Rewild Our Planet: A free AR experience that brings you from the frozen Arctic to the forests of Borneo

Photo: Marina Bay Sands
Photo: Marina Bay Sands

Trudge through the forests of Borneo and India. Swim across the oceans of Asia. Scope out the grasslands of Mongolia. Traverse the frozen worlds of the Arctic. Sure, you can buy yourself a plane ticket and drop a wad of cash to do that in person, but you can also explore it all without spending a single cent at Rewild Our Planet.

As Singapore’s first “social augmented reality” experience, the collaboration between giants like Google, Netflix, ArtScience Museum, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and Phoria launches at the museum tomorrow. And best of all, it’s free to try. After its debut here, Rewild will pop-up at other places across the world, including New York City and Bristol.

Photo: Marina Bay Sands
Photo: Marina Bay Sands

In a nutshell, the short storytelling session combines sweet AR tech with magnificent 4K video footage from Our Planet, Netflix’s new original documentary series that launches today. Voiced by famous naturalist Sir David Attenborough, the eight-part nature experience brings you to remote wilderness spots around the world, featuring never-before-filmed environments from ice caps and coastal seas to deserts and freshwater regions. Amazingly, the four-year project was shot in 50 countries by 600 crew members, and its first episode “One Planet” takes you from the Brazilian rainforest to Norway’s Svalbard archipelago.

Working together in small groups (20 pax, max), participants must hold on to their Google Pixel 3 as they “journey” across the globe to restore natural landscapes in 3D — all in the span of 10 minutes. But don’t be too fixated on the phone, else you miss out on the Imax-style projections on the towering wall of the gallery. The aim here isn’t to win the game of planet-building or environment-creating; instead, after you encounter all sorts of animals on your phone and unlock global weather patterns, you’ll hopefully leave with a greater awareness of what’s happening to the Earth and be inspired to do something.

Photo: Marina Bay Sands
Photo: Marina Bay Sands

But talk is cheap if it’s not accompanied by proper action, which is why Rewild wants visitors to make a pledge to lend a hand. You’re not exactly promising to do something specific, but it is a first step in getting the word out to the powers-that-be about the public’s desire for environmental change.

 

FIND IT:
Rewild Our Planet is on from Apr 6-June 2; daily 10am-7pm at ArtScience Museum, L4 Inspiration Gallery.
Free admission.

MRT: Bayfront



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