Becoming Biodiversity

An augmented reality tour that encourages participants to explore local, ecological networks present in an urban park site. Mixed-reality animations and storytelling are an overlay to an actual park in New York City. The experience is an embodied one, designed to connect humans with the biodiversity, symbioses, and unseen worlds in public park spaces.

This artwork is a guided tour which allows us to inhabit the worlds of multiple species along the trail, allowing them to become visible and “sense-able” to us. The viewer re-enacts stories from the perspectives of non-humans; playing the part of a plant calling out to a bird to help with pest control, an ant planting spring flowers while simultaneously feeding her babies, an underground fungal network delivering goods to struggling trees, and a cormorant searching for a meal in a man-made lake in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, NY. If you are not in that park, you can still use the app in your local park, GPS is not required.