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Draft Proposal
== Title ==
<big>'''Sky Islands of the Andes Mountains or Time machine: ice ages in the Andes'''</big>


Time machine: ice ages in the Andes
or
Sky Islands in the Andes Mountains


[[File:Andes Flickering FCS0303.png|500px]]
[[File:Andes 4 0605.png|500px]]
[[File:Andes Flickering FCS0322.png|500px]]


September 20th 2017


What do you want to make?
== Introduction ==
I want to explore 3D animation and data visualization as the contemporary tools to imagine ecosystems in time and space. I feel that visual art communication is a powerful instrument to create awareness about the importance of ecosystems, biodiversity and wildlife. In the same way, Science and Arts overlap each other by giving shape to a new creation that enlightens insights, triggers our imagination and helps putting ideas in a new perspective. Especially subjects that are complex in multiple dimensions can highly benefit from the integration between theoretical knowledge and modeling with simulations and science visualization, shaping our sensory experience on something that by definition can neither be touched nor seen (Francoeur, 1997).


   
Sky Islands of the Andes Mountains is an exploration of how to display scientific information using digital art, 3D animation, and data visualization as the contemporary tools to imagine ecosystems in the past times.  Francoeur mentioned in 1997 that sciences and arts overlap each other by giving shape to a new creation that enlightens insights, triggers our imagination and help to put ideas into a new perspective. Thus, subjects that are complex in multiple dimensions can highly benefit from the integration between theoretical knowledge and modeling with simulations and scientific visualization, shaping our sensory experience on something that by definition can neither be touched nor seen. Likewise, the current convergence between science, art, and technology is a path to create education models for the 21st century that trigger envisions to understand hypotheses and theories from different science fields. This art-science-tech collaboration will be also a powerful instrument to create awareness about the importance of evolution in the South American Andes ecosystems and its biodiversity.
Why?
Sky Islands of the Andes Mountains is like a time machine to visualize the effect of the ice ages in the Northern Andes during the last million years. This project is a collaboration with the group of Palaeoecology and Landscape Ecology (P&L) at the University of Amsterdam. This group has been studying the Páramos and Andean ecosystems for over 50 years, focusing both on its relevance in present and past times (see studies from A. Cleef and T. van der Hammen and H. Hooghiemstra, among others). Their studies have shown the Páramos are highly diverse ecosystems currently restricted to mountain tops (resembling an archipelago of islands) but in the past dominated large surface areas throughout the Northern. Driven by large scale cycles of climate change, the páramo ‘islands’ shifted altitudinally along the mountain slopes, heavily influenced by the topography that determined the degree of Páramo fragmentation and connectivity in the past. During cold conditions, the low elevational position of the Páramos cause the many isolated Páramo islands to fuse, while during warmer conditions the Páramos form isolated archipelagos. The biogeographic history of the Páramos has been reconstructed for the last million years and exposes the driver of the evolutionary powerhouse, a mechanism described as the ‘flickering connectivity system’ (Flantua 2017). This project will envision how the shifting elevational distributions of the Andean ecosystems (páramos, Andean forests, and lowlands forests) was caused by cold and warm conditions driven by cycles in a macro scale of time and space, called the Milankovitch cycles (Muller et.al 1997)
A group of several researchers from Colombia and Netherlands have been using for about 50 years pollen fossil as a proxy. Pollen grains that have been preserved thousands of years in the mountain lakes and are the witness of changes for the past vegetation and ecosystems. Now we know  the Andes has been pushed by the Pleistocene glacial-interglacial periods to move their ecosystems rhythmically up and down along the slopes. We know that every 100.000  years an Ice glacial era allowed the expansion of Andean Paramo's species while their contrary interglacial era divided the paramos into isolated areas as sky islands. These continuous changes are known recently as  "flickering connectivity system"  in the tropical South America mountains.  
I want to transform this information to communicate in a visual shape the changes in Vegetation of the Northern Andes ecosystems for the last two glacial cycles (280.000 years before present). This is a proposal to launch a Science & Art collaborative project that aims at creating a visualization of the Pleistocene geological era history of alpine ecosystems through the use of digital 3D-animation. The story framework line is driven by climate change and how the páramo ‘sky islands’ shifted altitudinaly along the mountain slopes, heavily influenced by the topography that determined to which degree the páramo got fragmented into isolated patches. I use the ‘páramos’ of the Northern Andes as a case study area, supported by unique long fossil pollen records (e.g. Torres et al., 2005, 2013; Groot et al., 2011, 2013), preliminary work on understanding the spatial dynamics of Andean biomes (Flantua et al., 2014), and previously developed conceptual frameworks (Van der Hammen 1974 , Flantua & Hooghiemstra, 2017).


