Developing Short Animations to Foster Awareness and Environmental Connection to Place

Science Center, Bent Corridor

“Systems thinking” skills--the understanding of how relationships, interdependencies, and individual group behavior impact community and ecosystem--are thought to be important in promoting environmental sustainability. “Citywide Dashboard,” a conceptual model of a community animated by resource flows, is installed on digital signage throughout the Oberlin community as part of the Environmental Dashboard project. Prior research conducted by faculty and students at Oberlin has demonstrated that exposure to Citywide Dashboard promotes systems thinking in viewers. Although Citywide Dashboard shows an individual’s impact, it does not yet include any visualizations that would help community members understand how a community is connected with and contributes to the greater macrocosm. The objective of my work this summer was to begin to create visuals that help viewers better understand the ways in which Oberlin and the decisions its residents make are connected with larger, regional, and global scales. Specifically, my objective was to create short visualizations that help viewers to understand and experience: 1. How is Oberlin situated in time and space? 2. How is Oberlin connected to the rest of north east Ohio region? 3. How is Oberlin affected by and affects climate change? 4. How is Oberlin situated in a geological timeframe? The goal for the summer was to create a sequence of short visual clips that would, in combination with Citywide Dashboard, better connect an individual to the world and expand systems thinking. I used a combination of Google Earth, Google Streetview, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute iPad app to create four series of videos: Earth transitioning to Tappan Square, Earth to a specific location in Oberlin, Oberlin to an arctic ice melting in 2012, and the geological history of Oberlin. In the future, we intend to refine these videos, develop additional videos, and deploy them on the Environmental Dashboard website and digital signage around the community. Future research will be designed to determine the efficacy of graphic visuals to make people understand their place in the world.