, water cleanliness, wider biodiversity.
- There are many ways for citizens to get involved - restore, fund, invest responsibly.
...
Setting
- 65" Touch Display
- 20 IR Tracking Devices / Objects
Time Period
6th of November – 29th of November 2019
Cooperation Partner
Lecturers
Jürgen Späth | juergen.spaeth@zhdk.ch
Martin Dušek | martin.dusek@zhdk.ch
Students
01 Sophie Anderhub 02 Damaris Büchner 03 Andreas Bütler 04 Roman Engler 05 Fabian Fry 06 Tim Fuchs 07 Andreas Fürer 08 Pascal Jeker 09 Andy Kirk 10 Yao Liu 11 Sonjoi Nielsen 12 Shafira Maharani Nabiila Nugroho 13 Anurag Rao 14 Paméla Schmidinger 15 Yangzom Sharlhey 16 Danuka Ana Tomas 17 Tamara Trabucca 18 Zoë Urand
Groups
We will work in groups of 2x5 and 2x4 students.
- Team 01: Sophie Anderhub, Andreas Bütler, Pascal Jeker, Paméla Schmidinger
- Team 02: Damaris Büchner, Fabian Fry, Sonjoi Nielsen, Anurag Rao, Tamara Trabucca
- Team 03: Roman Engler, Tim Fuchs, Yao Liu, Yangzom Sharlhey, Zoë Urand
- Team 04: Andreas Fürer, Andy Kirk, Shafira Maharani Nabiila Nugroho, Danuka Ana Tomas
...
Project phases
Week 1 (CW45) – Explore, Requirements Gathering, Data Literacy
The explore phase is our hard drive for all relevant information about our users and their needs as well as the general context in which our application is embedded. Trends & Technology, Competitor, Facts, User, Needs, Insights etc.
Week 2 (CW46) – Design Concept, Storytelling
In this phase, the visual concept and storytelling for the overall installation are developed. What do visitors see when they approach the installation and nobody interacts? How are they asked to interact? What can visitors influence by interacting with an input object? What influence does it have if several visitors interact at the same time? What kind of content should the visualization convey? What kind of information or message can the viewer draw from the visualization?
Inspiration
- Put the products on the able
- Social lounge tables for international automotive fairs
- Salz weltweit
- Textilwerk Bocholt
- HERE make the Future Mobility Visualizer
Week 3 (CW47) – Visualization, Microinteraction
In the third week you create and define the visualization and microinteractions.
Week 4 (CW48) – Prototyping
Working prototype which shows the most relevant screens and the microinteractions.
...
Resources
Videos
- Recommended
- Tom Crowther speech (Please watch this before your visit to Crowther Lab on 07.11.)
- Global Tree Restoration Potential
- Overview
- Part 1: Introduction
- Part 2: Methodology
- Part 3: Results
Optional
- Environmental activists Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot have helped produce a short film highlighting the need to protect, restore and use nature to tackle the climate crisis.
- The Carbon Cycle explained:
Minute Earth provide scientific explanations for non-scientists: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeiYXex_fwgYDonaTcSIk6w
Reading
Recommended
(The videos above summarise these two technical papers so please do not feel intimidated by them!)
Optional
- Latest IPCC reports (we encourage you to do a search for the word “Forest” or “Tree” to access relevant information and not have to read the full documents).
- Understanding climate change from a global analysis of city analogues
- Technical Statement for The Global Tree Restoration Potential paper
Maps
Accessible online at Google Earth Engine
All related layers are accessible online at crowtherlab.com
...