== Methodology. How do you plan to make it?  ==


Also because on of my interests are also in Education and its use as a political tool to make Ecosystems design decisions, I believe that visualizing the past we will understand the present and take decisions about the future of the planet. The visualization will be relevant for a very large public including scientists, students, universities, new media artists, schools, policy makers and governments. The final outcome and installation can be displayed in the next biennales Art Science Festivals and Science, Technology and Art Museums.
I want to create a time machine to travel in the past times of Andes mountains to understand how the ecosystems and plants evolved in time. For this, I am using 3D animation programs as Cinema 4D, VUE, After Effects and Adobe Premier. To generate the landscapes of Andes mountains I am using digital terrain models from satellite images.
The storytelling of this project is based on pollen fossil, carbon 14 dating and sediments records that have been tools to approach the ecosystems and climate in the past. Materials that have been preserved thousands of years in the mountain lakes are witnesses able to tell us the history of how the Paramos changed on a large scale of time and space. Many of the papers I am using have been published from The Research group of Palaeoecology and Landscape Ecology (P&L) of University of Amsterdam.
The story timeline will take place in a period of one millions of years to the present times. The 3D animation will have two points of view which acts as a mirror.  In one side, the Earth and Sun's cycles from outside of the planet, and the other side the Earth in the Andes mountains. The screen can be divided in two, the first half screen will show the process led by the movements outside of the Earth around the sun and herself, cycles that have an effect on the Earth's climate on a scale of thousands of years (100.000, 40.000 and 26.000). The other half will be displayed with the same cycles but as a closer in the mountains. The idea is to show 12 scenarios that were found as the most relevant moments or snapshots to explain the process of evolution and climate change effect on plants and its diversification.
One of the possible outcomes will be an immersive 360 degrees video installation, the half screen will display the cycles outside of the Earth and the second half, the process happening in the mountains as a reflection of the Sun-Earth cycles.
The second possible outcome is a video installation using two confronted screens, but in this case, one screen will display the cycles outside of the Earth and the second screen the process happening in the mountains as a reflection of the Sun-Earth cycles.  


== What is your timetable? ==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Steps Process !! 4 Trimester !! 5 Trimester !! 6 Trimester
|-
| Storyboard ||x || ||
|-
| 3D Animation || x || x || x
|-
| Final editing +Revisions ||  ||  || x
|-
| Video Installation || || || x
|-
|}


== Why do you want to make it? ==


How do you want ot make it?
My interest is to explore how to communicate visually the results published in a scientific way.  I want to transform the information published for studies made in the Andes for over the last 50 years. Studies focused both on its relevance in present and past times of páramos and Andean ecosystems. The ‘páramos’ of the Northern Andes is an interesting case study area because they are supported by unique long fossil pollen records and developed conceptual frameworks (Flantua et al., 2014, Flantua & Hooghiemstra, 2017; Groot, 2012; Torres et al., 2005, 2013; Van der Hammen 1974).
I will make a video installation and mapping projection using 3d animation.  I want to create a time machine to travel in the past times of Andes mountains to see how the ecosystems and plants evolved in time.
   


Who can help you or how?
In the  same way, I believe this project will have a significant impact in various fields. First of all, decades of knowledge on the evolution in Andean ecosystems will be integrated, providing a much needed interface for multi-disciplinary research between paleoecology, phylogeography, macroecology and paleoclimate. Secondly, strong information graphics will trigger new initiatives in mountain research globally, elucidating the origin of biodiversity in an unprecedented manner.  Additionally, it will help students to better understand the dynamic history of the páramo ecosystem and high mountain ecosystems in general. Finally, the visualization will be relevant for a very large public including scientists and universities, new media artists, schools, policy makers and governments.
This is collaboration project with the research team of Palaeoecology at the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, which will be supported by Science PhD. Suzette Flantua and Professor Henry Hooghiemstra. They will provide advice in science research, data and publications that will be the core of the visualization script and story. As well I will have the support of Arts advisors at Piet Zwart Institute as Simon, Barren, Javier, David, Hina, Steve and some professors at Willem de Kooning Academy for data visualization work.


== Who can help you or how? ==
This is collaboration project with the research team of Palaeoecology at the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, which will be supported in  Science by PhD. Suzette Flantua and Professor Henry Hooghiemstra.  They will provide advice in science research, data and publications that will be the core of the visualization script and story. As well I will have the support of Arts advisors at Piet Zwart Institute as Simon Pummell, Barend Onneweer, David Haines, Ine Lamers, Javier Lloret, Marloes de Valk and some professors at Willem de Kooning Academy for data visualization work.


Relation to a larger context?
== Relation to previous practice? ==
In a larger context sense, the piece would be outlined inside the conceptual movement of artists exploring the metaphorical language of Planet Earth which started in the 70's, like “Planet Earth in Contemporary Electronic Artworks” and “Environmental Art”, which expression coined as an umbrella term to encompass Eco-Art/Ecological Art, Ecoventions, Land Art, Earth Art, Earthworks, and Art in Nature (Knebusch, 2004; Bower 2010). To bring some examples for Environmental Art, there are over 150 artists, and close to 22 scientists and Science & Arts collaborative projects, organizations, programs, and residencies focused on this Eco-Art movement around the world (The Greenmuseum, 2010); a number that have been increasing with the current ‘Art in the Anthropocene”, a massive trans-disciplinary movement of artists, designers and scholars exploring the symbolic language of the Anthropocene (Anthropocene Agents 2017). Artists since the 70’s that have been engaging audiences for climate change, restoration of ecosystems and protection of watersheds using models for sustainable restoration are Newton & Helen Mayer Harrison, AMD&ART/ T., Allan Comp, Jean Paul Ganem, Tim Collins & Reiko Goto, Yolanda Gutiérrez, Patricia Johanson, Lynne Hull, Ichi Ikeda and Aviva Rahmani.
As a biologist I have been working in different research teams that investigate the past, present, and future ecosystems in Colombia. My interests as a researcher have been to understand how the changes in climate have been modifying plants and vegetation through different periods of time and space but also how to communicate that in a visual form. Today, my interest as visual artist is to explore how to transform the knowledge created through the lens of science in a visual art piece using 3D animation. For the reasons above I have been exploring  life plant installations, video mapping projection and photography of nature. Some of the projects I have done before took shape between 2011 and 2017 and were supported by many artists and technicians at the University of California- Santa Cruz, Piet Zwart Institute, Science Park (UvA) and the Eye Filmmuseum. (More info here http://www.catalhinagiraldo.com/art-installations)


To bring some of the most recent examples of events created to engage audiences for environmental issues in the framework of Anthropocene are:
[[File:Verde Oscuro.png|500px]]
[[File:Screen Shot 2017-04-18 at 21.14.08.png|600px]]
[[File:Fluctuations.png|350px]]


1)    ‘The Great Acceleration: Art in the Anthropocene’ at Taipei Biennale (2014) with the participation of 52 artists (http://www.taipeibiennial.org:8080/index.php/en/).
As Bourriaud described (2014), the exhibition addressed the cross-overs appearing in the art of the Anthropocene; it was focused on artists for whom objects, products, computers, screens, chemistry, natural elements or living organisms are interconnected with humans, and can be used by them for a critical analysis of contemporary world. The exhibition highlighted the way artists focus on links, chaining, connections and mutations: how they envision planet earth as a huge network, where new states of matter and new forms of relations appear (Dickinson, 2015; Lin, 2015).


2)    ‘7 MIL MILLONES’ (http://www.eacc.es/7-000-000-000/info/) referred to the total human population inhabiting Earth and was hosted at EACC in Valencia, Spain (Alonso, 2015).
== Relation to a larger context? ==
 
In a larger context sense, the piece would be outlined inside the conceptual movement of artists exploring the metaphorical language of Planet Earth which started in the 70's, like “Planet Earth in Contemporary Electronic Artworks” and “Environmental Art”, which expression coined as an umbrella term to encompass Eco-Art/Ecological Art, Ecoventions, Land Art, Earth Art, Earthworks, and Art in Nature (Knebusch, 2004; Bower, 2010). To bring some examples for Environmental Art, there are over 150 artists, and close to 22 scientists and Science & Arts collaborative projects, organizations, programs, and residencies focused on this Eco-Art movement around the world (The Greenmuseum, 2010). A number that have been increasing with the current ‘Art in the Anthropocene”, a massive trans-disciplinary movement of artists, designers and scholars exploring the symbolic language of the Anthropocene (Anthropocene Agents, 2017; Dickinson, 2015; Alonso, 2015; Bourriaud, 2014). Artists since the 70’s that have been engaging audiences for climate change, restoration of ecosystems and protection of watersheds using models for sustainable restoration are Newton & Helen Mayer Harrison, AMD&ART/ T., Allan Comp, Jean Paul Ganem, Tim Collins & Reiko Goto, Yolanda Gutiérrez, Patricia Johanson, Lynne Hull, Ichi Ikeda and Aviva Rahmani.
3)    ‘Dark Ecology project’ (2014, 2015, 2016) inspired by Timothy Morton’s concept of ‘Dark Ecology’ and his philosophy of ‘Ecology without Nature’. Morton offers a radical criticism of the modernist way of thinking about nature as something outside of us and instead proposes an interconnected “mesh” of all living and non-living objects (http://www.darkecology.net/about).
 
 
Timetable
References


== References ==
Alonso C. (2015). Artistic practices, discursive contexts and environmental humanities in the Age of the Anthropocene. Artnodes 15,  I ISSN 1695-5951.
Alonso C. (2015). Artistic practices, discursive contexts and environmental humanities in the Age of the Anthropocene. Artnodes 15,  I ISSN 1695-5951.


Line 55: Line 65:
Dickinson, B. (2015). Pleistocene, Holocene, Anthropocene. Features 02, ART MONTHLY, Sep 15, 389 pg.
Dickinson, B. (2015). Pleistocene, Holocene, Anthropocene. Features 02, ART MONTHLY, Sep 15, 389 pg.


Flantua, S.G.A., Hooghiemstra, H., Van Boxel, J.H., Cabrera, M., González-Carranza, Z., González-Arango, C. (2014). Connectivity dynamics since the Last Glacial Maximum in the northern Andes; a pollen-driven framework to assess potential migration, in: Stevens, W.D., Montiel, O.M., Raven, P.H. (Eds.), Paleobotany and Biogeography: A Festschrift for Alan Graham in His 80th Year. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, pp. 98–123.
Flantua, S.G.A., Hooghiemstra, H., Van Boxel, J.H., Cabrera, M., González-Carranza, Z., González-Arango, C., 2014. Connectivity dynamics since the Last Glacial Maximum in the northern Andes; a pollen-driven framework to assess potential migration, in: Stevens, W.D., Montiel, O.M., Raven, P.H. (Eds.), Paleobotany and Biogeography: A Festschrift for Alan Graham in His 80th Year. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, pp. 98–123.  


Flantua, S.G.A. & Hooghiemstra, H. (2017) Historical connectivity and mountain biodiversity. In: Hoorn, C., Perrigo, A., Antonelli, A. (eds). Mountains, Climate and Biodiversity. Wiley, Oxford, UK.
Flantua, S.G.A. & Hooghiemstra, H. (2017) Historical connectivity and mountain biodiversity. In: Hoorn, C., Perrigo, A., Antonelli, A. (eds). Mountains, Climate and Biodiversity. Wiley, Oxford, UK.
Line 61: Line 71:
Francoeur, E. (1997). The Forgotten Tool: The Design and Use of Molecular Models. Social Studies of Science. 27(1), 7-40.
Francoeur, E. (1997). The Forgotten Tool: The Design and Use of Molecular Models. Social Studies of Science. 27(1), 7-40.


