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About
The World of Plankton is an
interactive virtual 3 dimensional game-art and science environment designed
to viscerally engage the participant at the
micro-scale of unseen phytoplankton and zooplankton in order to gain
first-hand experience about the drama of underwater life and its potentials
for environmental impact.
Targeted for 8th graders
and above, The World of Plankton highlights the importance and
complexity of freshwater ecosystems.
The participant is given choices to
envision what this aquatic world might look like if conditions were to
change—coming face to face with an animated spiny water flea devouring
beneficial zooplankton or experiencing the unfolding events of a large algae
bloom - all in a multidimensional world that enables a person to virtually
snorkel through freshwater plankton.
Explore,
locate and examine key zooplankton, phytoplankton and various types of fish. Affect lake levels of salt, nitrogen,
phosphorus, and invasive species.
In conjunction, there are hands-on physical
3D prints on a display table with pull-apart and stackable sculpted models of
key plankton to familiarize people with what plankton looks like up close.
Hanging sculptural models of plankton blown hugely out of proportion overhead
juxtaposed with floor graphics of swimming fish below and interactive
augmented reality marker prints add to the total ambience of work. The
project can be experienced as a projected virtual artwork installation in a
gallery, a science or arts museum, in VR, or online.
 
The World of Plankton connects learning, experiencing and
creating. We are resonating creative artistic inquiry and practice with the
evolving research of the Jefferson Project, (a
partnership between Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, IBM, and The Fund for Lake George in
revolutionary environmental monitoring and remediation that combines a
network of sensors in and around Lake George in measuring physical, chemical,
and biological parameters.)
The World of Plankton seeks ways to expand this inquiry
and connect into a broader cultural understanding by creating artworks and
environments that will enable us to see and hear what the lake is telling us
as a total entity, and lead us to a deeper wisdom about how and why we need
to protect our waterways. Together we are asking the questions that no one
discipline alone can ask.
The team includes a
trans-disciplinary group of artists, musicians, game designers, programmers,
and scientists. There are special lighting effects, physics and a back end that
enables data from the scientific research to be plugged into the visual and
audio environment. The World of Plankton is programmed in
C# using the Unity 3D game engine.
This work stems from the Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute Department of the
Arts / GSAS Games
and Simulation Arts and Sciences outreach of the Jefferson Project and is
in deep appreciation of the generous support by the Rensselaer Knowledge and
Innovation Program (KIP), Building a
Three Dimensional Model of the Plankton Distribution in Lake George.
This project has been in process a
little over a year, with the first 8-10 months doing research with the
scientists in the field, in the water (literally), and in the lab. We are deeply thankful for the support of
the Darrin Fresh Water
Institute (DFWI) and the Jefferson
Project and all the amazing people there who made our student research at
the labs and at Lake George possible.
Additionally, we gratefully
acknowledge the support of NVIDIA Corporation
with the donation of the GPU used for this research.
website: http://www.arts.rpi.edu/~ruiz/WorldOfPlankton/WOP.htm
© 2016 Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute
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