Materials for visualization
Books
- The Visual Display of Quantitative Information – Edward Tufte (2001)
- Semiology of Graphics: Diagrams, Networks, Maps – Jacques Berlin (2010)
- The Functional Art: An introduction to information graphics and visualization (Voices That Matter) – Alberto Cairo (2012)
- Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information – Manuel Lima (2011)
- Data Fluency: Empowering Your Organization with Effective Data Communication – Zach Gemignani (2014)
- Data Visualisation: A Handbook for Data Driven Design – Andy Kirk (2019)
- Information is Beautiful – David McCandless (2012)
Websites
Podcasts
Materials Crowther Lab
Publications after sending out their paper
- www.theguardian.com
- www.sciencemag.org
- www.srf.ch
- www.watson.ch
- www.tagesanzeiger.ch
- www.cnn.com
- www.eurekalert.org
Videos
- Restoring the climate using AI
- Restoring the climate using AI
- The Crowther Lab at ETH Zürich: Ecosystem Science for Global Restoration
- Tom Crowther - Inaugural Climate change speech - ETH Zurich
Corporate Identity
...
Deliverables
See the IAD documentation guidelines for the standard material.
- Documentation; format: PDF
- Video / Screencast; add the IAD intro and closing credits to your videos
- Video / User-test
- Images (Screenshots & Usage Scenarios); approx. 10 representative images of the project
- Text (project title, short description, project description)
...
W1 | Monday 4.11. | Tuesday 5.11. | Wednesday 6.11. | Thursday 7.11. | Friday 8.11. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Theorie | Explore, Requirements Gathering | Explore, Requirements Gathering | Theory | ||
Data Literacy (4.K11) | Kick-Off (4.T33) | ||||
| self-study | Crowther Lab (Universitätsstrasse 16) 15.00–17.00 JS, MD | self-study | |||
W2 | Tuesday 12.11. | Wednesday 13.11. | Thursday 14.11. | Friday 15.11. | |
| Design Concept, Storytelling | Design Concept, Storytelling | Design Concept, Storytelling | Theory | ||
| Kick-Off Design Concept, Storytelling (6.F01) 09.00–10.00 JS Mentoring (4.K22-1) | Input table (45.D12G02) | Mentoring (4.K22-1) | |||
Input storytelling (room tba) self-study | Atelier visit 13.00–17.00 JS, MD | self-study | self-study | ||
W3 | Tuesday 19.11. | Wednesday 20.11. | Thursday 21.11. | Friday 22.11. | |
| Visualization | Visualization | Visualization | Visualization | ||
Kick-Off Visualization (4.T07) Mentoring (4.K22-1) | self-study | Mentoring (4.K22-1) | self-study | ||
| self-study | Schulterblick (4.K22-1) 14.00–17.00 JS, MD, SB, TL, TW etc. | self-study | Schulterblick (4.K22) 14.00–18.00 | ||
W4 | Tuesday 26.11. | Wednesday 27.11. | Thursday 28.11. | Friday 29.11. | |
| Prototyping | Prototyping | Prototyping | Documentation | ||
Mentoring (4.K22-1) | self-study | self-study | self-study | ||
| self-study | Atelier visit (4.K22-1) 13.00–17.00 JS, MD | Final Presentation (4.K22-1) 14.00–17.00 JS, MD, SB, TL, TW etc. | Alumni Seminar 14.00–18.00 |
JS: Jürgen Späth, MD: Martin Dušek, TG: Timo Grossenbacher, LF: Luke Franzke, FB: Florian Bruggisser, SB: Simone Bucher van Ligten (ETH Global), TL: Tara Lasrado (Crowtherlab), TW: Elliott Thomas William (Crowtherlab)Grossenbacher, LF: Luke Franzke, FB: Florian Bruggisser, SB: Simone Bucher van Ligten (ETH Global), TL: Tara Lasrado (Crowtherlab), TW: Elliott Thomas William (Crowtherlab)
Notes regarding meeting with Crowther Lab, 7.11.19
- Data set future cities available here
- Republik article covering that data set
- "Supplementary" data regarding tree reforestation potential: TIFF files
Questions to ask:
- Could you give us documentation on your future cities data set? (e.g. what do the columns mean, what data types do they contain etc.)
- Where can we get a hold of auxiliary data sets you used (and display on your map)? E.g. "bacterial biomass"
- Do you know about other (Swiss) data sets regarding trees / forests that we could use for our interactive vis?
- Is your research reproducible? How do you ensure reproducibility?