Land Speaks

Meet your non-human neighbors

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Inspiration

Most of us have walked past the same bird, the same tree, the same insect for years, and never known their names. We live surrounded by hundreds of beings and most of us are strangers to all of them.

What it does

The Land Speaks changes that. Open it anywhere in the world, and a native species introduces itself to you — in its own voice, drawn from Wikipedia. "I am the Cooper's Hawk. I have nested in this valley longer than your city has had a name."

You get eight encounters a day of beings that are active around that the exact season and daytime you open the application. Then the app goes dark: "That's enough for today. Go find one of them." No searching. Just eight neighbors, once a day, and then the app prompts you to experience them in the physical world — a big shift away from apps designed to keep users engaged for as long as possible.

It's built entirely on Wikipedia and open biodiversity data, so as science and narratives grow, the app grows with it. No database to maintain. No content to curate. The knowledge is already there, I just built the interface for it.

This is inspired by the solarpunk movement. The goal isn't engagement. The goal is that you go outside, make kin, and look up.

How I built it

I used ClaudeCode to help me define a refined brief and then used MeDo for the build.

This app also leverages the GBIF API and Wikipedia REST API.

Challenges I ran into

The biggest challenge was creating a decent UI. At first, the MeDo tool didn't take into consideration the contrast differences between text and background so much of the main text and button text would get hidden by the background colors.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

The app was fully functional in only 7 conversation turns. This was really exciting to see. It was also important for me to use Wikipedia, as it is a data source that is generated and updated by the public.

What I learned

Being able to iterate quickly with tools like MeDo allowed me to be able to focus more on the vision of the application and ensuring the end product met it.

What's next for Land Speaks

I want to improve on the UI/UX to make it feel more whimsical. I also want to add ideas for users to interact creatively and with care with the natural world.

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