New Exhibition at Marina Bay Sands ArtScience Museum Uses Augmented Reality to Raise Awareness of Rainforest Conservation Issues
As featured on the official Las Vegas Sands Blog | Sands Confidential
Into the Wild: An Immersive Virtual Adventure, is the latest permanent development at Marina Bay Sands’ ArtScience Museum in Singapore. The virtual reality adventure transforms nearly 11,000 square feet into a virtual rainforest, which can be explored using one’s smartphone device. The exhibition is made by ArtScience Museum, Google, Lenovo, and World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), in association with Panasonic and Qualcomm, working with the creative talents of MediaMonks and Singaporean artist, Brian Gothong Tan.
The virtual adventure becomes reality, when visitors take an active role in replanting the rainforests of Southeast Asia. Central to the undertaking of Into the Wild is the restoration of the Rimbang Baling Wildlife Reserve in Sumatra, Indonesia. This is among the last places in the world where tigers, pangolins, mousedeer and tapirs co-exist. The reserve is under consistent threat and there is an increasing need and urgency to understand, protect and restore this vulnerable animal habitat and forest ecosystem. When a virtual tree is planted within the museum, accompanied with a pledge to WWF, a real tree will be planted in Sumatra. Participants will receive photos of the tree as it grows and also the exact coordinates, so that they can watch it grow on Google maps. These actions will transcend the virtual world and make a significant, real-world impact.
Once a tree has been planted and a pledge has been made, patrons will then step into the transformative world of Brian Gothong Tan’s installation and experience the forests of Southeast Asia in a larger-than-life, cinematic world. Using state-of the-art animation and projection-mapping techniques, Tan has created a portal through which one passes from the virtual reality of the digital adventure, into an immersive, cinematic experience on a spectacular scale. The thought-provoking film depicts the fragile habitat of the five animals featured in the virtual adventure - pangolins, tapirs, mousedeers, orangutans and tigers. Inspired by the work of explorer and naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, and Mexican mural painter, Diego Rivera, Tan's film eloquently and fluently animates the animals’ journey from creation, to destruction and rebirth.
At Las Vegas Sands, our responsibility to the planet is as important to us as our commitment to the comfort and well-being of our guests and Team Members. Our Sands ECO360 Global Sustainability strategy is integrated across the entire business and is designed to help minimize our environmental impact. It reflects our vision to lead the way in sustainable building development and resort operations. Our property sustainability departments execute the sustainability strategy and identify future opportunities.
Read more about Into the Wild: An Immersive Virtual Adventure here:
http://www.marinabaysands.com/museum/into-the-wild.html
Read more about the Sands ECO360 Global Sustainability Strategy here:
