Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits work as visual artists as well as scientists at the interface of art, science and immersive technology.

Atmospheric Forest
2020, VR (17min), immersive installation

Atmospheric forest visualises the complex relationship between forests, climate change and the atmosphere. Trees don’t only produce oxygen, they also breathe, thus expelling large quantities of volatile organic compounds (VOC) into the air. These create the typical smell of forests. Research has long proven that there is a connection between the smell of forests and climate change. However, the extent of the connection is not yet known. Atmospheric Forest is the result of a three-year research project in the Pfynwald in Valais, Switzerland. This old alpine pine forest is suffering from drought due to climate change. Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) have created a “living observatory” out of the forest.

 Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits captured the Pfynwald as a virtual cloud and visualised research data. The dataset they employed contains measurements of the VOCs in the air, the resin in pines and weather fluctuations. Based on these datasets, the artists created animated particle movements. These show the complex relationships between the forest ecosystem and atmospheric processes. With the VR-goggles, viewers can move over observation towers in the virtual trees. Measuring equipment and other artefacts represent the scientific work. It is not yet fully known what effects the forest emissions have on climate change. However, it is clear that forests in warmer climates smell stronger and have greater atmospheric outputs.

Credits: 

Created as a part of the “Ecodata–Ecomedia–Ecoaesthetics” research project (2017–2021), led by Yvonne Volkart, hosted by the Academy of Art and Design (FHNW) in Basel, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, in collaboration with the scientists Arthur Gessler, Christian Ginzler, Andreas Rigling from Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), and visiting scientist Kaisa Rissanen, University of Helsinki.