‘snapshots from a near future’ journeys decades ahead
‘Snapshots from a Near Future’ is a visual diary created entirely with AI technology, intended as a journey in the future to the regions most affected by climate change. From adaptive emergency shelters on Haiti’s coastline to greenhouses in Malawi’s agricultural land destroyed by floodwaters, this ‘travelling without moving’ series voyages decades ahead to perishing countries and imagines how native communities are creatively adapting for survival. In doing so, the Midjourney-generated series, created by duo Matteo Artico and Silvia Fracassi of architectural studio Artico Fracassi, seeks to highlight ways in which strategies must be developed in order to enact sustainable change before it is too late.
Malawi in 2043 | all images courtesy of the author
communities recovering climate change-stricken landscapes
With a positive agenda to raise awareness about the impending threats of climate change, ‘Snapshots from a near Future’ aims to raise awareness that we can still intervene to improve the dire situation humanity has created. With their speculative series, architects Matteo Artico and Silvia Fracassi also present a creative invitation to encourage us to change our habits to contribute to lowering emissions and ensuring a better, more sustainable future for generations to come.
The visual travel diary takes the viewer across the world, and decades ahead in time from the Antarctic Thwaites Glacier to Malawi’s desert to even the Pacific Ocean. Here, AI-generated renderings imagine adaptive measures taken by inhabitants to adjust to the harsh effects of climate change and prevent further damage. Traveling to the Chilean Atacama Desert in 2057, a group of images depicts how the driest and oldest desert on Earth, which beholds a hyper-arid core in which no rain has been recorded in the past 500 years, has now seen strong rainfall in the past three decades. Responding to their new abundant circumstances, the locals are seen trying attempting to gain some land, constructing greenhouses which convey promise of a future with minimal, yet hopeful, sprouting greenery.
Meanwhile, in 2038 in Lagos, Nigeria, the series depicts how residents have implemented more sustainable practices by developing green spaces and parks, investing in more sustainable transportation options, and improving waste management systems to enhance the city’s resilience to the impacts of climate change and urbanization.
shelters protecting from flash floods in the Oman desert in 2051
sprouting greenery in the dry Atacama Desert in 2031
adopting sustainable development practices in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2038
agricultural lands destroyed in Malawi while populations rise, 2043
melting Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica in 2044
emergency shelters in Port au Prince in Haiti, 2063
Pacific Ocean in 2063
North Sea in 2033
project info:
name: Snapshots From a Near Future
designer: Matteo Artico and Silvia Fracassi
designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.
edited by: ravail khan | designboom
