The Last of their Kind

^{The Last of their Kind: The Last Giants. Image depicting point-cloud analysis of large old trees. Image by the authors.}

Contributors: Alexander Holland; Julian Rutten; Stanislav Roudavski.

Part of the The Special Interest Group in Computer Graphis (SIGGRAPH), Digital Arts Community (DAC) exhibition The Earth, Our Home: Art, Technology and Critical Action, available online from January 28, 2022.

Our research group often uses "design experiments", which is an established method in a number of fields. This is similar to but also different from an artwork. The main purpose here is to contribute to theory or practice. These experiments can be physical prototypes or speculative designs presented in a variety of media, however, in all cases they are primarily meaningful and transmit knowledge as designs.

In this case, the theme is the ethics of extinction and its relevance for future design. Within this theme, we work on various sub-projects and arguments. This project is design experiment that demonstrates the potential of technology. It is distinct from published outputs and presents the material that cannot be shown in other ways.

The Last of Their Kind is an outcome of a research program that seeks to open possibilities for participatory designing that involves nonhuman lifeforms. This exhibit gives detail to rich stories of interspecies communities. To provide a brighter contrast with familiar human-centred narratives we focus on plant lives. Humans often study plants as resources. Instead, we seek to tell stories about the self-directed lives of plants and relevant ethical questions. The Last of Their Kind focuses on individuals, species and communities facing extinction. Some call these beings ‘endlings’. How should humans study and preserve stories of beings that go away, often forever?

Engaging with these beings, we use lasers, magnetic fields, and particle accelerators to generate detailed data representations of plant worlds. Applying analytical tools and artificial intelligence to this data, we seek to capture the richness and nuance of behaviours, capabilities and preferences that characterise nonhuman lives. These stories attempt to create a narrative world that can support multiple perspectives, including nonhuman. We believe such spaces are a foundation for fairer and more hopeful interspecies futures.

Materials of this project have been peer-selected for the permanent online exhibition The Earth, Our Home: Art, Technology and Critical Action that opened on January 28, 2022 and was organised by Special Interest Group in Computer Graphis (SIGGRAPH) and Digital Arts Community (DAC). It was also presented at Short Presentations of Artworks and Research for the Kindred Spirit (SPARKS) event on January 28, 2022. This work is one of the outcomes of the ARC Discovery Project grant on Place and Parameticism (DP170104010). The work has implications for the planning and design at multiple sites.

Video

^{The Last of their Kind: Video from the exhibition. Video by the authors.}

Images

Tree affected by bushfires

^{The Last of their Kind: Photograph of a tree affected by bushfires. Image by the authors.}

Logging at the Styx

^{The Last of their Kind: Photograph showing the impacts of logging at the Styx. Image by the authors.}

Photograph of a yellowbox tree

^{The Last of their Kind: Photograph of a Eucalyptus myrtacea (Yellowbox). Image by the authors.}

Acknowledgements

Biologists
- Rebecca Miller, Royal Botanic Gardens
- Darren Le Roux, Australian Capital Territory Parks and Conservation Service
- Phil Gibbons, Australian National University
- Yoav Daniel Bar-Ness, Tasmanian Geographic
Imaging specialists
- Jay Black, the University of Melbourne
- Anton Maksimenko, the Australian Synchrotron

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