Time is running out. Some say 12 years, some say only 18 months, but most scientists are in agreement that we do not have long to prevent irreversible damage from climate change. But how can we get people to care? Our Future aims to do just that.
Often there can be a disconnect when thinking about the effects of climate change; we think of ice caps melting in the Arctic, or forest fires in Australia, and we can’t visualise how it will affect us close to home. This immersive experience will bring the issue home to Cardiff, allowing you to see the versions of our world that scientists are currently predicting could happen. Rising temperatures, decreased rainfall in summer, increased rainfall in winter and rising sea levels will all contribute to extreme weather conditions plaguing Wales, including coastal flooding and droughts. Using a head-mounted display (HMD) and inside-out tracking, Our Future will ask you to confront these alarming, but very real, possibilities for Wales’ future.
“allowing people to personally experience environmental problems can reduce perceived temporal distance and lead people to see them as more critical than reading mere descriptions of problems”
(Ahn et al 2016, p.400)
The experience begins in the National Museum Cardiff where the user will be invited to walk around and explore the area. They will hear snippets of conversation from the two separate museum guides, this is designed to build curiosity within the user and encourage them to interact with the guides. It is through engaging in conversation that the user will both learn about the scientist’s predictions and be moved through to Scene 2, either ‘flood’ or ‘drought’ depending on who they first choose to speak to.
In ‘flood’ the area will at first look the same but after exploring the user will see that Cardiff is submerged in water outside the museum. Similarly, in ‘drought’, the user will see the area around the museum dried up from a lack of rainfall and hear museum attendees discussing the recent forest fires in the surrounding areas.
Ideally, upon finishing the experience, the intent is that users will feel less distant when considering the impacts of climate change on the future of Wales.