ONE TREE, ONE PLANET
“One Tree, One Planet” celebrates Earth’s rich diversity of animals, plants, microbes and other organisms represented by the Tree of Life, the immense network of relationships that links all living things. The message is simple: We’re all related. “Just like you’re connected to your family, other species on Earth are also your family members,” says Doug Soltis, a distinguished professor and curator at the Florida Museum. “As humans, we are just part of a much bigger web of life, and unless we cherish those connections, we all suffer.” Soltis, a plant biologist, was part of a team of scientists that assembled the most comprehensive Tree of Life created, mapping the shared evolutionary history of and relationships between all 2.3 million species that have been named so far on the planet. The Tree of Life shows us how all life is connected and constantly evolving. It’s our ancestral family tree, tracing the relationships between all living things.
Humans are one dot in a complex network of life, and we still have much to learn about the ways in which we are alike and different from other members of the tree. Yet we share startling genetic similarities with many lifeforms, from bacteria to great blue whales and giant redwoods. We are all connected in the Tree of Life, and the loss of any species impacts us all and threatens life on our planet. We can also help protect and enhance life not only for the good of our giant family tree, but for our own health and well-being. There are a number of actions each one of us can take to make a difference.
Knowledge of the Tree of Life, and by extension, knowledge of biodiversity on Earth, can change the world.
Humans are connected to the rest of life; evolutionarily, we share DNA and genealogical connections and ecologically we share the same planet.
We’re not at the top of the pyramid, but just one branch at the periphery of the tree of life, like our planet is at the periphery of the solar system, or our solar system, at the periphery of our galaxy… We are a dot in an interconnected network of life.
AN INTERACTIVE ARTWORK
Visitors interact with the artwork and they dive into the Tree of Life to understand the connection between our species, Homo sapiens, and another species.
By touching an interface, recording their heartbeat and capturing their face, users become part of the giant projection, representing Homo sapiens inside the tree of life. The heartbeat’s rhythms merge with the projection together with Tree of Lifes’ DNA music. The whole system adapts to their rhythm and dives into a new scenario.
Thus we can for example be connected with the banana, hearing its rhythmic patterns. We’ll also realize that we shares more than 50% of our DNA with a banana. The work poetically reveals our place within the network of life and what connects us to all species. For example, we realize that our body is a real ecosystem. Indeed, more than half of our body is not human –most of our body being microscopic organisms (bacteria, viruses and fungi). Or, we realize that humans do not have the largest genome, that is attributed to a small plant called Paris japonica, its genome is 50x the size of ours.
DOWNLOAD THE APP
AN APPLICATION
The ONE TREE, ONE PLANET app connects the user with the artwork and allows everyone to interact with the Tree of Life. In addition, the app helps viewers to take challenges to reduce human impact on the environment. After being connected into the Tree of Life, viewers will be invited to make changes in their daily lives; to paraphrase Gandhi, to be truly the change we want to see in the world.
Different challenges are presented such as a week without meat, reconnecting with nature or reducing waste; a multitude of personal challenges to help make all of us realize that there are simple things we can do each day to make a difference. Each challenge will be rewarded with points and participants will be invited to challenge their friends and community to become part of the movement.
THE MUSIC, A DNA SYMPHONY
The projection is paired with a symphony performance composed by Naziha Mestaoui and Stephan Haeri which was created by digitizing and assigning a musical note to DNA. DNA music gives us important information about genes, their complexity, their evolution, the way they evolve. Genes become the pattern for music. The DNA music created for the project is composed out of the genes we share with every living organism on earth. Those genes have been decoded and each nucleotide has been transformed into a note. Their succession becomes a symphony of life. The idea is to understand that there is a unity and a harmony and something that connects us all. The DNA music gives us information about the tree of life; with each species the interpretation of the music evolves; with mammals we hear chords, with bacteria we hear a very clear and purified sound, with plants the music starts echoing as plants evolve with gene duplication or triplication… The whole artistic environment also resonates with heartbeats. Each interaction starts with the participant’s heartbeat and connects with a species’ physiological rhythm.
PRESS
PRESS MATERIALS ARE AVAILABLE BELOW
