Created By Abner preıs

The Lost Flowers Almanac is an Augmented Reality artwork depicting five different digital gardens resembling a pop-up book. From extinct flowers long lost, to the return of grey wolves to the Netherlands; from a forest heals to flowers in the sky; you can explore natural life both lost and saved as they were depicted by explorers, saved in museum collections all over the world. On location, this artwork can be experienced with your phone following the QR Code. Each marker will open a new digital environment in your Instagram app.

1. A Digital Garden of Extinct Flora

Most of the plants that are presented here have been extinct for a long time. These images are gathered from several open source bioheritage collections. There are many theories for their extinction: destruction of wild habitat, overexploitation, invasive species, pollution and increasingly climate change.

2. The Comeback

For almost 150 years, wolves were absent from The Netherlands, their numbers decreased due to hunting and loss of habitat. However, recently they have come back. At a time when biodiversity is a global crisis, the comeback of wolves in the region gives hope for conservation efforts. 

3. A Garden That Heals

Medicinal plants have been a part of our lives since prehistoric times, some of them crucial in drug discoveries and in the advancement of modern medicine. However, with climate change, biodiversity loss, and over-harvesting, they too are under threat. 

4. Flowers in the Sky: Butterflies and Bees

In this illustration are some examples of the bees and butterflies that have disappeared from the Netherlands. There are approximately 360 bee species in the Netherlands, however more than half of these species are on the Red List. Both bees and butterflies’ survival is threatened by mainly three factors: the increase of agricultural land devoid of wildflowers, chemical pollution and climate change.

5. Flowers in the Sky: Birds

Well over a hundred species of birds have become extinct since 1500 worldwide and the rate of extinction seems to be increasing in the last decades. Their habitats have been quietly wiped out by intensive farming, overfishing, and the introduction of agricultural chemicals amongst other issues. In this illustration several of the bird species that used to inhabit the Netherlands but have disappeared are presented. While some of these birds have moved away, some of them became extinct.

Team

Creator

Abner Preis is a story-teller whose work is rooted in personal aspirations to give one hope in a situation that seems hopeless, to transfer the ability to laugh at sadness, and to seduce viewers into seeing beauty in bleak objects by offering compositions that play to emotion before aesthetics.

AR Developer

Sjoerd van Acker is a New Media Artist and VR developer working under the name NO FISH. A recent graduate of University of the Arts Utrecht, he is interested in the cultural issues at the root of the climate crisis, resulting in experiences where you see yourself and your environment differently. The experiences he creates arise out of experiments with new-technology, embracing unexpected outcomes. Besides his personal work he makes virtual art exhibitions for museums and artists and works with directors and artists to try to realize their VR experiences.

Producer

Ecegül Bayram is a producer with a passion for social sciences. She holds a BFA in Film & TV from NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a minor in Politics. After her return to Istanbul, she has started working at Institute of Time focusing on VR and documentaries. Apart from her work at the Institute, Ecegül has directed personal projects and worked as a production designer on several award-winning short films.