Roles: Project lead, 3D designer
Year: 2021 — 2022
The concept for Project Mammoth was born from a challenge to create an interactive digital media project within a team setting. We wanted to think outside of the box and develop something that hadn't been done by any group in the program before, which led us down the path of DIY hologram technology and its usage in installations. Combined with the topic of biodiversity preservation and awareness, we felt holograms could be a unique medium for storytelling while still adhering to the requirements of the project.
At its core, hologram technology can easily be replicated using simple materials such as a screen, a hologram-ready YouTube video and transparent pieces of plastic arranged in the form of a prism. The simplicity of the structure meant we could increase the size as needed without going over budget and feasibility constraints.
To begin, we created a small-scale version using pieces of a CD case, tape and a phone to understand how holograms worked. Then, we transformed this into a mid-scale hologram for prototyping using plastic sheets. For the final installation, we upscaled it even further with plexiglass and a TV monitor attached the underside of a basic desk surface.
While endangered species and animal extinction have long been studied in media and films (think Our Planet and other documentaries narrated by the legendary Sir David Attenborough), we discovered that there are many species whose struggles are unknown by the general public due to a lack of exposure.
165,000
The number of species on the International Union for Conversation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of threatened species.
47,000
The number of species on the IUCN Red List that are currently threatened with extinction.
1,473
The number of marine species currently on the IUCN Red List that are vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered.
To diversify our selections, we focused on the world's oceanic and polar regions, selecting a total of eight unique marine species to highlight through our hologram. Using Blender and Maya, we created low-poly models of each selected marine species for the installation; distincitive markings and details were added via texturing and weight painting to aid with recognition.
In order to properly apply the physics of hologram refraction to the installation, we brainstormed ways to position the hologram media that would not only be compatible with the prism, but could also bypass the technical restraints that holograms of this nature imposted. Simply displaying each of our selected marine species wasn't enough — we wanted to provide information on their habitats as well. Through several rounds of testing, we eventually settled on dome-based environments containing the species model and the surrounding elements that depicted its home. We discovered that this approach was the most successful in simulating a real hologram and the immersion would be maintained without revealing what actually powered the images.
Operating the hologram proved to be one of our biggest challenges to overcome. Holograms have traditionally been depicted in sci-fi literature as motion-responsive through invisible controls, however we didn't have the technology to fully replicate this functionality nor does it quite exist yet, so we had to improvise.
We incorporated motion controls through a Flick motion board connected to a Raspberry Pi device that ran a simple Python program to recognize motion inputs. We chose specific motion combinations that imitated movements used on touchscreen devices for user familiarity, as we envisioned that a production-ready version of this installation would be targeted towards a wider range of age and skill demographics. For example, a user moving their hand from right to left above the board would cause the hologram to swap to the next species; moving their hand up would increase the volume, moving it down would decrease it.
Project Mammoth's visual identity was designed to encapsulate a playful approach to biodiversity awareness and education. We envisioned our installation as something that would cater to audiences of all ages, encouraging both children and adults alike to interact with the project. The team's decision to select a mammoth as the project logo stems from the extinction of the elephantid genus Mammuthus, a mammal species that disappeared during the Holocene epoch due to climate change and human hunting. While mammoths are not classified as marine species, we believed that their fate best represented the critical nature of our topic and served as a reminder that the animals we highlighted could follow the same path of extinction if humanity doesn't strengthen its conservation efforts to protect them.
(Ironically enough, our internal team mascot was the polar bear, which we had 3D-printed as a test object before printing the case that housed the Flick motion board.)
Project Lead: Tany Dourev
Secondary Lead: Samantha Savage
Research Team: Kathleen MacDonald, Evan Mason, Will Paskulin, Rogo Jean
Modelling Team: Tany Dourev, Will Paskulin, Samantha Savage, Xu Yankeer (Coco)
Sound & Narration Team: Evan Mason, Wu Dongjian (Joey), Rigel Quindipan, Xu Yankeer (Coco)
Installation Team: Kathleen MacDonald, Evan Mason, Rogo Jean, Rigel Quindipan, Shannon Kelly, Patrick Arenas
Coding Team: Shannon Kelly, Matthew McNeil
Branding Team: Kathleen MacDonald, Samantha Savage, Will Paskulin
Thank you to Dr. Aaron Mauro of Brock University for his support and guidance throughout the project, and to Alison Innes of the Brock News for her photography.
