A while back, Australian film director and speculative architect Liam Young presented a vision of the future in a 15-minute animated short film. Entitled "Planet City", the film introduced a hyper-dense sustainable vertical mega-metropolis where 10 billion humans - the projected population of the earth in 2050 - lived.
In Young's film, "Planet City" was conceived as the place where humanity retreats while nature takes back its spaces and returns to thrive, reversing in this way the apocalyptic climate change.
Through his work, Young seamlessly blends elements of design, fiction, and future possibilities, crafting speculative films that are firmly rooted in real scientific and technological advancements. These films serve as urgent examinations of the pressing environmental challenges that confront us today.
Young has recently worked on a new project, entitled "The Great Endeavor", currently on display in the Arsenale section at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice (until 26th November 2023).
The project revolves around a new film inspired by the words of geographer and environmental social scientist Holly Jean Buck, "First World nations have colonized the atmosphere with their greenhouse gas emissions."
In the film Young presents a plan to achieve our current climate targets, inviting people to consider the possibility of going beyond simply reducing future emissions by developing the capability to extract existing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and securely store it underground on a massive scale.
"We have always built the impossible," Young states in the informative panels accompanying the film. "We dug canals between continents, joined coasts with rail lines, landed on distant planets and built cities that reach into the clouds. Now, on the precipice of climate collapse, we need to build the impossible again, a planetary machine for carbon removals."
This ambitious undertaking, known as the "great endeavor", requires the construction of the most monumental engineering project in human history and the establishment of a new infrastructure that rivals the entire global fossil fuel industry in size.
It represents a new milestone and necessitates a global mobilization of workers and resources that demands an unprecedented level of international cooperation.
The film portrays the intricate design, construction, visualization, and drama involved in bringing this imaginative infrastructure to life. This transformative endeavor involves converting airborne carbon into a liquefied gas, which can then be injected deep beneath the ocean floor or mineralized within the arid expanse of desert rock.
The film is accompanied by a new composition by vocalist Lyra Pramuk, who provides a planetary workers' song celebrating the spirit of unity and collective action on a global scale, and by workwear by The Handmaid's Tale costume designer, Ane Crabtree (tailor for the project: Hae Min Yun).
The renowned Hollywood costume designer acted as film producer and costume director in "Planet City"; for this new film, she developed instead four typologies of workwear for the people involved in this historic undertaking.
"These are the coveralls worn by the global work force of The Great Endeavor, a chorus of millions, coming together under 300 years of billowing black smoke, to draw down the sky, bury it in the mountains and trap it deep beneath the waves," Young states about the costumes in a panel accompanying the installation.
The designs revolve around a palette of high-vis orange, vivid reds and reassuring earthy tones. Crabtree moved from repurposed oil rig coveralls and shirts (names and logos of the companies, from ExxonMobil and Shell to Halliburton are still visible on the garments), and added digital embroidered motifs representing geospatial information and landscape charts or recycled nylon elements and panels integrating fabrics with a three-dimensional quality about them hinting at geological data and maps on the surface of the textiles (geographical maps made with tapestries, textiles and embroideries are almost a trend at this year's biennale).
One jacket reminds of a Medieval garment, reinvented to incorporate high-tech textiles and offering in this way a fusion of tradition and innovation. A shirt finds its perfect complement in an apron skirt, creating an ensemble that harmonizes both style and functionality. Furthermore, a coverall reimagines the conventional sleeve by incorporating a long glove, emphasizing the evolving nature of these uniforms.
With these uniforms Crabtree walks the fine line between utopia and dystopia: the garments present us a future in which the logos of fossil-fuel companies have lost their meaning, and people are reinterpreting uniforms in very personal ways.
At the same time, while infusing the costumes with a touch of visionary aesthetics, the costume designer thoughtfully incorporated protective elements such as long padded gloves, aprons and hoods, subtly alluding to the possibility that wearers might encounter demanding circumstances along their journey.
These creations transcend mere workwear as they signify the emergence of new wardrobes that symbolize the transformative aspirations of the wearers. Young aptly highlights that these garments are no longer confined to utilitarian purposes alone, but, in his project, they are proudly donned by the collective assembly entrusted with the profound task of reshaping our world.
"As we begin to move away from fossil fuels the engineers of oil and gas are reassigned to the emerging carbon industry, their repurposed coveralls now richly embroidered with fine threads and intricate details," Young explains about the designs.
Imaginary worlds may appear disconnected from finding practical solutions to real challenges, after all a speculative project can't really be considered as problem-solving.
However, visionary projects like Young's hold a profound power to emotionally engage us through the art of storytelling. They enable us to visualize complex issues and transform data and statistics into compelling narratives that pave the way towards an aspirational future, bridge the gap between imagination and action, and empower us to envision the limitless horizons that lie ahead, unfolding the infinite potential for our future.
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