The original version of my interactive installation consists in a monitor with a video of the world map full of airplanes flying contemporary, generated from a real-time radar view. In front of the monitor there is a small tree trunk. Moving it you fill the surface of the world with growing trees, while the airplanes disappear slowly - the more you move the tree trunk, the more the earth becomes green and the less becomes the air traffic.
Another meaning of the word "boom" is "tree", in my mother tongue Dutch. Therefore my slogan is: Boom the Boom!
When I wrote the concept of this work, we were in the middle of a global tourism boom. The tourism boom brought economic growth, but the damages were severe, especially from an ecological point of view. Almost all cheap international mass travels were flights. It was alarming when you realized how many airplanes were in the air right now and how much CO2 was emitted every moment.
But then, in March 2020, the world was rapidly overwhelmed by coronavirus and most countries went in lockdown. The tourism boom collapsed in no time. The airplanes disappeared and the sky became clearer.
I went back to the real-time radar view of the airplanes and generated a new video. The difference between the two videos is impressive. Do we really need this bloody coronavirus to make the sky clearer and the earth healthier?
The new version of my installation is now a pure online version and thus can be played by everyone in the world. I created two situations: pre-corona and post-corona, and you can choose in which one you want to enter.
