Rasa Smite, Raitis Smits. Atmospheric Forest, 2020. Exhibition of the Purvitis Prize Nominants, Latvian National Art Museum, 2021. Photo: Kristīne Madjare

A Keynote talk from artist Rasa Smite, "Atmospheric Forests. Immersive Visualisations for Climate Experiences", followed by a lunch time immersive exhibit: Atmospheric Forest by Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits will take place as part of the BIFoR Annual Meeting: Forest Trace on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, 11:50 AM - 1:30 PM, in Edgbaston Park Hotel and Conference Centre, Hornton Grange, UK.

Keynote talk tickets (Day 2):
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bifor-annual-meeting-2025-forest-trace-tickets-1320166977969

BIFoR Annual Meeting: Forest Trace

Forests exchange trace gases and preserve traces of social, cultural and past ecological imprints upon their current makeup. Forests exchange water and carbon dioxide with the atmosphere and their immediate surroundings, but they also exchange other powerful greenhouse gases that occur in far smaller, trace quantities. These trace gases can have a profound influence on atmospheric chemistry and on climate, and ‘traces’ of these effects can be recorded in the past and modelled into the future. The BIFoR Annual Meeting: Forest Trace, will cover the latest understanding of these processes demonstrating the even more powerful role forests have to play for our planet.

Keynote talk

In her keynote talk, Rasa Smite will introduce the Atmospheric Forest artwork created together with Raitis Smits. Atmospheric Forest is an immersive installation that visualizes the complex relations between a forest, climate change and the atmosphere. It is an outcome of a three-year artistic research project on Pfynwald, an ancient Alpine coniferous forest. Trees emit large amounts of volatile organic compounds that we can sense as a habitual scent of the forest. Scientists have long known about the link between the fragrant forest. While some believe that the strong smell of a pine forest indicates that climate change can be limited, others suggest that the volatile emissions could make global warming worse. Atmospheric Forest reveals patterns of this complexity by visualizing the data of volatile emissions and resin pressure in pine trees. To create the Atmospheric Forest, the scientific laser scanner was used to scan the Pfynwald in point cloud. The viewer can navigate through the emitting trees of virtual forest, observe the forest from the bottom up, and follow the path through the tree trunk to get far up above the emitting forest, experiencing the interactions between the terrestrial ecosystems and atmosphere.

Rasa Smite is an artist and cultural innovator, working with science and emerging technologies since 90s. She is founding director of RIXC Center for New Media Culture in Riga, curator of its annual festivals, a chief-editor of Acoustic Space – peer-reviewed publication series and a professor at RTU Liepaja Academy, New Media Art Programme.

In her artistic practice, Rasa Smite works together with Raitis Smits  – together as an artist duo, they create visionary and research-based digital artworks and immersive experiences, collaborating with scientists to address environmental and climate issues and using data visualisation, extended reality and artificial intelligence technologies.

Their immersive artworks have been nominated twice for the Purvītis Prize 2019 (Microworld Oscillations, Purva Radio, 2018) and the Purvītis Prize 2021 (Atmospheric Forest, VR, 2020), as well as nominated for - International Public Arts Award - Eurasian region 2021, awarded (Ars Electronica 1998, Falling Walls - Science Breakthrough 2021) and shown widely, including at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Latvian National Museum of Art, the House of Electronic Art in Basel, the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz and other venues, exhibitions and festivals in Europe, USA, Canada and Asia.