“Artificial Arboretum,” by Jacqueline Wu, is an academic-mimicking documentation of images of trees (“photogrammetrees”) that are captured on platforms like Google Earth (though Wu mentions Apple Maps as an alternative).
I think one thing that is particularly compelling about this piece is that these trees are digital “replicas” of trees found in real life, but are nothing like actual trees due to the way they were captured. These trees are also documented in a scientific way, listing the species and location, but more interestingly, size, status, and date accessed, which suggests a new form of species identification in the realm of online universes (and that perhaps digital species will live separate from their real life counterparts). There’s also a slight comical effect in seeing these short stubby little trees in a virtual space (XD).
I found the documentation surrounding this project to be lacking, and I think I wanted some more discussion from the artist about what exactly makes the photogrammetrees trees (even though they don’t look like tree trees). The artist has tagged this project as ongoing so I am interested in seeing how this is carried forward.
Website: https://cargocollective.com/jacqswu/Artificial-Arboretum