we thought it would be complicated. what happened is that she created two pieces that are not only beautiful but necessary to one another. that is what makes this work so extraordinary to me. on the other side of the building where the land lease the city, this asks us to think about what we cannot see because it is beneath the surface. to think about this is kind of imagine tiff. when she began to conceptualize this piece, she was absolutely consistent that it had some sort of sensory, tactile relationship to the people looking at it. to how the world touches you and how it involves you and makes you a part of it. we have a piece on the other side of the plaza that says this is where we are today, this is the contour of where we need to

surface. then we have a piece on this side of the building that says that we're working from here to the entire rest of the world. everything we do as individuals as we stand here in front of this piece and think about the choices that we make and think about whether we use that plastic bottle or that top, has implications in the world. we hear sounds that involves us, we hear things that put us in a particular place. we live in a world that we have to try to address even though it might seem too big for us to grasp in one class, gesture, or action. -- too big for us to grasp in one glass. this is an amazing piece. an amazing solution. an amazing challenge dealing with the ambitions to talk about questions of sustainability.

to look at these preservation efforts. to do it in a way that even a child can engage in. the we think about how the children coming to the academy will interact with it. as a former arts commissioner and as a citizen of san francisco, we want to celebrate this season and to thank maya for the pleasure of working with her. thank you. [applause] >> it is a delight to introduce the director of the academy center for biodiversity research. [applause] >> thank you for the opportunity to share a few words about what it is like from the perspective of the academy of sciences.

i had been one of many sources of information of the sciences is that has contributed to the extraordinary journey of knowledge about biodiversity. on behalf of my colleagues, i can tell you that we are thrilled to have a portal to the earth on our east terrace. what is missing is a subject that lies at the very core of the research of the institution. we are about documented and describing the diversity of life and this portal allows you to experience that directly. our research centers about going to the far corners of the world which we have been doing for 150 years. we can offer a perspective on life which is our foundation and

knowledge. in short, academy sciences have been for well over a century [inaudible] we will feel the pulse. this transforms the idea of a dry list of many species that have gone extinct into an emotional experience of how small our fish has become, how few great migrations there are. how great is the darkness of our night sky. we emerge recognizing that we are on a trajectory and what is missing allows us to understand what the scope of that trajectory is. if we look just from what is around us, the scope does not look as deep.

what we're looking at takes us back to how things used to be and we can recognize how deep that trajectory is. by reminding us of what it has lost, we can see much more clearly where we are headed. the academy welcomes you to enter the portal that maya has created, to feel the connections that have been made right here between past and present and future. to ask if you are shifting the direction we're headed. thank you very much. [applause] >> it is my pleasure to introduce john fitzpatrick. >> thank you so much.

i think you are one speaker away from the main attraction so i promise to be brief but i want to say first of all congratulations to the california academy of sciences, the board, and the staff. congratulations to the city of san francisco and the arts commission. congratulations to maya for bringing all of those thoughts and images and connections that this project has gone through to fruition here in this megaphone. it just occurred to me sitting right over there that endangered species and extinct species and threatened ecosystems and migrations around the world that are in peril of being lost because of the human endeavor, they all had a megaphone at this

point. congratulations to the city of chicago for having this. what occurred to me is that this is pointed straight at the north american continent. it is broadcasting to the citizens of the entire country and it is carried out all over the world. what we have in store, we hope, the reversal that has begun over the past month. when the lab is a place that in many respects was predisposed to be adapted to the visit and first phone call. we have for almost 100 years used charismatic creatures not just to understand how nature works. after all, birds are extremely valuable tools.

they are something much more, they communicate by sound, color. they are natures best spokespersons to us humans to think about how nature works and to think about our relationship with it. this has been made part of our mission as well, not just to understand how species are but to use them to attract human beings to the idea that we have a relationship with this and we responsible. when we got the call from maya about doing the piece, it was a real treat. it was a no-brainer to say that we have to work with you. we have the world's largest repository of sound recordings.

