"Speculative Islands" MIT WORLDING presentation

We're happy to be presenting our project "Speculative Islands: virtual land reclamation and climate futures in Macao" today as part of "WORLDING" which is an initiative and partnership between Unity Software / the Unity Charitable Fund and the Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab.

Our specific project seeks to draw attention to ecological changes to the coastline of Macao brought on by land reclamation and urban developmen. Recent large scale reclamation projects from the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge to the Macau New Urban Zone project have involved the creation of new artificial islands. Through world building and an XR experience, the aim is to illustrate alternate versions of future island reclamation projects that balance the community’s housing needs and its more-than-human multispecies relationships. Sea level rise, pollution and the impacts of typhoons are all factors that can be explored and animated in creative ways to expand people’s engagement with different forms of building and ecological sensitivity.