Science Spies: A city of 10 billion: Speculative image paints a vision of the future

Sunday, May 15, 2022

A city of 10 billion: Speculative image paints a vision of the future

A series of immersive installations, including Planet City, a film that imagines a "hyper-dense" city of 10 billion people, are part of Our Time on Earth, a new exhibition at the Barbican Centre in London encouraging people to reconnect with the natural world

Humans

11 May 2022

By Gege Li

THE complexity, community and precarity of the planet are highlighted in these works from Our Time on Earth, a new exhibition at the Barbican Centre in London. The show aims to “ignite a sense of hope and courage, and to shift people’s mindsets to reconnect with the natural world”, says co-curator Luke Kemp.

New Scientist Default Image — David Levene

The image above is a still from a video called Sanctuary of the Unseen Forest, a collaboration between immersive art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast, Andres Roberts – co-founder of The Bio-Leadership Project – and artist James Bulley. It explores our intimate connection with trees and addresses “plant blindness”, a human tendency to ignore plants in favour of animals.

The lead image is a video still from Planet City, a film directed by architect Liam Young that imagines a “hyper-dense” city of 10 billion people, allowing the rest of the world to be reclaimed by the wild. It shows a speculative solution for feeding the city’s population.

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 02: Invited guests during a preview of the 'Our Time On Earth' exhibition at The Curve, Barbican Centre on May 02, 2022 in London, England. The exhibition runs from 5th May 2022 to 29th Aug 2022. (Photo by Tim P. Whitby/Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images for Barbican Centre) — Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images for Barbican Centre

Above is an image from digital art installation Life Forces by art duo Tin & Ed, which aims to provide a portal to nature by using human body tracking to allow visitors to interact with digital landscapes.

The two below images are shots of Sharing Prosperity, a gaming experience created by DVTK in collaboration with the Institute for Global Prosperity at University College London. Set in the near future, the game explores how collaboration could help the planet to flourish.