This project was part of an initiative to grow people’s connectedness to the natural world by expanding their sense of identity to include the natural spaces around them.
Kei tēnā, kei tēnā tōna ake, ka puritia, ka tukuna. Ka tangata whenua ki roto i a tātau.
Working in partnership with an environmental organisation, our objective was to test and measure whether sharing personal stories of connection to nature increases people’s nature-place attachment and encourages pro-environmental behaviour. The data collected from the project would be used to drive their environmental mission forward.
Our role was to create a physical art installation that captured public and media attention and produced an immersive digital experience that captured people's stories and reflections of place and nature. Due to a change in organisational priorities, the installation didn’t go ahead.
Our Mahi
We worked with local artists, fabricators and the client to develop a campaign strategy, creative, digital (UX/UI) design and physical installation.
In order to create a cohesive, user friendly website and physical installation, we first took a step back and looked at the bigger picture. Working with the client in a Discovery process, we laid out the project vision and objectives, target audiences, campaign narrative, creative concepts and channel plan.
Once we’d gained a clear understanding of the campaign story, audiences and how we’d engage them, we then created the physical artwork installation and the digital experience. We worked alongside local artists Elliot Collins and Ross Liew to develop the narrative and creative, and liaised with the fabricators and council in preparation for the installation.
The artwork was designed to be interactive, sharing the artist's personal story of place and inviting viewers to do the same. Visitors were given pencils and stickers so they could attach their own stories to the artwork. They were then invited to visit our microsite to engage with the exhibition digitally and answer a set of research questions.
We developed the website UX and UI that used video, sound and animation to expand the mauri of the installation and capture users' reflections and stories in an intimate, emotive way.
To ensure there was a cohesive user experience flow between the online and offline aspects of the campaign, we mapped key user journeys and complimented the website experience with a social media plan.
Kia maumahara darling, my wife remarks, others have walked here long before you pressed
your hand against the pūriri. This place has always been here, but not like this.
Nō mai rā anō tēnei whenua, engari kāore i pēnei mai tōna āhua. Nō mua mai i te orokohanga e noho takatū ana ia ki a tātau. Koia te tuakana o te kōhatu, o te pungarehu. Ko tūāpapa tōna tūrangawaewae, ko pitomata tāna kai.
This place feels magic. It tingles with light and life and hums a tune you feel you can join in
on. Arā, ko tōku tūrangawaewae.
The wind blowing across the Waitematā gives the waves their obsidian glint. The harbour
hides abundance in its belly, I’m told the tāmure once ran in their thousands. I listen
carefully, to the wind telling stories, scenting the air with oysters and sunblock.
This is one of those indelible places. Kei tēnā, kei tēnā tōna ake, ka puritia, ka tukuna. Ka tangata whenua ki roto i a tātau. They become part of our story; this is a place we carry within us.
Being a tree is about waiting. I can feel you gathered around me. Your feet on my roots,
breath on my leaves, your children in my arms. Ko Papa tōku orokohanga. He pihinga, i whātoro atu ki a Rangi. Soon I’ll send a leaf down to the ground when I no longer feel your
presence, ka toitū te tangata, ka toitū te whenua.
Words by Elliot Collins