we had a very large growing library. it has been a terrific treat to work with maya and to see a small bit of how this creative mind works. we have long thought to unite science with art. all of the creatures in movements and patterns and places are related. when she first visited to the loud and met with the people who talk about ideas, i can tell you by the end of that meeting, i went back to new york city and i had a committee of people going

[inaudible] how can this come together? this is the beginning of a multi institution effort to get everyone in the world to be thinking about our responsibilities and opportunities using the personal experience that one gets up close and personal with these beautiful creatures. what a treat. congratulations. >> thank you. with the light, pleasure and a sense of getting this -- with delight and pleasure, i introduce maya lynn.

>> thank you. i am curious about this because i've heard that if we don't get to this quickly, there will be a disco beat. the academy has been so helpful. to this san francisco parts commission, president johnson, the commissioners, thank you so much for your unwavering work. it is crazy that we ended up doing two projects. thank you, the face you have in this project, we could pull this off and this is pretty amazing. without your support and respect for the experimentation, this would not have happened. thank you.

to the board and the scientists and staff, thank you for all the questions that you ask, all the answers that you sent me. i was too worried about the landscape and the fact that in my work -- i love science but i think more like an artist. thank you for humouring me. you were great, you send me so much material. we went through it but maybe in a random way. i think that that is the duty between form a the relationship between science and art and i would probably say that you have been exposed more than you want to an artist process. -- i think that it is the duty between form and relationship. i have been very much informed

by science. i think that we sent all of these over to the experts because there's nothing that i want to say here that is not grounded and very much in fact. in fact, sometimes we were stripping back some of the attacks that were sent because they were too emotional. -- some of the texts that we were sent because they were too emotional. if i can just present the history and try to pull back and maybe change the tone. if i come off too strong, you might turn away and lose interest. this is a fine line that i have been playing. i want to thank scott and his team who has helped installing with the landscaped and with the tone and all of the crazy iterations that i try to explore

out here. thank you for humouring me. in the next few years, if we explored many different iterations. we want you to look at it and see an image. i know that you will really be taking care of it and now. last night, being out here, checking the humidity inside. we were a the high end today it is stabilized. i know that i leave the cone in incredibly good hands. thank you. we have done in two major art works for the price of one. of course, if you had not come through it would have been impossible for us to do this. >> johjohn fitzpatrick and the amazing staff at cornell.

the amount of film that the ornithology lap donated. -- lab donated. i cannot thank you announced. i think that the fact that we are a very visual creature, you will not see the animal first, you will hear it. you will read what is and then we will let you see it. we tend to be incredibly visual. maybe you will pay close attention to some of the sounds. sounds gives us a way of experiencing a place, not just this but places. i would also like to acknowledge incredibly generous support of national geographic

archives, the bbc, and some may be in -- and some amazing independent filmmakers. the american museum of natural history, wildlife conservation society, the world wildlife fund, the nature conservancy, freedom to roam. people that have donated film and media other than the core. that camel protection

foundation, independent filmmakers. nick sherman, mark shelley, richard ellis, michael hughes, elizabeth colbert, simon winchester. i have been calling a lot of people and asking a lot of questions. thank you to my studio assistance. in sound and media, we have carolyn chadwick, raymond chavez, alex chadwick. my media coordinator, luc d

ubious. they've given us a much of their time and brilliance to work with us to help in the final character of the media and also pentagram and management. i have to think what wall of foundries -- i have to thank walal walla foundries. what is missing? it begins with an accounting of what we are losing as we watch. in terms of species and habitat loss and i hope it provokes more

a sense of wonder at what this planet is capable of and still could return to. this is a beginning. let's imagine this as a portal. we have begun to think of this as listening to the earth. me will be able to connect to the president. we see all the things that are being accomplished. we can also see into the future and by 2000 12th, we will start with the clean paint for the future. -- and by 2012, we will start with the green plan for the future. we start with the past and a new

