Critically Extant is a digital art project by artist Sofia Crespo that explores just how little we know about the natural world by testing the limits of the data openly available to us in our digital lives.

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A.I. algorithms were trained on millions of open source images of nature and some ten thousand species. The resulting models were then used to generate visual representations of species that are critically endangered, yet have little or no online presence.

 

Crespo began the project as an Instagram exhibition, making these lesser-known creatures part of the digital content ecosystem and our daily media intake. The artist has also created a collection of AR filters inspired by critically-endangered plant and animal species native to the New York region. 

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As the works propagate across the screens of Times Square, one of the most visited and most Instagrammed places in the world, they reach an audience of hundreds of thousands on the ground, with the potential to connect with countless more. Additionally, Crespo’s work brings the natural world directly into the center of the very urban environment at odds with these at-risk species, and nods to the human changes that will be required to save them.

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