The Virtual Garden

We are all dependent on the resources of our planet - air, water, and fuel - yet the growth of new technologies and digital environments can create a disconnect between us and the very environment we rely upon. However, advancements in technology also provide us with an abundance of data that, if harnessed and communicated properly, could help us minimise our impact on the planet. Our goal is to envision a future where technology and digital environments serve as a means of reconnecting us with the physical world, rather than perpetuating our detachment from it.

In his seminal work, "Hyperobjects", philosopher Timothy Morton introduces the idea of entities so immense in both temporal and spatial dimensions that they challenge conventional notions of what constitutes a "thing." 

Morton argues that complex and global issues, such as climate change, are too vast for the human mind to fully comprehend, leading to misunderstandings, ignorance, and a lack of appropriate action. As a result, this exacerbates the disconnect between humanity and our physical environment.

New technologies revolutionise the way we gather and analyse data about our planet. With machine learning techniques, we can now monitor everything from whale migration to climate predictions, generating vast amounts of data each day with ever-increasing resolution. 

This is a remarkable feat, but it also highlights a challenge - how do we effectively process and make sense of all this data? According to Professor Emily Shuckburgh, we are now producing "terabytes of data every day showing every aspect of the earth at ever-increasing resolution," and this wealth of information requires a coordinated effort to fully understand and utilise its potential.

This led us to our research question, "Can a digital environment be used to emotionally reconnect us to physical environmental issues?".

Telecom technology typically advances to the next generation every decade. The emergence of 6G and 7G networks in next decades could have significant implications for the development of virtual environments. By providing even faster and more stable internet connectivity, 7G networks could enable the creation of even more immersive and interactive experiences that have applications in a wide range of industries. In the near future, it is even possible that headsets may no longer be necessary to experience the virtual world, as advancements in technology could allow us to do so with contact lenses.

Our research has involved a comprehensive review of a multitude of articles and studies across multiple fields, including psychology, art, education, tourism, and hospitality management. This extensive examination has confirmed the positive impact that immersive augmented reality experiences can have, both as an educational tool and as a means of fostering a personal, emotional connection to complex topics. The results of our research support the idea that immersive AR experiences are a valuable resource for enhancing learning outcomes and emotional engagement.

In conclusion, our research of academic studies, journals, and artworks has led us to two key observations. First, advancements in technology will continue to blur the lines between the digital and physical worlds, making virtual environments an integral part of our daily lives and perception. Second, the use of immersive experiences and digital environments to educate and evoke an emotional connection to complex topics is already evident in immersive learning models and artworks. 

With the ongoing advancement of technology, we are confident that the utilisation of immersive experiences in this manner will grow and evolve. These findings support the idea that immersive experiences have great potential for both education and emotional engagement and have significant implications for the future of technology and its role in our daily lives.

In 2040, the borderlines between digital and physical worlds would be invisible. Virtual environments will become part of our daily lives and perception. We envision, a product that uses this technology to connect individuals to the planet by data visualisation of personal carbon footprint, monitored species and ecosystems. We hope that our idea could encourage better choices and give people a tangible connection to their impact on the natural world through positive rewards.

As a virtual miniature of the natural environment, the garden is tethered to the actual data collected from personal behaviours such as energy consumption, water usage, purchasing habits etc. The health of your personal garden will be determined by positive actions such as good energy consumption, buying habits and life choices. For example, if you use 10% less energy month to month, your trees will grow a little bit and may start to grow fruit.

By sponsoring causes and projects by organisations such as RSPB, WWF, Greenpeace, the National Trust, and other NGOs, you can get virtual animals or properties added to your garden. For example, if you sponsor a whale conservation project, you can adopt a digital whale wandering in your garden. By clicking on it, you can get real-time GPS location information for the specific whale you have chosen.

Your living space will seamlessly integrate with virtual reality, creating a world where virtual plants and animals surround you, and you can interact with them at will. You'll have the ability to turn this virtual world on and off whenever you desire. You can walk around your garden and see how each plant is doing and what see clearly where you are doing well and where you may need to make some better decisions to improve.

To get feedback from other people's perspectives, we conducted multiple online interviews with people from various backgrounds. We will walk the interviewees through our concept and get their insights about our proposed product. We created a list of questions and ask the participants to respond verbally. Most of the questions are open-ended, and respondents are encouraged to freely share their thoughts.

Based on the feedback we’ve got and the things we’ve learned in the process, it seems that our proposal raises many questions. Some are technicalities, such as user’s data protection or the visual aesthetics of the garden, but others are more on a philosophical level that need to be considered when correlating between digital and physical environments:

• How do you determine that something is “good for the environment”? - We cannot yet determine whether something is objectively “green”.
• How can this measurement be relative to the individual? - People from different backgrounds effect the environment differently.
• How do you prevent a false perception of the real world by its digital representation (especially with young audiences) - This must always be taken into account when creating an “experience” for educational purposes.
• How do you battle inequality? - Does being “eco-friendly” necessarily mean spending more money?

We wanted to see if emerging digital technologies could make us care more about our personal environmental choices and reconnect us to the larger issues around climate change. We learned that digital environments will likely be an integral part of human life in the future, and that we will be used to engaging with technology in this way both physically and emotionally. It was clear to us therefore, that this could be a great way to achieve what we set out to do.

The feedback on our Virtual Garden proposal showed that this could be a useful tool to show someone a tangible reflection of their environmental impact, allowing them to connect with it in a more tangible way than they would be able to otherwise. However, the experiment also raised important topics that relate to the wider question of environmentalism. This could be cultural issues such as economic differences and public perception. 

For us to reconnect digitally with the physical environment, we must first define what that connection is and agree, as a society, on the definition of “good environmental behaviour”. If we address these questions honestly, and objectively, we believe this project could have the potential to have a strong impact on our appreciation of the planet we live on.

1. Morton, T. (2013). Hyperobjects : philosophy and ecology after the end of the world, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
2. Weller, R., Cepok, J., Arzaroli, R., Marnholz, K., Große, C. S., Reuter, H., Zachmann, G. (2022). Effects of immersion and navigation agency in virtual environments on emotions and behavioral intentions.
3. Trunfio, M. Jung, T. and Campana, S. (2022). ‘Mixed reality experiences in museums: Exploring the impact of functional elements of the devices on visitors’ immersive experiences and post-experience behaviours’ Information & Management, Volume 59, Issue 8. 
4. Xie, X. (2022). “Research on Immersion Teaching Method Based on 5G +XR Technology and Reinforcement Learning Model”, Advances in Multimedia, vol. 2022, Article ID 7092100, 12 pages, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/7092100 
5. 6G Technology: https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/6g-technology
6. Mojo Vision’s Smart Contact Lens is Further Along Than You Might Think: https://www.roadtovr.com/mojo-vision-smart-contact-lens-ar-hands-on/
7. Eran Hilleli: https://www.instagram.com/eranhill/, IORAMA Studio: https://www.instagram.com/iorama.studio/