SEAstream #36: Michal Lovecky & Virtual Reality for Ocean Conservation
Have you ever wanted to experience what it would be like to become a dolphin? An experience like that may change the way you see yourself in the world, forever.
For SEAstream #36, we’ll be talking with Michal Lovecky, CEO of Cyan Planet. Join us at 12:00 UTC on April 6th live on our Instagram page (@sea_token) for our conversation about Cyan Planet’s unique use of virtual reality to raise awareness for ocean conservation efforts.
Michal and his Cyan Planet co-founder, Ninja Mueller, had an emotional experience freediving in Brazil that inspired the start of their company. While underwater, the pair witnessed a sea turtle caught in a shipwreck, which they were able to gently free. With the fragility and beauty of ocean life flashing right before their eyes, they realised how our actions can impact other living things. Thus, Cyan Planet was born, an immersive media experience aimed at helping other people have similar epiphanies.
Cyan Planet’s mission is to allow the immersive powers of virtual reality to evoke emotional reactions from participants. By letting people dive deep into ocean environments in the form of a sea creature, Cyan Planet hopes participants will emerge with a greater understanding of the connectedness of all living things. These experiences should “create a sense of empathy, elicit conscious decisions, and attract attention for the value of marine ecosystems” in its users. Cyan Planet has an educational component, as well as real-world impact partners carrying out conservation work. Essentially, the goal of the platform is to “use that empathy [created by the VR experience] to spark action for marine conservation by connecting people with projects and organisations and using immersive media tools to boost the effectiveness of marine organisations.”
Michal is an XR creative technologist, with years of experience in entrepreneurship and immersive media projects. XR stands for extended reality, and basically refers to virtual and augmented reality combined. Passionate about the ocean, Michal’s current project aims to create nearly transcendental VR underwater moments. He has been the Creative Technologist and Director on over 60 XR projects– and we’re excited to ask him questions about this work during SEAstream #36.
Imagine trying to explain to someone from 100 years ago that virtual reality technology is being used to fight climate change’s impacts on the health of our oceans. Because of the urgency and complexity of climate change, there’s a huge demand for creative emerging technologies and ocean conservation work to come together. At SEA, we understand this better than anyone! That’s why we’re looking forward to chatting with Michal during our next SEAstream, this Wednesday at 12:00 UTC on Instagram. Don’t miss it!
