Paris gets more Paris-y with this 3D botany app

To promote the 21st climate conference that will take place in Paris in December 2015, avant-garde artist Naziha Mestaoui will project botany-inspired images on major monuments throughout the city.

“One Heart One Tree” aims to reconnect society to nature through technology, using interactive video mapping to cover the city in a virtual forest.

The 3D projections will be generated by spectators themselves via smartphone. A phone-controlled heartbeat sensor will allow participants to create a digital tree that can be seen growing on buildings in sync to their own heartbeat.

Once created, a physical tree will actually be planted in Europe, Latin America, Africa, or Asia. City monuments from other cities may also be incorporated into the project.

Mestaoui’s works have been inspired by her residencies with indigenous people as well as her cultural studies. Her various works link contemporary cultures to the ancestral by emphasizing public engagement and encouraging a sense of identity.

The virtual trees projected in this “Crowd Greening” project will force urbanites to revisit their natural roots– stimulating a strong sense of responsibility for society at large. Through social collaboration and digital interaction, Parisians can determine the environmental state of their future. Mestaoui sums up her work:

“The capital reinvents itself, in a multipolar and connected world to define a united urban and radiant culture, in harmony with nature. Each citizen becomes a co-creator of our collective future beyond individualism.”

21st Climate Conference // Naziha Mestaoui // “One Heart One Tree”

[h/t] Design Boom

This post was originally written by Charlie Stephens for PSFK.