Non-human Tales for Humans. Data Stories of Future Environments.

It matters what stories make worlds, what worlds make stories. ¨C Donna J. Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene

If it matters, as Donna Haraway says, which stories make worlds and which worlds make stories ¨C how do we want to tell stories about life in possible future environments?

Data-based representations show rising curves of species loss and global temperatures. Scientific reports provide information about unimaginably huge plastic swirls, over-fertilised landscapes, overbuilt earth and the growing risks this poses to the health and lives of all. Yet these depictions often remain abstract and incomprehensible. So how can we create worlds and stories that are vivid, tangible, communicable and desirable? How could environmental data and research findings play a role in our everyday lives and redefine human-nature relationships?

Based on research data and projects by young scientists, design students developed poetic, provocative, prudent, longing and experimental narratives of possible futures. Environmental data does not only mean series of numbers, but also images, satellite recordings, acoustic recordings, mapping, etc. Thanks to tiny sensors, we can already track the migration routes of animals live and monitor the condition of forests and bodies of water. So how will environmental data characterise our lives with non-human nature? Dystopia or utopia?

These questions were explored and projects developed in parallel courses at the Department of Design at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam and Arts and the Eco-Social Design Master's programme at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in the summer semester of 2023. The results were presented in the exhibition "Non-human tales for humans" at the Environmental Observation Conference 2023 and subsequently as a travelling exhibition.

The sponsoring institutions of the Environmental Observation Conference in Switzerland and Germany supported the exhibition in various ways and created a space for an exciting dialogue between the disciplines. Beyond the exhibits, a network was created that will hopefully continue to have an impact beyond the conference.

Researchers

Cecilia Valenzuela Ag¨¹i, Vera Benyr, Johanna Berger, Anja Binder, Chaoran Chen, Sabine Fink, Charlotte Gohr, Adrian Lison, Michael Looser, Hanna Paikert, Kieran Sattler, Sven Schwippl, Ste-fan Wallek

Eco-Social Design students, HSLU Lucerne

Gerda Bieri, Samuel Brunner, Johanna Dobrusskin, Katrin Geh-ring, Dzhulieta Horbachenko, Bettina Eiben K¨¹nzli, Florence Sch?b, Michael Speranza, C¨¦line Wassmer, Janina Woods

Students of Design and European Media Studies, FH Potsdam

Louise Bianchi, Leonidas Bothmer, Carla Burggraf, Sofia Cubillos, Jacqueline Esbach, Marie Gutierrez Oliva, Laura G¨¹nther, Ella Hartung, Jacob H?ferlin, Irina K¨¹hnlein, Victor Molina, Ben Raisic, Mathilda Fee Sanchez, Luciana Serna Wills

Exhibition design

Philipp Buhlmann, Mia Mahn

Project management

Karin Fink, Master Eco-Social Design, HSLU Lucerne, and Prof. Myriel Milicevic, Department of Design, FH Potsdam