idea of what a memorial can be. we launched here with what is missing. in two days, we are launching a traveling exhibit in beijing at the beijing arts center. we were rebuilding those and they never translated -- we have translated into chinese more. many of them focused on animals that will go extinct if we can -- if people continue to purchase traditional chinese medicine that uses animals. we want to focus on the critical habitats that they need to survive and on the issues that you might not even realize that are disappearing. how can we protect it if we don't even see it as existing

food for many of the songbirds we knew as children -- how can be protected if we don't see it as existing? many of the songbirds that we knew as children are disappearing. we will start this thing up in a second. or will read to you the beginning intro, every 20 minutes the peace repeats with the same intro and the same conclusion with a different sound and a different background. it starts with what is missing. pieces that have gone extinct, species that will go extinct in our lifetime, the species that we will never know. on average, any 20 minutes, a species will disappear from the planet. in the time that it takes you to view this film, when species

will vanish. what is missing, the ability of animals to migrate freely. the ability of animals to hear and see under water. air, mountaintops, rivers flowing freely to the sea, the visibility of the stars at night. imagine in map that shows our needs with the needs of the planet. can we imagine the range in the light? can we imagine sharing the planet? thank you. [applause] but we have is a set intro, a

sad conclusion, and then we will continue to build more scenes. we have about 50 made. -- what we have is a scenario, a conclusion. maybe you can come here and visit and you will hear different things. there are many species that were common at one time that are no longer common. it will play in a random mode and then every 20 minutes, it has the same conclusion. it is not a theater, you have to walk up to it, you can sit inside but you have to take off your shoes. thank you. [applause]

>> many people are not aware of this building was built in 1936. as a board to preserve the history and make the students aware of that history. the partnering between sfmoma and the arts commission means they will be more aware of the

artwork that we have here, the artists that painted a, and the history behind this itself. >> students came from george washington, and it was wonderful to have them on a panel. people from the school board, those who have been painting for years, some conservative errors from the getty. to have them tell us about the works of their school was important. it represents african-american artists to during the 20's and 30's used an incredible body of work. it is one of the most incredible works of art in the city, bar none. it is a huge mural of incredible works. >> the san francisco civic arts collection has been in

existence since the turn of the century. it consists of everything from monument to golden gate park to market street, other works in the collection, from the wpa era, the quite tower, the works from the george washington high school. we have the contemporary education, where they depict some of the vocational arts that were taught at george washington high school. what is interesting is the artist's and corp. of some of the -- incorporation of some of the architectural elements. they used the speaker from the p a system as part of the design. on the opposite side of the library, we have a large fresco which depicts the academic subjects that were taught at the time. it serves as a foil to the other fresco in the library, we have academic subjects on one side,

vocational subjects on the other, and result is the concept of a well-rounded education. additionally, what we plan to do is the academy of hospitality and tourism will be part of, so the students can share with other students, faculty, the neighborhood, and others to come by and what to look to the artwork we have. >> by working with the students, we hope to raise awareness of the collection and foster stewardship. we brought diego rivera to the city. i think the wpa art work is characterized by stylized robustness and a pervasive

occupation with a historical. in this panel, we have a depiction of george washington moving west. what is interesting about it is the image of lewis and clark here is in black and white, something that is occurring in the future, painted as though it was in the past. what is interesting about it is the very obvious conclusion of slavery. the number of students were expressing unease around some of the themes. the additional mural would be placed in the school, one with more positive representation of the student body. in 1974, they completed three panels that were placed in the library -- in the lobby. they depict native, latino,

asian american, and african- american heritage and culture. >> that artist was talking about the history coming alive. that is what we want for the students here. i also think they might share that with past alumni and the community, so they could no the treasure that we have here in the schools. many people have the same experience i did when i first walked into this building three years ago, being the new principal. the grandeur of these murals is fantastic. many of the students who have come here have come here and are very proud of these murals. they're so happy that they're still here and are being preserved. >> to learn more about the civic art collection, visit