Radical Ocean Futures

A Science Fiction Prototyping approach to imagining our future oceans.

Project facts

Sweden
Stockholm
2018

The global ocean has gone from infinite, wild and thriving…to finite, fragile and full of garbage. Humanity has had such an impact that we have even reshaped the genetic structure of many marine species. The Ocean matters because it feeds us, generates most of the air we breathe, helps to regulate our climate, and much more.

At its heart, Radical Ocean Futures offers a set of compelling provocations to help us think differently about the future of the ocean. We applied a method out of Silicon Valley called ‘Science Fiction Prototyping’ to create narrative scenarios of the future ocean. These distinct future stories, all set around the year 2070 are built on the findings of hundreds of scientific papers. Together, they represent a tapestry of possible futures and they enable us to explore the implications & the potential of a changing ocean for human society and natural ecosystems.

The project has been featured in WIRED with editorials in Nature and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences as well as being featured in a number of art exhibitions as well as on leading podcasts such as P3 Dystopia. Right now the project is featured as part of the ‘Science Fiction – Voyage to the Edge of the Imagination’ exhibition at the London. It won the 2022 APF award.

The scenarios were made in: 2018

The scenarios look out to: between 2050 and 2070

Submitted by:

Andrew Merrie
Project Leader
March 6, 2023

How to cite this page:

Andrew Merrie
Radical Ocean Futures
www.biospherefutures.net
2023/03/06

Project images

Simon Stålenhag
Simon Stålenhag
Simon Stålenhag
Simon Stålenhag
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