The year is 2027.
Human societies, largely undeterred by the warnings of environmental scientists, have continued to emit pollutants at damaging rates. The average annual temperature on Earth has risen by 1.5 degrees Celsius, as predicted in worst-case climate model scenarios. There are frequent extreme sea events and a new record high tide of 120 cm above previous averages. Ocean acidification and deoxygenation have rapidly intensified….
What would you do if you arrived into this scenario?
No, wait. What would you do if you arrived in this scenario … as a sandworm?
On World Oceans Day 2022, we invite you to explore the POD exhibition and take part in an evening of playful and serious consideration of the future of our oceans.
This exhibition presents the outcomes of a collaborative immersion experiment run in 2022, in which MA students at the Royal College of Art were immersed in a plausible catastrophic future climate scenario—largely from the perspective of nonhumans.
The works created and displayed explore a set of shared fictional realities, illustrating how humans can develop fascinating ways to approach ‘wicked problems’ by thinking through new perspectives, and learning to think and play across established boundaries.
The POD game has been funded within the British Academy’s Shared Understandings of a Sustainable Future scheme, as part of a larger research project exploring the potential for playful experiences to active complex creative problem-solving, and help to ignite collaboration and change.
This event is hosted by Royal College of Art’s MA in Information Experience Design, partly funded by the British Academy, and has been organised in cooperation with Ocean Leisure and Galapagos Conservation Trust.