WIP: Google Image Trees

Over the last few months I have been exploring the difference between nature displayed in a digital setting versus nature in a physical space. Out of this initial interest, I downloaded over ten thousand images tagged ‘tree’ from google images. I have proceeded to use this digital forest as the base of my project. What works well about these images is that trees from every climate downloaded. Some of the trees are illustrations or logos, and others are fake plants you can buy online.

I am in the process of building a website for the project as a whole to eventually live on. For the first segment of the project, I worked with statistics that were difficult to realize through motion. I wanted to mimic calming breathing apps and meditation videos but instead create an unsettling or anxious feeling. Worldwide, 360 trees fall to deforestation every second. The video encourages you to follow a regular breathing pattern, but when you breathe out, 360 images of trees disappear off the screen per second. Although the breathing rate follows a regular breathing rate - the act of concentrating on your breathing makes it uncomfortable and you begin to feel dizzy, bringing into reality the environmental consequences of cutting down trees. (we need trees to breathe duh :)