Groot, M.H.M., Bogotá, R.G. Lourens, L.J., Hooghiemstra, H., Vriend, M., Berrio, J.C., Tuenter, E., Van der Plicht, J.H., Van Geel, B., Ziegler, M., Weber, S.L., and 14 Fúquene Project Members (2011) Ultra-high resolution pollen record from the northern Andes reveals rapid shifts in montane climates within the last two glacial cycles. Climates of the Past 7, 299-316. DOI: 10.5194.cp-7-299-2011.
Groot M.H.M. (2012). ‘’Solving a Piece of the puzzle’’. Reconstruction of millennial-scale environmental and climatic change in the  northern Andes during the last glacial cycle: An integration of biotic and abiotic proxy-information. PhD Thesis. University of Amsterdam.  
 
Groot M.H.M., Hooghiemstra, H., Berrio, J.C., and Giraldo, C. (2013). North Andean environmental and climatic change at orbital to submillennial time-scales: vegetation, water levels and sedimentary regimes from Lake Fúquene 130–27 ka. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 197, 186–204.


Knebusch, J. (2004). Planet Earth in Contemporary Electronic Artworks. Leonardo 37 (1), 18-24. URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/len/summary/v037/37.1knebusch.html (accessed 06-04-2017).
Knebusch, J. (2004). Planet Earth in Contemporary Electronic Artworks. Leonardo 37 (1), 18-24. URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/len/summary/v037/37.1knebusch.html (accessed 06-04-2017).


Lin, A. (2015). Taipei Biennial: The Great Acceleration. Art Review Issue. Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Jan & Feb 2015. URL: https://artreview.com/reviews/jan_feb_2015_review_taipei_biennial/ (accessed 06-04-2017).
Muller R. A. & MacDonald G. (1997). Glacial Cycles and Astronomical Forcing. Science 277 (5323): 215–8.  


Symposium Agents in the Anthropocene: Trans/disciplinary practices in art and design education today. (2017).Piet Zwart Institute / Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam. January 27-28, 2017.  https://www.anthropoceneagents.nl  (accessed 04-18-2017).
Symposium Agents in the Anthropocene: Trans/disciplinary practices in art and design education today. (2017).Piet Zwart Institute / Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam. January 27-28, 2017.  https://www.anthropoceneagents.nl  (accessed 04-18-2017).


The Greenmuseum org (2010). URL: http://www.greenmuseum.org/. (accessed 06-04-2017).
The Greenmuseum (2010). URL: http://www.greenmuseum.org/. (accessed 06-04-2017).


Torres, V., Vandenberghe, J., Hooghiemstra, H. (2005). An environmental reconstruction of the sediment infill of the Bogotá basin (Colombia) during the last 3 million years from abiotic and biotic proxies. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 226, 127–148. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2005.05.005
Torres, V., Vandenberghe, J., Hooghiemstra, H. (2005). An environmental reconstruction of the sediment infill of the Bogotá basin (Colombia) during the last 3 million years from abiotic and biotic proxies. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 226, 127–148. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2005.05.005  


Torres, V., Hooghiemstra, H., Lourens, L., Tzedakis, P.C. (2013). Astronomical tuning of long pollen records reveals the dynamic history of montane biomes and lake levels in the tropical high Andes during the Quaternary. Quaternary Science Reviews 63, 59–72. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.11.004
Torres, V., Hooghiemstra, H., Lourens, L., Tzedakis, P.C. (2013). Astronomical tuning of long pollen records reveals the dynamic history of montane biomes and lake levels in the tropical high Andes during the Quaternary. Quaternary Science Reviews 63, 59–72. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.11.004
Van der Hammen, T. (1974) The Pleistocene changes of vegetation and climate in tropical South America. Journal of Biogeography 1, 3-26.
Van der Hammen, T. (1974) The Pleistocene changes of vegetation and climate in tropical South America. Journal of Biogeography 1, 3-26.

