{"id":5714,"date":"2020-04-21T21:11:59","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T21:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/thought-leadership\/ed-burtynskys-augmented-reality\/"},"modified":"2020-04-21T21:11:59","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T21:11:59","slug":"ed-burtynskys-augmented-reality","status":"publish","type":"rbc_tl","link":"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/thought-leadership\/climate-action-institute\/ed-burtynskys-augmented-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Edward Burtynsky’s Augmented Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

The COVID-19 crisis has shattered the way we live our lives and experience the world around us. Economies have been frozen in time, causing reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and remarkable improvements in air quality around the globe. Once the health crisis resolves and economies re-start, will we continue the same habits of consumption and production?<\/p>\n

Wednesday, April 22 marks Earth Day\u2014an opportunity to reflect and set a path forward. As I reflect on the pandemic and the climate crisis, I am reminded of the conversation I had with iconic Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky and gaming executive Vikas Gupta, who are pushing the boundaries of photography\u2019s next frontier, using augmented reality, virtual reality and photogrammetry to create immersive, three-dimensional visual experiences. They joined us in January for RBC Disruptors, where we spoke about how technology is transforming the photographic experience\u2014and the way we understand our impact on the planet. <\/p>\n

Burtynsky is celebrated around the world for his unconventional landscapes, shot from the ground and the air, showcasing the enormous and enduring impact of human beings on the world around us. He has captured the urban sprawl of Los Angeles, an oil field left for dead in Azerbaijan, the spectacular imprint of China\u2019s Three Gorges Dam, and a tire pile 40 million deep\u2014which soon after went up in flames. <\/p>\n

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Highway #1, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2003 <\/em><\/p>\n

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SOCAR Oil Fields #10, Baku, Azerbaijan, 2006<\/em><\/p>\n

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Then came the advent of digital, which allowed him to stitch together hundreds of photographs to create his renowned prints, massive in scale and detail. He began to collaborate with filmmakers and produced three major documentaries. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what I call photography 2.0,\u201d Burtynsky said. \u201cI was able to do all the things I couldn’t do before\u2014and get a better quality image.\u201d <\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

Marble Quarries #1, Carrara, Italy, 1993 (detail)<\/em><\/p>\n

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Oxford Tire Pile #1, Westley, California, USA, 1999<\/em><\/p>\n

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Wan Zhou #1, Three Gorges Dam Project, Yangtze River, China, 2002<\/em><\/p>\n

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Now, what he calls Photography 3.0 is opening up new doors for truth-telling. <\/p>\n

At a chance meeting, Burtynsky connected with Gupta, a digital media and gaming veteran who\u2019d worked with brands like Disney and Electronic Arts. They wondered: what would happen if you applied some of the principles of gaming to photography? If you actually transported people to some of the most extraordinary places and moments in time? Together, the two founded AVARA Media to find out. <\/p>\n

One of their first AR experiences, part of the acclaimed Anthropocene project<\/em><\/a>, made waves with a 3D augmented reality rendering of a historic event in Kenya: the massive burning of 100 tonnes of elephant tusks, designed to deter poachers in the country\u2014and recreated at full scale from 3,000 photographs. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it was like an absolutely new form of photography that has again been born by digital,\u201d Burtynsky said. <\/p>\n

The leap could be as significant as the shift from black and white to colour photography.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an artist, it’s like a jump of that magnitude. Now you can use the same tool and bring out a three dimensional world in which you can walk around.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Building Ivory Tusk Mound, April 25, Nairobi, Kenya, 2016<\/em><\/p>\n

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Inspired by the stickiness of gaming, AVARA Media<\/a> is building an immersive augmented reality technology platform that puts people face-to-face with the biggest environmental and ecological issues our planet is facing\u2014and shows how they can be part of the solution. <\/p>\n

Now, instead of just looking at a rainforest landscape, you can immerse yourself in it\u2014and even pick up a plastic water bottle floating down the river. Or travel to Indonesia, the native habitat for the endangered Sumatran tiger, and help create a digital ecosystem in which the animals do not go extinct. <\/p>\n

The thinking is that by immersing you into the action, and gamifying the task, digital behaviour will transform into actual behaviour. Just maybe, people will think twice before buying that next plastic water bottle. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to inform, impact and influence people so they ultimately become change agents towards a healthier planet,\u201d Gupta said. \u201cThe idea around this is to inject enough game theory and gamification that there’s mass, mass appeal.\u201d <\/p>\n

Last year, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and Canadian Geographic Education, with support from the RBC Foundation, partnered with The Anthropocene Project<\/em> to develop an education program to expand its reach among youth and get into classrooms all across Canada. Through virtual and augmented reality, video and immersive lesson plans students can experience the history and science of different environments, and see with their own eyes the impacts of human activity, in places such as landfills. The new education program<\/a> finally launched in Canada last month as part of Canadian Geographic Education\u2019s new Online Classroom.<\/p>\n

Technology may have made the world of photography a much more crowded space, but for Burtynsky, it\u2019s opened up doors and worlds \u2013 and a whole new photographic art form. <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A conversation about how technology is transforming photography and the way we understand our impact on the planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":5721,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"disable_focal_point":true,"featured_image_focal_point":{"x":0.5,"y":0.5},"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"rbc_tl_category":[130,109,100],"rbc_tl_tag":[136,101,99,103],"class_list":["post-5714","rbc_tl","type-rbc_tl","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rbc_tl_category-climate-action-institute","rbc_tl_category-disruptors","rbc_tl_category-innovation","rbc_tl_tag-education","rbc_tl_tag-environment","rbc_tl_tag-innovation","rbc_tl_tag-technology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEdward Burtynsky's Augmented Reality - RBC<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An RBC Disruptors conversation about how technology like augmented reality is transforming photography and the way we 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