The two artists collaborating on this piece, Anna Ridler and Caroline Sinders, both have family ties to the deep South in the U.S., and have begun working on a longer research project into that geographical area. As part of that project, the two have created a special dataset of the Bald Cypress, a type of tree found on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. These trees are able to live for thousands of years, but at present are threatened by climate change. Their crucial role in stopping coastal erosion in the area lies in question, moreso with the surge in hurricanes happening every year. The artists have used this dataset to train a GAN to reflect on what these areas might be like in the future, with and without the trees. The GIF is generated with this model and is controlled by some of the weather data generated by the most recent hurricane in the area, Hurricane Ida.
Proceeds from the sale will be donated to <a href="https://donorbox.org/ida" target="_blank" class="link">Hurricane Ida Relief & Recovery Fund</a> who are distributing funds across NOLA.