PONY EARTH Biodiversity ReArt
Basic information
Project Title
PONY EARTH Biodiversity ReArt
Full project title
PONY EARTH Biodiversity ReArt
Category
Reconnecting with nature
Project Description
PONY EARTH ReArt, Regenerative Art, are artworks generated from hundreds of biodiversity data points from agricultural land.
Geographical Scope
National
Project Region
Living farm lab in Waldviertel, Austria, Austria
Urban or rural issues
Mainly rural
Physical or other transformations
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
EU Programme or fund
No
Description of the project
Summary
The mission of PONY EARTH is to finance the recovery of agricultural biodiversity worldwide for a resilient food production and to reduce the effects of climate change on our planet and in turn the human body. We make farmers the biodiversity stewards of the future.
We extract biodiversity and soil health data from the soil and water samples collected by farmers on agricultural land using eDNA and soil health analysis. In addition we are using macro-data like weather, time, geo-location using Copernicus satellite data and Open Weather.
We then create ReArt (Regenerative Art). ReArt are generative artworks created with our PONY EARTH Biodiversity Visualizer. It is a tool for creatives to visualize complex biodiversity data. The generative artworks are minted and sold as NFTs.
The mission and process is explained in a short video animation.
We extract biodiversity and soil health data from the soil and water samples collected by farmers on agricultural land using eDNA and soil health analysis. In addition we are using macro-data like weather, time, geo-location using Copernicus satellite data and Open Weather.
We then create ReArt (Regenerative Art). ReArt are generative artworks created with our PONY EARTH Biodiversity Visualizer. It is a tool for creatives to visualize complex biodiversity data. The generative artworks are minted and sold as NFTs.
The mission and process is explained in a short video animation.
Key objectives for sustainability
The key objectives of PONY EARTH ReArt are
- regenerative finance of agricultural biodiversity and empower the regeneration of farmland, roof tops, market gardens.
- educating society at large about the effects of the loss of biodiversity.
- the creation of communities.
- empowering artists to create ReArt by providing a biodiversity visualizer.
- regenerative finance of agricultural biodiversity and empower the regeneration of farmland, roof tops, market gardens.
- educating society at large about the effects of the loss of biodiversity.
- the creation of communities.
- empowering artists to create ReArt by providing a biodiversity visualizer.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The history of the creative-artistic concept: Beeple’s opus of 5000 tiles of images as NFT reminded us of “The Million Dollar Homepage” by Alex Tew to raise money for his university education and art collective Jodi’s “1pixelpusher”. Why not use the mechanism of phygital NFTs*** as a highly scale-able investment vehicle for creative social impact projects?
The key objectives are to create synergies between art and science by creating artworks that are scientifically relevant yet have an aesthetic quality. The project thrives to be simple yet emotional, playful yet scientifically fond. PONY EARTH ReArt can be an artwork - and a bond on nature. It is a digital representation of a physical state of nature. The bee shall be emotional. The pony shall be quirky.
The main color yellow reflects the color of the pony, a bee for biodiversity, a light carrot to feed the pony, …
Yellow, purple, red and green are the main colors of a natural field of flowers in Austria.
The square of the logo represents the agricultural field of the birthplace of PONY EARTH.
The 4 short lines present the 4 pony legs.
The 4 long lines present 4 data columns and also grass that’s blown in the wind.
The logo font is made using those lines.
***"NFTs can represent purely digital items and physical items whereas for latter the word “phygital” has been coined as
the physical object has a digital twin on the blockchain. This obviously implies a linkage and interaction between digital
and real world." Source: https://thevalenta.medium.com/an-nft-is-only-the-envelope-but-whats-inside-a582a98a0548
The key objectives are to create synergies between art and science by creating artworks that are scientifically relevant yet have an aesthetic quality. The project thrives to be simple yet emotional, playful yet scientifically fond. PONY EARTH ReArt can be an artwork - and a bond on nature. It is a digital representation of a physical state of nature. The bee shall be emotional. The pony shall be quirky.
The main color yellow reflects the color of the pony, a bee for biodiversity, a light carrot to feed the pony, …
Yellow, purple, red and green are the main colors of a natural field of flowers in Austria.
The square of the logo represents the agricultural field of the birthplace of PONY EARTH.
The 4 short lines present the 4 pony legs.
The 4 long lines present 4 data columns and also grass that’s blown in the wind.
The logo font is made using those lines.
