Brittle diversity
The silent vanishing of the butterflies
The project addresses the current population status of large butterflies in Germany. Information about the 68 families can be accessed and explored via a digital, interactive virtual reality data sculpture.
| Year | 2024 |
| Material | Meta Quest 3, Wildflower seed paper, Tape |
| Production/Tools | Blender, Unity Game, Google sheets, Miro, Adobe Illustrator, |
| Dimension | 1 x 3 m |
Motivation:
Butterflies are an essential part of our ecosystem as pollinators and food. The loss of habitat, food, and the use of pesticides is threatening more and more butterfly species.
As a visually appealing insect with an interesting development and also as part of the summer in Germany, the butterfly is a very positively associated insect, of which there is already some previous knowledge together with further interest. Many people know little about their habitat and biological importance. Butterflies therefore seemed to be an interesting vessel for drawing attention to the consequences of climate change and the destruction of natural habitats.
Practices and Processes:
- First I had to collect the data, analyze it and optimize it for my purposes. Without a proper overview of the data volume and differences within the data, it cannot be presented optimally.
- In this step I defined the visual style and formal language of the medium. First translations/approximations of the data into visuals were happening in Illustrator and Blender.
- Programming the application in Unity and defining the interaction. The 3D model was imported from Blender and material and sound were added. Interaction and the sequence as well as the accessing of the information cards were defined here and finally exported as an app to Meta quest 3.
- For the production of the analog information cards, I used the Risograph to print on wildflower seed paper.