Doedelz
Migration of lichen
A design fiction to evoke emotion about our current climate discourse. The evolution of thinking and to speculate on an earth that might become uninhabitable due to our current climate discourse.
Migration of lichen is a human-lichen symbiosis to evolve humanity, meant as a tool to survive the coming harsh environment, caused by climate change. This design fiction is meant to evoke emotion about our current climate discourse. The evolution of thinking and to imagine an earth that might become uninhabitable.
What if I were to tell you, that the current discourse about the climate, of OUR planet, is mainly caused by our own ego’s. We keep pointing fingers at others, but we never dare reflect upon our own actions and choices we’ve made. I started to question what if we no longer hold on to our ego and tried to reconnect with our surroundings, with nature, something we are a part of but lost our connection with. Something that is not only about ourselves. The answer as to how to reconnect is already all around us without us being aware of it.
Every living organism is in constant symbiosis with each other and their surroundings. So, what if we went into a conscious and active symbiosis with another organism, that might help us evolve and survive in the coming future. A future where we have harmed the earth in such a way that it can't be resolved, that the earth will become uninhabitable by humans as we know it now.
With my project, I want to create a future in which humanity has failed to rethink its position with nature. A future where the climate, the earth, has finally hit back and made it almost uninhabitable for humanity as we know it now. My goal is to tell a story that not only will evoke emotion but is also an emotional response to a complex issue at hand, climate change. Next to this I want to raise awareness about lichen, which could serve as a possible food solution in the near future. I want to present a 3rd option next to insects and algae, which are already well known and much researched upon as a food solution.
Within my project I try to answer questions as how can I evoke an emotion on a complex issue at hand. Is there a way for us to reconnect with our environment? My project is not about saving humanity from this dystopia future but giving them a tool to ensure their survival when it has already happened. My project & research is targeted at people who wish to reconnect with nature. Not to rule it but to become a part of it.
To support this speculative ritual, it was important that it was build on an existing theory. What was the problem that eventually led to this outcome? On what is the human-lichen symbiosis based and how does it work?
To conclude my research and thesis I created a digital publication which is accessible to anyone interested. Within this digital publication I explain our current situation and the climate discourse at hand but I also go in depth on my theories and possible solution on how we can reconnect with nature. From this research I created a visual translation on how the ritual works and prior to this I created a photography series to showcase how the lichen symbiosis will look like.
This project is a tool proposal for our survival that will evolve our future thinking.
Publication can be found here