***"NFTs can represent purely digital items and physical items whereas for latter the word “phygital” has been coined as
the physical object has a digital twin on the blockchain. This obviously implies a linkage and interaction between digital
and real world." Source: https://thevalenta.medium.com/an-nft-is-only-the-envelope-but-whats-inside-a582a98a0548
Key objectives for inclusion
We thrive to make farmers the biodiversity stewards of the future. We enable farmers to gain a basic income by receiving a percentage of the sale of ReArt based on data from their farmland. We use data for good and use the principle privacy by design to ensure that the farmers keep their data sovereignty. PONY EARTH is an incentive model for farmers who not only participate in the sale of ReArt but in the future also on the monetization of the insights generated with the data captured on their farmland. PONY EARTH thrives to have a social, economic, and ecological impact.
Results in relation to category
We created ReArt based on the first living lab in Waldviertel in Austria. The ReArt are minted as NFTs and offered by the Portuguese-Austrian platform Tokapi. There are 8760 ReArt - one ReArt per minute starting with the day we saw a pony infront of the first living lab. The path of the bee in the animation is generated by the wind strength and direction of that particular minute. The ReArt are based on the algorithm defined in the Biodiversity Visualizer. Adjacent to the ReArt we created an animation to support the communication. We received an award from BNP France & Waves of Change and were invited to speak about PONY EARTH at the executive program for sustainability by futur.io.
How Citizens benefit
The loss of biodiversity has an enormous impact on the health and wellbeing of citizens. The health of the soil and in turn the health of the food help human health.
“The link between healthy people, healthy societies and a healthy planet puts sustainable food systems at the heart of the European Green Deal” https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal/agriculture-and-green-deal_en including The Farm to Fork strategy https://ec.europa.eu/food/horizontal-topics/farm-fork-strategy_en.
“The link between healthy people, healthy societies and a healthy planet puts sustainable food systems at the heart of the European Green Deal” https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal/agriculture-and-green-deal_en including The Farm to Fork strategy https://ec.europa.eu/food/horizontal-topics/farm-fork-strategy_en.
Physical or other transformations
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Innovative character
We combine art, science, tokenization, and agriculture to create a project that empowers awareness for biodiversity and is the basis for regenerative finance. Other projects focus on science and agriculture or tokenization and agriculture:
SEEDs https://joinseeds.earth is a currency that aligned money with value to regenerate.
Regen Network https://www.regen.network/ aligns economics with ecology to drive regenerative land management
https://www.pivotal.earth/
Nature Metrics https://www.naturemetrics.co.uk
https://www.simplexdna.com/about
We thrive to create value in providing a solution that is understood by citizens - which requires an appealing user experience and must be conveyed with simplicity yet must engage emotionally with citizens.
SEEDs https://joinseeds.earth is a currency that aligned money with value to regenerate.
Regen Network https://www.regen.network/ aligns economics with ecology to drive regenerative land management
https://www.pivotal.earth/
Nature Metrics https://www.naturemetrics.co.uk
https://www.simplexdna.com/about
We thrive to create value in providing a solution that is understood by citizens - which requires an appealing user experience and must be conveyed with simplicity yet must engage emotionally with citizens.
Disciplines/knowledge reflected
PONY EARTH ReArt is a synthesis of regenerative agriculture, environmental science, generative art, and Blockchain technologies.
We start with capturing data from farmland, then analyze the data to create artworks to then sell it using NFTs as the vehicle for regenerative finance and to use the data to provide the relevant insights back to the farmer to regenerate their farmland. PONY EARTH was the curator of all interactions between scientists and artists, between Blockchain platforms and designers, between farmers and scientists.
PONY EARTH is a fully interdisciplinary, diverse and novel project that can be described as a synergy, a movement.
We start with capturing data from farmland, then analyze the data to create artworks to then sell it using NFTs as the vehicle for regenerative finance and to use the data to provide the relevant insights back to the farmer to regenerate their farmland. PONY EARTH was the curator of all interactions between scientists and artists, between Blockchain platforms and designers, between farmers and scientists.
PONY EARTH is a fully interdisciplinary, diverse and novel project that can be described as a synergy, a movement.
Methodology used
ReArt uses the expertise of scientists to develop data sets that are highly informative.
eDNA: Soil samples are dried to be transported (soil). We took a number of samples in particular identifying the adjacent conventional farmland and soil from the organic living lab .
Soil health: soil samples are taken from various ares of the living lab. The soil samples are taken in
various depths and 10-15 samples per hectare. Sampling depths are based on genetic soil horizons rather than fixed depth
levels. The soil needs to be sealed.
Additionally we used:
Satellite data using Copernicus provides topography.
