As noted in the prior post  Setup 11 the entire site will be periodically recorded/imaged – aerially and terrestrially using photo, laser and video, according to periodic and repeatable scientific protocols.

Working with the Senior Research Engineer (RPAS and Automation) at the QUT Research Engineering Facility we devised a plan to scan the site using laser and imagery as follows for the ‘mission’ they called UAS-196:

After some discussion, these are the specifications we agreed to:

• 2 person 4h long mission conducted by Research Engineering Facility (REF) flight operations team at SERF operating from nearby settlers hut
• Hovermap ST-X LiDAR onboard DJI M300RTK to cover the area in cross pattern with 70m side offset and orbit around “Mother tree” (the Blue gum overlooking the site).

• Handheld Hovermap ST-X LiDAR data collection with approx. 20m into the forest and around “Mother Tree” (to get additional under canopy information)

• RGB Sony A7IVR (60MPx, full frame) or DJI P1 (42MPx full frame)  geotagged RGB imagery data collection for photogrammetry onboard DJI M300RTK with GSD 0.8cm/px..and the following post processing:
• LIDAR data post-processing to registered point clouds (.laz) and LIDAR SLAM-based trajectory (.xyz)
• LiDAR data colourisation post-processing using existing GoPro Hero9 from Hovermap ST-X  colourisation kit

  

• Merging airborne and handheld LIDAR scans post-processing
• Postprocessing RGB imagery to orthomap and export of orthomosaic (hi resolution photo)
• Survey of GCP targets with Emlid Reach RS2+ (allows 1cm per pixel accuracy geolocated correctly ‘on earth’

  

• Prep and post operation data handling and handover to QUT RDSS (Udrive) the project space is included as part of QUT Research Infrastructure subsidy
• Included transport for the REF team (DMAX)

Thanks to the immaculate planning of the REF team – the  day was a success – with nothing untoward the usual glitches – ie things like RTK basestations not talking to the drones always as expected, sun going in and out, etc. But several hours later the data was all collected and ready for subsequent processing.

I wish to acknowledge the support of the Research Engineering Facility (REF) team at QUT for the provision of expertise and research infrastructure in enablement of this project – and special thanks to the wonderful team Senior Research Engineer (RPAS and Automation) Dr. Dmitry Bratanov, RPAS technician Matthew Swan and Senior Design and RPAS Technician Gavin Broadbent.

I’m now at the first early stage of defining the pieces that I hope will make up the FAI project. The language isn’t sorted – and maybe neither are every element – but I can see achieving these ideas below would be an ideal to begin to work towards at this stage.

Introduction
FAI’s project’s primary artwork outcome is a native forest slowly re-growing on Country at SERF in SEQld. Since 2023 that forest (or more correctly ‘grassy woodland biome’) has begun to recover after 100 years of being slashed back to pasture. As the forest cycles through yet unknown states of recovery, the project’s art-science team are conducting ongoing, ritual caring actions for that forest – in service of Country’s needs (e.g. inoculation of soil materials/burning/weeding and botanical surveys).

Set within that forest, a range of embedded artwork outcomes will also uncover/speak to the resonances of that Country – suggested through alternative image and narrative.

Scientific Observations
The entire site, some of its non human inhabitants and its atmospheres above ground, will be periodically recorded/imaged – aerially and terrestrially using photo, laser and video, according to periodic and repeatable scientific protocols. (Next aerial scan will be on 20/8/24). Sub-surface soil sampling will also investigate the changing diversity of fungi and other microorganisms. Ambient audio of nonhumans will be also sampled across the entire site 24/7. Together all these collated, time-based, monitoring approaches will recording and assessment of the site’s evolution with scientific accuracy.

“The world is not like a computer; computers are like the world”. Computers are part of nature: They are our creations. (James Bridle, 2022).

“Just as ‘man’ and ‘woman’ don’t reflect the full diversity of human experience, neither can 1’s and 0’s, or digital samplings of the ecological richness of the biological (analog) world.

To act with justice and care towards humans, and more than humans, it’s critical to eschew the binaries that foreground contemporary computing/thinking/creation and allow our ideas/machines/artworks, through their design, to do likewise”. (James Bridle, 2022)

Aesthetic Observation Installations (AOIs) – producing ‘Aesthetic Analogs of Intelligent Complexity (AAIC)
A suite of five ‘Aesthetic Observation Installations’ (AOI’s) embedded in the forest will detect subtle/slower/localised/smaller scale ecological intelligences at five representative sites. These (art) installations, considered as ‘natural creations’, and will inhabit their own ‘niche’ in the forest’s ecological systems, and also step through their own states of evolution – in ways that directly and indirectly benefit that forest.

