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Showing posts from June, 2022

Carbon Ruins

‘Carbon Ruins’ is an exhibition of the carbon era which invites the visitor into an imagined future where the transitions to post-fossil society  have already happened. The future date is 2053, three years after global net-zero emissions of carbon dioxide were reached, and recognizable objects in the exhibition bridge the gap between daily life and the abstract impacts of climate change. These objects may include a 2014 cookbook which speculated on the possibility of cultivated meat, a piece of black coal from 2020, a sample of plastic grass from 2024, a diary of the 2025 milk riots in Brussels, the last toys made from plastic (an iconic material of the fossil fuel age), a recycled steel water bottle from 2034, and a 2038 picture of the last fast-food hamburger. The exhibits vary with the form taken by ‘Carbon Ruins’: since its beginning in 2019 these have included a mobile exhibition, audio presentation, educational material for schools, and part of the Human Nature exhibit at the Eth