Deforestation Tree Installation — 2022

Context and intent

As part of a Creative Technology project on hybrid worlds, we built an interactive physical visualisation based on a dataset that felt meaningful to us. We chose global deforestation, focusing on the causes and the scale of tree cover loss across countries and years.

The goal was to visualise meaningful data through physical dimensions.

Concept and outcome

The installation is centered around a large wooden tree with LEDs that visualize deforestation as tree cover what is left in that specific country. Visitors can select a country and change the time using a physical wooden dashboard, after which the tree “updates” to show the impact for that selection.

Around the tree, we added signs and audio that communicate major drivers of deforestation. The signs were lit trough LEDs that adjusted their brightness according to the distribution of that driver of deforestation.

A detail that mattered to us: the tree itself was built from repurposed old pallets. We deconstructed them by hand and turned them into the structure, so the material story of the installation matched the theme.

My role

Our group consisted of 12 Creative Technology students. I joined the hardware team as I enjoy physically building things, and I am comfortable working with hardwaretools.

I was responsible for physically building the tree. That meant sourcing old pallets, taking them apart, and converting the wood into a stable structure that could hold the LEDs and survive public interaction. I also contributed to concept development and design decisions throughout the project.

Reflection and learning

This project taught me how powerful physical interaction can be for data that is otherwise easy to ignore. Using physical dimensions is innovative, which can help the experience. Turning a dataset into a tangible object made the scale of deforestation feel more real, as the sounds and lights changed accordingly.