DEKAT DIGITAL 2019 - 2020

The Lost
Botanist
The creators of the virtual reality short film, The Lost Botanist, put the
continent on the map when they became the first South Africans to
screen their VR creation at Annecy, the world’s leading animation
festival. MARTIE BESTER caught up with the talented siblings.
The rural town of Kokstad is situated in an area of KwaZulu-Natal known as ‘no man’s land’. While growing up on
a farm in the area, and inspired by the creativity of their mother and grandmother, Rick and Ree Treweek evoked
nature through their imaginative drawings of their environment. They were children of nature, making their own
virtual reality, which would eventually lead to them both pursuing creative careers.
As directors of the Cape Town-based creative studio Tulips and Chimneys, and Eden Labs, a research and development
lab exploring emerging technology, the siblings created and co-directed The Lost Botanist. It was the first virtual
reality (VR) experience from Africa to screen at Annecy, regarded as the world’s premier festival for animation.
In its current form, The Lost Botanist is described as “a five-minute interactive adventure where you are the lost
botanist, misplaced in a world that has forgotten about nature”. At each level of the experience, you have to find
certain creatures – a fish or a mushroom, for example – which allow you to really look at the art of the creation.
Rick says, “My sister and I always wanted to work together, and the introduction of virtual reality offered us the
perfect opportunity.” Rick explores the creativity of technology, while Ree is the “super-detailed, pen on paper”
partner in the business.
“The Lost Botanist was an amazing opportunity to collaborate not only as siblings, but also as our two companies,
and do something that was completely unique and different. That was our goal from the beginning,” he says.
When it comes to VR, Rick believes it’s a difficult concept to explain and that people need to experience it for
themselves. To create the short film, they used virtual reality headsets and designed the casing to look as magical
from the outside as it is when you step into the world of VR.
“We added a handle to the masks to make it easier for people to access the world and this adds the feeling of
entering a masked ball. I actually sculpted the headset in virtual reality,” he explains.
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