Weather data includes temperature, humidity, amount of rain.
Time stamp together with weather data provides an accurate examination of weather patterns.
We then split the scientifically analyzed data and determined a subset of relevant data sets to include in the Biodiversity Visualizer. Additionally we created a matrix of information to visualize. Thus we used only eDNA data up to a min. of 1% and only the main chemical and minerals relevant to determine soil health, hummus, and water retention.
eDNA: Soil samples are dried to be transported (soil). We took a number of samples in particular identifying the adjacent conventional farmland and soil from the organic living lab .
Soil health: soil samples are taken from various ares of the living lab. The soil samples are taken in
various depths and 10-15 samples per hectare. Sampling depths are based on genetic soil horizons rather than fixed depth
levels. The soil needs to be sealed.
Additionally we used:
Satellite data using Copernicus provides topography.
Weather data includes temperature, humidity, amount of rain.
Time stamp together with weather data provides an accurate examination of weather patterns.
We then split the scientifically analyzed data and determined a subset of relevant data sets to include in the Biodiversity Visualizer. Additionally we created a matrix of information to visualize. Thus we used only eDNA data up to a min. of 1% and only the main chemical and minerals relevant to determine soil health, hummus, and water retention.
How stakeholders are engaged
Science partners in Austria (eDNA, soil health) are analyzing the soil. The analyzed data was the basis for the development of the ReArt and the information displayed in the smart contract / NFT.
Farmers in Austria and Portugal were working with us to provide insights for regenerative agriculture. What data is relevant? How much work is the capturing of samples? Is a rare bird 'worth more' than an invasive species?
NGOs like Waves of Change in France worked with us on the publicity and to present to their community.
Farmers in Austria and Portugal were working with us to provide insights for regenerative agriculture. What data is relevant? How much work is the capturing of samples? Is a rare bird 'worth more' than an invasive species?
NGOs like Waves of Change in France worked with us on the publicity and to present to their community.
Global challenges
The loss of biodiversity, the impact of climate change on our food system are enormous global challenges. By creating a Biodiversity Standard that is visualized in ReArt we help farmers on a local level to finance and have the relevant data for the regeneration of agriculture. The required methods for the regeneration are different in Austria, in Portugal, in Brazil, in South Africa but with contextualized data we can empower not only the physical change on the actual farmland but also the social and economic requirements.
“For the agricultural sector, genetic diversity among plant resources is vitally important for maintaining food security. Just 12 crops provide about 75 percent of the food supply for human societies around the world, and four of these account for more than half our food. This has increased the vulnerability of crops to disease and pests.” (Source: https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/topics_ext_content/ifc_external_corporate_site/sustainability-at-ifc/publications/biodiversityguide_addressing_opportunities_ecosystem_genetic)
“The key point is that a loss of genetic diversity may lead to significant risks for food supplies. A pathogen that attacks the predominant commercial variety of a food crop can inflict immense costs on society.” (Source: https://blogs.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/climatechange/Genetic%20diversity%20and%20interdependent%20crop%20choices%20in%20agriculture_heal%20and%20lubchenco%202004.pdf)
“For the agricultural sector, genetic diversity among plant resources is vitally important for maintaining food security. Just 12 crops provide about 75 percent of the food supply for human societies around the world, and four of these account for more than half our food. This has increased the vulnerability of crops to disease and pests.” (Source: https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/topics_ext_content/ifc_external_corporate_site/sustainability-at-ifc/publications/biodiversityguide_addressing_opportunities_ecosystem_genetic)
“The key point is that a loss of genetic diversity may lead to significant risks for food supplies. A pathogen that attacks the predominant commercial variety of a food crop can inflict immense costs on society.” (Source: https://blogs.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/climatechange/Genetic%20diversity%20and%20interdependent%20crop%20choices%20in%20agriculture_heal%20and%20lubchenco%202004.pdf)
Learning transferred to other parties
The Biodiversity Visualizer can become an open software to be used by artists and scientists worldwide. We learned that we need to create a Biodiversity Box to capture the soil and water samples and send it to our science partners as easy as a PCR test to ensure that we can create ReArt in scale. Additionally we believe that the aspects of using regenerative finance by creating a biodiversity bond for agricultural farmland can be applied worldwide. We now develop an open Biodiversity Standard and thrive to become a Bluetooth consortium for biodiversity to empower all stakeholders to create services and products that benefit the environment and our food system in tandem.
Keywords
agriculturalbiodiversity
biodiversitydataforgood
foodresilience
climatechange
regenerativeagriculture
