One Home

An immersive installation at Earth Love Festival

SITE: House of Yes “Earth Love Festival” @ 99 Scott Ave, Brooklyn

DATE: Sunday, April 21, 2019

Our first public project was an immersive installation at the Earth Love Festival, hosted by House of Yes. The installation, entitled “One Home,” asked visitors: what kind of future do you want for your world? And what if that future is already here?

The installation presented two divergent visions of planet earth's future, bisected by a tall panel in the middle of the room. Visitors first entered, barefoot, into a gloomy, synthetic environment, carpeted with stiff astroturf and covered in a deep blue backdrop, overlaid with projections of future sea level rise. Against the low hum of traffic and construction noises, a shadowy individual silently wove a rug of shredded plastic bags.

In stark contrast, on the far side of the panel lay a grassy, sunlit enclave. Visitors could craft and color, picnic, or take a nap. Climate Collective members filled this area with calls to community and collective action; the need for equity among all this planet’s inhabitants; and the gentle sounds of nature. Children and adults alike were drawn to the light and life. Many said they felt at home.

One Home was inviting, but also unsettling. While the two visions depicted in the installation could represent two potential futures for our planet, they could also be interpreted as two concurrent realities. In other words, they perhaps depict the increasing social inequality that climate change threatens to exacerbate. If climate change is understood as the consequence of human action—the unequal distribution of resources and unequal effects of reckless action—then its ultimate outcome could be a deeper polarization of humanity itself. The installation sought to heal this divide by creating a common ground for people to reflect and find community.

We welcomed visitors to participate in a shared experience that moved them to reimagine their own agency in concert with that of others. One Home was a space that inspired a new connection to others who share similar hopes and fears about the climate; evoked fresh sensations of sunlight, shadow, and barefoot walking; or catalyzed new friendships. The path to a radical cultural shift on climate change begins one step at a time. Above all, we hope that visitors walked away from One Home feeling the power of collective action and community.