The Majestic Samaúma

and Amazon Raised-up Sky

This ‘art meets science’ artwork by Joseph Michael features immersive scans of samaúma trees found deep in the Amazon rainforest.

Interactive artwork
Joseph Michael has always been interested in bringing natural environments into urban environments. From displaying Antarctica iceberg images in New York City to digitally replicating the Amazon rainforest, Joseph’s installations are notable for the sense of scale they evoke.

In scanning the Amazon rainforest, Joseph hoped to establish an augmented reality experience that would allow the user to understand the life of the tree from its canopy branches to its internal nutrient flow and relationship with soil microbes. Now, his work is available online as an interactive tool focussing on one Amazon tree. Ceiba pentandra, or samaúma, is one of the largest trees in the world. Reaching 90 metres in height, it towers over other trees in the rainforest. Its huge buttress roots are taller than a grown person. Samaúma is now the focus of an interactive tool that Joseph has created.

Joseph Michael has captured vast amounts of footage in the Amazon

The Majestic Samaúma

The Majestic Samaúma is a web-based tool. It can be used by teachers nationwide to educate students about global citizenship through an Indigenous Latin America lens. A 3D animated model of a photogrammetry-scanned samaúma tree in the Amazon rainforest is at its centre. Entering the webpage, viewers are taken to a full-page interactive visual of the real-life samaúma scanned using drone-captured photogrammetry. As the viewer scrolls down the page, the animation zooms to a tree level then into the tree to reveal its processes.

Amazon – Raised Up Sky

In 2019, Joseph Michael and the Latin America Centre of Asia-Pacific Excellence started a project called Amazon – Raised Up Sky, which became a documentary and a national tour. The Majestic Samaúma is a deeper exploration of one of the trees scanned during that project. Collaboration between Joseph Michael, academics, scientists, and creatives from New Zealand and Brazil has contributed to the creation of the interactive tool. Several stand-alone short films dive deeper into themes of global citizenship through interviews with the experts themselves.

Developing Projects

In this video, Joe discusses how his art is tied with technology and explains how making decisions about the best technology is important. For instance, impacts of COVID-19 required a shift from lidar scanning of trees to applying photogrammetry approaches. He discusses his attempts to provoke discussion and raise awareness of urgent problems.

Amazonian Perspective

Chief Ninawa talks about the sacredness of nature and how this is apparent in the ways Indigenous people interact with the environment. From thinking of water as a source of birth and life to the naming of family after the forest’s trees to Samaúma as a spiritual home, nature is sacred.

Art and Science

Photographer Araquem Alcantra highlights the need for art and science to bring connection between humanity and nature, and calls for more voices to chronicle the Amazon’s beauty and destruction.

He Awa Whiria (Braided Rivers)

As suggested by Angus and Sonia Macfarlane, western science and indigenous knowledge are like two rivers that run beside each other, connecting and intersecting at certain times. Examples here refer to contrasting ideas around the worth and place of plants and their connections with people.

Provocations

How does the interactive tool connect with other learning about the Amazon, Brazil, and Latin America as a whole?

Brazil’s ancestral rainforests are important in a number of ways.

Who are they important to?
Why are they important?
Where else in the world do people place such importance on the environment?

The intersection of indigenous and Western knowledge systems is becoming more apparent in the New Zealand curriculum.

What opportunities and challenges might exist at this intersection?
How can we go about exploring and discussing these?

Useful Links
Joseph Michael explains the Amazon - Raised Up Sky project in more detail.

Technical aspects of the tool’s creation can be found on the arko.nz website.

The Centres of Asia-Pacific Excellence website provides further background to the international collaboration behind the Amazon - Raised Up Sky project.

You can find a playlist of these videos on YouTube.

The Science Learning Hub explores Joseph's work through the lens of science and explores Indigenous perspectives around this project.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse