Make a real-world difference using Tango, a cutting-edge technology by Google at the museum’s latest permanent development, Into the Wild: An Immersive Virtual Adventure.
Into the Wild is made by ArtScience Museum, Google, Lenovo, and WWF, in association with Panasonic and Qualcomm, working with the creative talents of MediaMonks and Singaporean artist, Brian Gothong Tan. It transforms over 850 square meters of ArtScience Museum into a virtual rainforest, which you can explore using a smartphone device.
Your virtual adventure becomes reality, when you take an active role in replanting the rainforests of Southeast Asia. For every virtual tree planted, and accompanied with a pledge to WWF, a real tree will be planted in a rainforest in Indonesia.
THE ADVENTURE
Into the Wild begins at ArtScience Museum’s Basement 2. Using Lenovo's Phab 2 Pro, the world’s first Tango-enabled smartphone, you will step into the role of a wildlife ranger and embark on a virtual reality adventure.
Immersed in a lush digital world, you will encounter some of the key inhabitants of the Southeast Asian rainforest - pangolins, tapirs, mousedeers, orangutans and tigers. Learn about the imminent dangers they face, observe the animals in their natural habitat, and take action to defend their environment. The adventure will lead you around the museum and up to Level 4, where your actions can help restore the rainforests of Southeast Asia.
PLANT A TREE
When you plant a virtual tree within the museum, and accompany it with a pledge to WWF, a tree will be planted in Rimbang Baling, in Indonesia - one of the last pristine rainforests in Sumatra, and critical territory for endangered Sumatran tigers. Your actions will transcend the virtual world and make a significant, real-world impact.
Once you’ve planted your tree and made your pledge, step into the transformative world of Brian Gothong Tan’s installation and experience the forests of Southeast Asia in a larger-than-life, cinematic world.
IMMERSE YOURSELF IN A CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE
Into the Wild culminates with a cinematic experience, directed by one of Singapore’s leading filmmakers, Brian Gothong Tan. Using state-of the-art animation and projection-mapping techniques, Tan has created a portal through which you pass from the virtual reality of the digital adventure, into an immersive, cinematic experience on a spectacular scale.
Tan’s thought-provoking film depicts the fragile habitat of the five animals featured in the virtual adventure - pangolins, tapirs, mousedeers, orangutans and tigers. Inspired by the work of explorer and naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, and Mexican mural painter, Diego Rivera, Tan's film eloquently and fluently animates the animals’ journey from creation, to destruction and rebirth.
MAKE A REAL-WORLD DIFFERENCE
Central to the undertaking of Into the Wild is the restoration of the Rimbang Baling Wildlife Reserve in Sumatra, Indonesia. This is among the last places in the world where tigers, pangolins, mouse deer and tapirs co-exist. However, the reserve is under consistent threat and there is an increasing need and urgency to understand, protect and restore this vulnerable animal habitat and forest ecosystem.
By planting your virtual tree here and making a pledge to WWF, you can protect the homes of these endangered animals. As a special Thank You, WWF will plant a real tree for you in Sumatra. You will receive photos of the tree as it grows and also the exact coordinates, so that you can watch it grow on Google maps!
The actions of ArtScience Museum visitors will transcend the virtual world and have significant, real-world impact in helping to restore the rainforest of Southeast Asia. Find out more here.
