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] >> what if you could make a memorial that is more about information and you are never fixed and it can go wherever it

wants to go? everyone who has donated to it could use it, host it, share it. >> for quite a great deal of team she was hired in 2005, she struggled with finding the correct and appropriate visual expression. >> it was a bench at one point. it was a darkened room at another point. but the theme always was a theme of how do we call people's attention to the issue of speci species extinction. >> many exhibits do make long detailed explanations about species decline and biology of birds and that is very useful for lots of purposes. but i think it is also important to try to pull at the strings inside people. >> missing is not just about specific extinct or endangered species. it is about absence and a more

fundamental level of not knowing what we are losing and we need to link species loss to habitat loss and really focuses much on the habitat. >> of course the overall mission of the academy has to do with two really fundamental and important questions. one of which is the nature of life. how did we get here? the second is the challenge of sustainability. if we are here how are we going to find a way to stay? these questions resonated very strongly with maya. >> on average a species disappears every 20 minutes. this is the only media work that i have done. i might never do another one because i'm not a media artist per se but i have used the medium because it seemed to be the one that could allow me to convey the sounds and images

here. memorials to me are different from artworks. they are artistic, but memorials have a function. >> it is a beautiful scupltural objective made with bronze and lined with red wood from water tanks in clear lake. that is the scupltural form that gives expression to maya's project. if you think about a cone or a bull horn, they are used to get the attention of the crowd, often to communicate an important message. this project has a very important message and it is about our earth and what we are losing and what we are missing and what we don't even know is gone. >> so, what is missing is starting with an idea of loss, but in a funny way the shape of this cone is, whether you want to call it like the r.c.a.

victor dog, it is listen to the earth and what if we could create a portal that could look at the past, the present and the future? >> you can change what is then missing by changing the software, by changing what is projected and missing. so, missing isn't a static installation. it is an installation that is going to grow and change over time. and she has worked to bring all of this information together from laboratory after laboratory including, fortunately, our great fwroup of researche e-- g researchers at the california academy. >> this couldn't have been more site specific to this place and we think just visually in terms of its scupltural form it really holds its own against the architectural largest and grandeur of the building. it is an unusual compelling object. we think it will draw people out on the terrace, they will see the big cone and say what is

that. then as they approach the cone tell hear these very unusual sounds that were obtained from the cornell orinthology lab. >> we have the largest recording of birds, mammals, frogs and insects and a huge library of videos. so this is an absolutely perfect opportunity for us to team up with a world renown, very creative inspirational artist and put the sounds and sights of the animals that we study into a brand-new context, a context that really allows people to appreciate an esthetic way of the idea that we might live in the world without these sounds or sites. >> in the scientific realm it is shifting baselines. we get used to less and less, diminished expectations of what it was. >> when i came along lobsters six feet long and oysters 12

inches within they days all the oyster beds in new york, manhattan, the harbor would clean the water. so, just getting people to wake up to what was just literally there 200 years ago, 150 years ago. you see the object and say what is that. you come out and hear these intriguing sounds, sounds like i have never heard in my life. and then you step closer and you almost have a very intimate experience. >> we could link to different institutions around the globe, maybe one per continent, maybe two or three in this country, then once they are all networked, they begin to communicate with one another and share information. in 2010 the website will launch, but it will be what you would call an informational website and then we are going to try to, by 2011, invite people to add a memory. so in a funny way the member rely grows and there is

something organic about how this memorial begins to have legs so to speak. so we don't know quite where it will go but i promise to keep on it 10 years. my goal is to raise awareness and then either protect forests from being cut down or reforest in ways that promote biodiversity. >> biodiverse city often argued to be important for the world's human populations because all of the medicinal plants and uses that we can put to it and fiber that it gives us and food that it gives us. while these are vital and important and worth literally hundreds of billions of dollars, the part that we also have to be able to communicate is the more spiritual sense of how important it is that we get to live side by side with all of these forms that have three billion years of history behind them and how tragic it would be not

commercially and not in a utilitarian way but an emotio l emotional, psychological, spiritual way if we watch them one by one disappear. >> this is sort of a merger between art and science and advocacy in a funny way getting people to wake unand realize what is going on -- wake up and realize what is going on. so it is a memborial trying to get us to interpret history and look to the past. they have always been about lacking at the past so we proceed forward and maybe don't commit the same mistakes.