Latest revision as of 15:09, 26 October 2017

Title

Sky Islands of the Andes Mountains or Time machine: ice ages in the Andes


Andes Flickering FCS0303.png Andes 4 0605.png Andes Flickering FCS0322.png


Introduction

Sky Islands of the Andes Mountains is an exploration of how to display scientific information using digital art, 3D animation, and data visualization as the contemporary tools to imagine ecosystems in the past times. Francoeur mentioned in 1997 that sciences and arts overlap each other by giving shape to a new creation that enlightens insights, triggers our imagination and help to put ideas into a new perspective. Thus, subjects that are complex in multiple dimensions can highly benefit from the integration between theoretical knowledge and modeling with simulations and scientific visualization, shaping our sensory experience on something that by definition can neither be touched nor seen. Likewise, the current convergence between science, art, and technology is a path to create education models for the 21st century that trigger envisions to understand hypotheses and theories from different science fields. This art-science-tech collaboration will be also a powerful instrument to create awareness about the importance of evolution in the South American Andes ecosystems and its biodiversity. Sky Islands of the Andes Mountains is like a time machine to visualize the effect of the ice ages in the Northern Andes during the last million years. This project is a collaboration with the group of Palaeoecology and Landscape Ecology (P&L) at the University of Amsterdam. This group has been studying the Páramos and Andean ecosystems for over 50 years, focusing both on its relevance in present and past times (see studies from A. Cleef and T. van der Hammen and H. Hooghiemstra, among others). Their studies have shown the Páramos are highly diverse ecosystems currently restricted to mountain tops (resembling an archipelago of islands) but in the past dominated large surface areas throughout the Northern. Driven by large scale cycles of climate change, the páramo ‘islands’ shifted altitudinally along the mountain slopes, heavily influenced by the topography that determined the degree of Páramo fragmentation and connectivity in the past. During cold conditions, the low elevational position of the Páramos cause the many isolated Páramo islands to fuse, while during warmer conditions the Páramos form isolated archipelagos. The biogeographic history of the Páramos has been reconstructed for the last million years and exposes the driver of the evolutionary powerhouse, a mechanism described as the ‘flickering connectivity system’ (Flantua 2017). This project will envision how the shifting elevational distributions of the Andean ecosystems (páramos, Andean forests, and lowlands forests) was caused by cold and warm conditions driven by cycles in a macro scale of time and space, called the Milankovitch cycles (Muller et.al 1997)

Methodology. How do you plan to make it?

I want to create a time machine to travel in the past times of Andes mountains to understand how the ecosystems and plants evolved in time. For this, I am using 3D animation programs as Cinema 4D, VUE, After Effects and Adobe Premier. To generate the landscapes of Andes mountains I am using digital terrain models from satellite images. The storytelling of this project is based on pollen fossil, carbon 14 dating and sediments records that have been tools to approach the ecosystems and climate in the past. Materials that have been preserved thousands of years in the mountain lakes are witnesses able to tell us the history of how the Paramos changed on a large scale of time and space. Many of the papers I am using have been published from The Research group of Palaeoecology and Landscape Ecology (P&L) of University of Amsterdam. The story timeline will take place in a period of one millions of years to the present times. The 3D animation will have two points of view which acts as a mirror. In one side, the Earth and Sun's cycles from outside of the planet, and the other side the Earth in the Andes mountains. The screen can be divided in two, the first half screen will show the process led by the movements outside of the Earth around the sun and herself, cycles that have an effect on the Earth's climate on a scale of thousands of years (100.000, 40.000 and 26.000). The other half will be displayed with the same cycles but as a closer in the mountains. The idea is to show 12 scenarios that were found as the most relevant moments or snapshots to explain the process of evolution and climate change effect on plants and its diversification. One of the possible outcomes will be an immersive 360 degrees video installation, the half screen will display the cycles outside of the Earth and the second half, the process happening in the mountains as a reflection of the Sun-Earth cycles. The second possible outcome is a video installation using two confronted screens, but in this case, one screen will display the cycles outside of the Earth and the second screen the process happening in the mountains as a reflection of the Sun-Earth cycles.

What is your timetable?

Steps Process 4 Trimester 5 Trimester 6 Trimester
Storyboard x
3D Animation x x x
Final editing +Revisions x
Video Installation x

Why do you want to make it?

My interest is to explore how to communicate visually the results published in a scientific way. I want to transform the information published for studies made in the Andes for over the last 50 years. Studies focused both on its relevance in present and past times of páramos and Andean ecosystems. The ‘páramos’ of the Northern Andes is an interesting case study area because they are supported by unique long fossil pollen records and developed conceptual frameworks (Flantua et al., 2014, Flantua & Hooghiemstra, 2017; Groot, 2012; Torres et al., 2005, 2013; Van der Hammen 1974).

