Leading at the local level: Youth and community solutions

I was invited to present CleanSeas AR at SEA of Solutions - the first annual partnership week convened by SEA circular – an initiative from the UN Environment Programme and the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA), with support from the Swedish Government – to inspire market-based solutions and encourage enabling policies to prevent marine plastic pollution in South East Asia. 

I took part in the panel titled, "Leading at the local level: Youth and community solutions". My presentation can be found here and the transcript can be found below:

Slide 2: I am Kay Vasey, Chief Connecting Officer at MeshMinds - a creative technology studio, partnered with the UN Environment Programme. We specialise in harnessing immersive and interactive technology, such as virtual, augmented and mixed reality, to maximise engagement, empathy and action towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Our content creation, distribution and consultancy services help to fund the artist incubation and research activities of The MeshMinds Foundation, a registered not for profit arts organisation. 

Slide 3: We offer immersive, interactive and impactful content creation and distribution; interactive workshops; and managing creative technology incubation programmes. Our partnership with the UN Environment Programme is centred on mobilising Creative Technology to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Today, I am here to talk to you about the magic of augmented reality.

Slide 4: Augmented Reality (AR) is the result of using technology to superimpose information — sounds, images and text — on the world we see through the lens of a camera on a mobile device. The first big break for AR was the "Pokémon GO" game, showing its power to capture and influence an audience. Let’s face it, pamphlets and pop-up ads are so last year. Young people are going to continue to play games and take crazy cat selfies. Why not offer an option to take a selfie about causes that call for action to protect the planet? By 2021, more than 75% of the population in Thailand will use a smartphone to access the internet. For that reason, we truly believe AR creates unique new opportunities to raise awareness and engagement on climate communications. 

Slide 5: Here’s a very short video to introduce you to CleanSeas AR. [VIDEO]

Slide 6: Commissioned by ArtScience Museum in Singapore, as part of Climate SOS - Season of Sustainability, a seasonal focus on the impact of climate change on our oceanic environments. This special showcase forges new connections between our habits as consumers in Asia and the impact on climate in the Arctic, and gives immediate and profound calls-to-action that we can all be a part of through a series of programmes. It was extremely heartening to see a world class venue be transformed for one month to a place of Museum-based learning and engagement on the importance of protecting our planet.

Slide 7: MeshMinds creates engaging AR experiences for people by using Facebook’s Spark AR Studio. In collaboration with the UN Environment Programme, MeshMinds commissioned Singapore artist André Wee to highlight the CleanSeas campaign and allow young people to make an online pledge easily to social media. He imagined an ocean full of plastic sea creatures and drew them out as 2D images over which the MeshMinds creative technology team waved their AR wands to create the feeling of being submerged in a plastic ocean.

Slide 8: For every AR activation, we have the ability to track users’ engagement including the number of times people have opened it on their phone, captured or shared a photo or video. We are finding that the dwell time on such AR experiences is significantly longer compared to viewing static content such as printed materials or simple websites. In addition, the level of interactivity also helps people engage more with the problem of ocean pollution. For this experience, we wanted to offer the feeling of being submerged in an ocean in which plastic fish outnumber normal, healthy fish. That is what is facing us by 2050 if we do not act today. I am proud to report that CleanSeas AR has already reached more than 10,000 people across 78 countries, using Facebook and Instagram, in one month alone.

Slide 9: To accompany the AR experience, we were commissioned to work on a series of free workshops for kids. Here is a quick video: [Everyone Can Create Clean Seas Workshops Video]

Slide 10: Our CleanSeas Workshops engaged over 200 children and parents in one month and covered photography, tracing, animation and AR. Children took pictures of plastic waste, created sea creatures based on the waste and then made them appear in AR using an app called AR Makr.

Slide 11: We gained an average score of 8.5 out of 10 for how much people learned about marine plastic pollution, 92% of people gave it a 5 out of 5 for enjoyment and over 80% of people rated the content as excellent. Our digital drawing and AR workshops highlight new and engaging ways to teach children about the importance of caring for our oceans.

My business partner, Oli Bos, and I are outside this room until tomorrow. Please come to visit us and make your pledge for CleanSeas as well as learn about some of our other projects. In conclusion, we are excited and energised by the power of new technologies, such as AR and VR, to enhance real world activities focused on climate conversations. And we are committed to creating more partnerships to drive key messaging from the UN, which are funded and supported by our environmentally responsible clients and partners, such as ArtScience Museum, DBS Bank, Facebook and Apple. Thank you very much!