The locations of these five Aesthetic Observation Installations (AOIs) will be:

• (O1) Adjacent to the 200+ year old Qld Blue Gum ‘Mother Tree’ that overlooks the site.
• (O2) Northern edge of the adjacent forest,
• (O3) On the dry sloping bank
• (O4) Inside the wet gulley
• (O5) At edge of the site’s ephemeral wetland pond

  

  Each AOI will respond to changes it detects locally by producing a 3D ‘analog’ or ‘interpreted form’ of that localised complexity – called an ‘Aesthetic Analog of Intelligent Complexity (AAIC)’ which can be experienced by visitors on site.

  

   

Outcomes from these 5 on-ground  installations are also connected via wireless networks to an online website that presents an analog/overview the entire Forest Art Intelligence site – Forest Art Intelligence’s ‘Meta Analog of Intelligent Complexity (MAIC)’. This aesthetic analog/interpretation of the ‘entire site’, will be viewable online, set alongside the other ‘scientific observation data’ being collected on site.

An autonomous, tourable version of this MAIC and scientific data will also be developed for future exhibitions, festivals and galleries, further enhanced by other sensory mediums inspired by the site, including light, sound, touch and scent. Hence the project’s  ‘Meta Analog of Intelligent Complexity’ uncovers/speaks to the ‘resonances’ of Country which is slowly recovering, re-flourishing and unfolding according to its own desires and aims.

Recap
Forest Art Intelligence therefore comprises these diverse streams of activity:
•    ECOLOGY: A protected, self-recovering eucalypt woodland site in South East Queensland, assisted by regular care rituals and botanical and soil surveys to ensure the health of that site.
•    OBSERVATION: Five Aesthetic Observation Installations (AOIs), spread across the site (viewable on-site by ad-hoc audiences), with wireless data recording/capacity – each of which produces a local 3D ‘Aesthetic Analog of Intelligent Complexity (AAIC)’. Furthermore a range of observations based upon scientific protocols are also periodically recorded and collated.
•    META-ANALOG: ‘Analog interpretations’ drawn from the 5 observation sites together form the online ‘Meta Analog of Intelligent Complexity’ (MAIC) – intimating resonances of the entire site: – diverse narratives in light, sound and movement composed from the site’s five distributed Observation Installations, and associated scientifically recorded media and data. A tourable artwork version of the MAIC will also be developed using additional sensory media.

The Leonardo Laser talk (Tuesday, June 25, 2024, from 3.30-5.30 pm) at Brisbane Convention Centre was a great success art ISEA – and it was a very enjoyable occasion  working with the wonderful Brett Leavy and Kelly Greenopp, chaired by: Dr. Anastasia Tyurina.

Fellow Speaker Brett Leavy descends from the Kooma people whose traditional country is bordered by St George in the east, Cunnamulla to the west, north by the town of Mitchell and south to the Queensland/NSW border.   As a multimedia producer and Indigenous advocate, Brett heads up Australia’s leading First Nations social impact cultural design company– Bilbie Virtual Labs(link is external), designing an innovative and connective program known as Virtual Songlines – a suite of immersive, interconnected multi-user virtual heritage simulations that showcase the history and heritage of fifty cities and regional towns across Australia.

Dr Kelly Greenop is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland’s School of Architecture, Design and Planning. Her research is in Digital Cultural Heritage, utilises 3D laser scanning of heritage environments to document and archive fragile, remote and at-risk heritage sites, and research the use of digital heritage.

The purpose of the panel discussion was to delve into innovative approaches for advocating, preserving, and celebrating Australian Culture and Country in the digital age, highlighting the transformative power of the arts as a catalyst for social and ecological change.

For this talk I spoke about the following topics:

The transformative power of the arts as a catalyst for
social and ecological change

Active Optimism ..
  The world is in deep trouble
  The world is getting better
  The world can be much better still

AllyshipBuilding community – creating contexts for ethical and respectful
knowledge exchange around Care for Country

My/Our Creative Objectives:
  Experimental practices inviting audiences to
envisage and experiment with pathways towards socially/ecologically-  just & regenerative futures

Further Contexts/Inspiration/Working Spaces:

• Art+Ecological Science (field collaborations)
• Regeneration as a creative practice
• Sensitive advocacy for the ‘More than Human World’
• Integration of practice & ‘campaign’

How Intelligences (microbes, fungi, invertebrates, plants, ..) are each embodied & embedded – and mostly not like ‘us’ and mostly unknowable

So we should ask less: Are you like us? as more: What is it like to be you?

.. remembering .. there hasn’t been a single study in the past decade that shows animals or plants to be dumber than we thought
(Robin Wall Kimmerer)

Some Big Picture Questions:

Need to re-educate ourselves on many levels – reframing priorities

Can we transcend the narrow frequency of ‘being human’?

Use mediating technology to sense non humans’ time scales and (maybe) some part of their embodied, embedded intelligences

Because:
The ‘more than human world’ has answers to questions we struggle to even ask..