Rebuild natural landscapes in 3D with your friends, for free!
As Earth Day (April 22) draws closer, you might be hearing lots of shocking statistics about the threats our planet is facing, as a result of human activity. It can be disheartening, or it can inspire you to do something about it. REWILD Our Planet seeks to be the latter, by handing you the reins to hyper-realistically save threatened natural landscapes, from the forests of Borneo and India to the frozen Arctic.
REWILD Our Planet is Singapore’s first social augmented reality (AR) experience, open free to the public at the ArtScience Museum today, 6 April. The ArtScience Museum works with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Google, Netflix, and PHORIA, to bring you this incredible combination of nature, technology and entertainment. REWILD is built with footage from Our Planet, the new Netflix nature documentary series narrated by David Attenborough, released globally on 5 April. Extend your viewing of the much-anticipated series beyond the 2D screen with this AR-integrated and interactive experience!
We had the opportunity to preview REWILD, and we were blown away by how immersive it is.
Here’s a brief rundown on what you can expect at REWILD:
Visitors go on the experience in groups of up to 20 per session, which lasts about 10 minutes. Upon entering the room, each person receives a Google Pixel 3 that is enabled with Google’s ARCore technology. Clips from Our Planet start up on the big IMAX-style projection screen and in surround sound, introducing the participants to a story about the Earth. Point the smartphone down towards the platform to scan one of the four biome symbols, like scanning a QR code. These biomes represent the last wilderness places on Earth – “Forests” for the forests of Borneo and India; “Ocean” for the oceans of Asia; “Grassland” for the grasslands of Mongolia; and “Frozen” for the frozen regions of the Arctic.
Part of the social component of this social AR experience comes in here – participants vote and decide collectively as a group which biome they want to rewild in their session. Then, everyone works together to fight the damage happening in those landscapes and bring healthy ecosystems back.
Our group selected “Forests,” and we dived into the rapidly dying forests of Borneo and India. We’re instructed to move around the space in order to plant more trees in the forests. It’s amazing to watch the barren land become filled up with rows and rows of brilliant green trees, caused by our actions.
It’s tempting to keep looking at the phone, so fascinated we were by the AR animation popping up and changing as we move around the space. Keep a look out for little surprises, like animals appearing and coming towards you! But, as the guides reminded us, don’t forget to look up at the projection screen from time to time and pay attention to the story being told, so you won’t miss out on the larger message of the Earth in danger and the solutions offered on how to take care of it.
After the successful rewilding, participants are invited to take the pledge to protect our global wildlife populations from total annihilation. Hopefully, the experience of REWILD will translate words into actions, augmented reality into our reality, prompting meaningful discussions and steps taken to truly rewild our plant in real life.
Singapore is the first stop on the world tour of this exciting new experience – after the run at ArtScience Museum ends on 2 June, REWILD will take its experiential conservation message to Soho, New York City, and Bristol, England. Be a part of this groundbreaking global conversation by “rewilding” our planet at the ArtScience Museum today!
Click here for more information about REWILD Our Planet at the ArtScience Museum.
ArtScience Museum, 6 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore 018974
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