It Happened Tomorrow

researchers:

On January 24th, the Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision in Hilversum hosted a Dutch New European Bauhaus (NEB) event, focusing on building local ecosystems that envision and implement more sustainable and equitable ways of living.

During this event, participants explored the significance of imagination, storytelling, and heritage as foundational elements for fostering communities of care amidst the climate crisis.

The program featured projects from the Climate Imaginaries at Sea program, ekip, and CrAFt – Crafting Actionable Futures.

During the event, we hosted the fourth iteration of It happened tomorrow (Reflections on Water), a workshop that invites participants to imagine a future Netherlands impacted by rising sea levels and climate change, starting from a special audiovisual collection from Sound & Vision to draw speculative landscapes related to specific environmental and societal scenarios.

The imagined landscapes were then narrated (with the help of AI) from the point of view of Valeria, a south European traveler doing a Grand Tour of the Netherlands in 2174, writing letters to her brother Luca about the wonders and struggles of the Dutch adapting to sea level rise and climate change. These fictional sketches and field notes will be used in future NEB events to prompt experts in different fields to discuss viable adaptation strategies for future ways of living.

This workshop is part of the larger program titled Climate Imaginaries at Sea, where the Visual Methodologies Collective (AUAS) and its partners explore how artistic research can open up people’s current visions, fears, and hopes for a future with a changing climate.