ECCo works in interdisciplinary teams to protect large intact landscapes.
The experience
A helicopter hovers above visitors’ heads. A backdrop image stretching the gallery’s height shows an ECCo scientist being lowered into a lush green landscape. The vegetation appears to spread to the gallery’s floor, with overhead projections and gobos creating a sea of green leaves underfoot.
Nearby, a portion of the gallery is sectioned off by a curved partition. Its exterior is wrapped with graphic panels describing ECCo basic mission. Inside the partitioned space, the wall serves as a projection screen for an interactive video of a helicopter fly-over. Visitors can take a seat as passengers, or take their turn as one of two pilots, who navigate using joysticks. Seating is gently sloped so that visitors can view both the floor and the curving walls.
Over the copter’s radio, a member of the ECCo team guides visitors through preparations for a rapid inventory. First, the team reviews the satellite images for clues about the region—for example, a yellow patch indicates a clearing, a light green trail appears to have less vegetation, or deep purple patches might mean a palm colony.
With the sound of propellers starting, the fly-over begins and the projected views create the illusion of slowing rising out of a clearing, into the forest canopy, and out into blue sky. The pilots navigate using the joystick, tracking their location on either a simple map or the satellite image explored earlier. Pilots can chose to zoom in for a closer look, opening a brief video or images narrated by members of the ECCo team. For example, an anthropologist provides information on an indigenous village, a botanist points out palm stands, and an ichthyologist shows species of fish they’re expecting to find in a river.
At the end of the flight, the helicopter climbs higher to reveal the major tracts of intact forests preserved by ECCo.
The story
The helicopter captures the dynamic and at times dangerous nature of conservation. It communicates that conservation issues are so important, the consequences to dire, and the landscapes so precious, that Field Museum scientist are willing to go to these length. The helicopter fly-over can provide an overview of ECCo’s mission, while also following the initial process the research team uses to plan their inventories
