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Future ARtifacts

Future ARtifacts, harnesses the power of AI and the design wisdom of the natural world to create biomechanical inventions that address specific climate change issues. Over and over again, scientists have been faced with challenges that nature has already solved, in a sustainable way. So, it’s clear that we should try to glean as much wisdom as we can.

For example, did you know that insects can detect c02? What if we created a biomechanical insect that could store c02, as well? If so, we could create an army of autonomous, decentralized carbon-capturing creatures that could traverse terrain and environments that humans simply can’t. If we are going to solve this climate crisis, we need intersectional collaboration. That is where innovation is born. When you overlay knowledge from one group with another, there are often beautiful little gems of insight that were not visible from the vantage point of a single discipline. So, as an artist, I hope to contribute my imagination and creativity. With any luck, I’ll inspire the scientists of tomorrow.

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[ View in XR ]
  • Art Direction
  • AR
  • 3D
  • Animation
  • Illustration
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This series is composed of "ARtifacts" from our climate resilient future. Each one solves a specific climate challenge in an innovative way using nature's systems as inspiration.

  1. Ocean Cooling Filters absorb ocean heat and store it as energy. Made to mimic coral reefs, they organically integrate into the landscape providing much needed habitat for reef creatures.
  2. C02-Collecting Bugs fly in mass, collecting and converting C02 as they go. This decentralized army of tiny cadets cleans up pollution in several layers of atmosphere.
  3. Arctic Snails slide along the thawing permafrost, gathering c02 as they go. The shells, which are primarily composed of calcium carbonate, could play a significant role in removing CO2 from circulation.
  4. Cloud Machines float above the ocean converting evaporated water particles into cloud cover, providing much needed cooling for the ocean beneath it.
  5. Mycelium Buildings are built by growing mycelium (aka mushrooms) into organic, structurally sound, highly-flexible, well-insulated architecture.

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Process

  1. I asked an AI to brainstorm innovative solutions to the climate crisis using prompts that specified scientific discoveries I had found in my research.
  2. Taking inspiration from natural systems and the Ai's brainstorm, I came up with a series of inventions (aka "artifacts" from our climate resilient future.)
  3. I asked an AI to imagine some of these inventions using my illustration style.
  4. The AI imagined images acted as a launching pad for the design process. I designed and built the artifacts in 3D.
  5. This is an ongoing project, but once all of the artifacts are complete, I'll place them at specific geo-located AR activation sites. Participants can hunt for them using a series of clues. The first people that discover them, will be gifts the piece as an NFT.

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C02-Collecting Bugs fly in mass, collecting and converting C02 as they go. This decentralized army of tiny cadets cleans up pollution in several layers atmosphere.

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Carbon-capturing nano-materials, such as graphene, act as filters that capture carbon dioxide directly from industrial emissions.

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