In the same way, I believe this project will have a significant impact in various fields. First of all, decades of knowledge on the evolution in Andean ecosystems will be integrated, providing a much needed interface for multi-disciplinary research between paleoecology, phylogeography, macroecology and paleoclimate. Secondly, strong information graphics will trigger new initiatives in mountain research globally, elucidating the origin of biodiversity in an unprecedented manner. Additionally, it will help students to better understand the dynamic history of the páramo ecosystem and high mountain ecosystems in general. Finally, the visualization will be relevant for a very large public including scientists and universities, new media artists, schools, policy makers and governments.

Who can help you or how?

This is collaboration project with the research team of Palaeoecology at the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, which will be supported in Science by PhD. Suzette Flantua and Professor Henry Hooghiemstra. They will provide advice in science research, data and publications that will be the core of the visualization script and story. As well I will have the support of Arts advisors at Piet Zwart Institute as Simon Pummell, Barend Onneweer, David Haines, Ine Lamers, Javier Lloret, Marloes de Valk and some professors at Willem de Kooning Academy for data visualization work.

Relation to previous practice?

As a biologist I have been working in different research teams that investigate the past, present, and future ecosystems in Colombia. My interests as a researcher have been to understand how the changes in climate have been modifying plants and vegetation through different periods of time and space but also how to communicate that in a visual form. Today, my interest as visual artist is to explore how to transform the knowledge created through the lens of science in a visual art piece using 3D animation. For the reasons above I have been exploring life plant installations, video mapping projection and photography of nature. Some of the projects I have done before took shape between 2011 and 2017 and were supported by many artists and technicians at the University of California- Santa Cruz, Piet Zwart Institute, Science Park (UvA) and the Eye Filmmuseum. (More info here http://www.catalhinagiraldo.com/art-installations)

Verde Oscuro.png Screen Shot 2017-04-18 at 21.14.08.png Fluctuations.png


Relation to a larger context?

In a larger context sense, the piece would be outlined inside the conceptual movement of artists exploring the metaphorical language of Planet Earth which started in the 70's, like “Planet Earth in Contemporary Electronic Artworks” and “Environmental Art”, which expression coined as an umbrella term to encompass Eco-Art/Ecological Art, Ecoventions, Land Art, Earth Art, Earthworks, and Art in Nature (Knebusch, 2004; Bower, 2010). To bring some examples for Environmental Art, there are over 150 artists, and close to 22 scientists and Science & Arts collaborative projects, organizations, programs, and residencies focused on this Eco-Art movement around the world (The Greenmuseum, 2010). A number that have been increasing with the current ‘Art in the Anthropocene”, a massive trans-disciplinary movement of artists, designers and scholars exploring the symbolic language of the Anthropocene (Anthropocene Agents, 2017; Dickinson, 2015; Alonso, 2015; Bourriaud, 2014). Artists since the 70’s that have been engaging audiences for climate change, restoration of ecosystems and protection of watersheds using models for sustainable restoration are Newton & Helen Mayer Harrison, AMD&ART/ T., Allan Comp, Jean Paul Ganem, Tim Collins & Reiko Goto, Yolanda Gutiérrez, Patricia Johanson, Lynne Hull, Ichi Ikeda and Aviva Rahmani.

References

Alonso C. (2015). Artistic practices, discursive contexts and environmental humanities in the Age of the Anthropocene. Artnodes 15, I ISSN 1695-5951.

Bourriaud, N. (2014). The great acceleration. Art in the Anthropocene. http://www.taipeibiennial.org:8080/index.php/en/tb2014?phpMyAdmin=ef6946252cea3105a72033fb2f279321. (accessed 18-04-2017).

Bower, S. (2010). A Profusion of Terms. Greenmuseum.org. URL: http://greenmuseum.org/generic_content.php?ct_id=306. (accessed 06-04-2017).

Dickinson, B. (2015). Pleistocene, Holocene, Anthropocene. Features 02, ART MONTHLY, Sep 15, 389 pg.

Flantua, S.G.A., Hooghiemstra, H., Van Boxel, J.H., Cabrera, M., González-Carranza, Z., González-Arango, C., 2014. Connectivity dynamics since the Last Glacial Maximum in the northern Andes; a pollen-driven framework to assess potential migration, in: Stevens, W.D., Montiel, O.M., Raven, P.H. (Eds.), Paleobotany and Biogeography: A Festschrift for Alan Graham in His 80th Year. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, pp. 98–123.

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