Climate LARPing, 2018
Photo series and Climate LARPing Filed Guide and Toolkit ︎︎︎
Exhibited at the World Bank Climate Investment Fund's Shaping the Future of Climate Action, Ouarzazate, Morocco, 2019
Funded by the Institute for the Future's Climate Action 2030 Grant, with support from the World Bank Climate Investment Fund
Archetypes of both urgency and ambivalence shape this attempt to increase my proximity to changing sea levels, shifting coastlines, and altered future food systems.
Climate LARPing will be published as a chapter in the forthcoming ecological art anthology:
Unserious Ecocriticism: Humor, Play & Environmental Destruction in Art & Visual Culture
Edited by Jessica Landau & Maria Lux
Amherst College Press, January 2026
PRE-ORDER HERE >>>
These images and embodiments (Climate "LARPing") present a ficto-critical set of rehersals for encounting shifting coastlines, higher average sea levels, and changing food systems. Archetypes of both urgency and ambivalence necessarily shape these embodiments, which are an attempt to increase my own proximity to climate change. The process of rehearsal is not just a way to explore a new and improved relationship with the planet, it is also a way to prepare.
I laminated existing areas of flooding from recent natural disasters overtop future sea level rise predictions, cosplaying in those areas as if there were under water. To determine the sites of "new shorelines," where we might sunbathe or enjoy the water's edge, I used the metric of 1-2 meters of sea level rise. This is the metric predicted by 2100 in a recent study in the journal Nature.
As the United States’ “plant hardiness zones” shift northward, we may be able to grow new types of foods further north than previously. What would it look like if we could grow tropical fruit in New York City? Other foods punctuate the images as well—seaweed can help mitigate the effects of climate change through the absorption of CO2 and the sequestration of nitrogen. They can even aid in the reduction of pollution and nutrients dumped into waterways due to agricultural runoff or human waste.
I laminated existing areas of flooding from recent natural disasters overtop future sea level rise predictions, cosplaying in those areas as if there were under water. To determine the sites of "new shorelines," where we might sunbathe or enjoy the water's edge, I used the metric of 1-2 meters of sea level rise. This is the metric predicted by 2100 in a recent study in the journal Nature.
As the United States’ “plant hardiness zones” shift northward, we may be able to grow new types of foods further north than previously. What would it look like if we could grow tropical fruit in New York City? Other foods punctuate the images as well—seaweed can help mitigate the effects of climate change through the absorption of CO2 and the sequestration of nitrogen. They can even aid in the reduction of pollution and nutrients dumped into waterways due to agricultural runoff or human waste.
In an attempt to embed new values into physical objects, other photographs depict a series of “altars” suggestive of rituals. These speak to values of an intertwined Anthropogenic existence—part of climate action going forward will be to embed new values of eco-awareness into our daily rituals. Necessary tools to living in an altered climate may take own cultural significance and elicit the creation of heirlooms and ceremonial objects in relation to their heightened importance.
As we unintentionally act out habits in our daily lives, I ask how we might occupy near-future habits. By imagining new habits, we can also reimagine the trajectory of our footprint on our landscapes, our food system, and our shorelines. These photo series captures gestures (and worlds) in the making.
Our senses fall short of conceptualized the true scale of the catastrophe of climate change. Each of our actions, nonetheless, contributes to the catastrophe. As Alvin Toffler put it in the sensationalized Future Shock in 1970: “Again and again the human brain has blinded itself to the novel possibilities of the future.” What novel possibilities of our future—that is, what radical and outlandish visions of a changing world—can we bring into our daily experience now, in a kind of humilty towards humans’ limited foresight?
As we unintentionally act out habits in our daily lives, I ask how we might occupy near-future habits. By imagining new habits, we can also reimagine the trajectory of our footprint on our landscapes, our food system, and our shorelines. These photo series captures gestures (and worlds) in the making.
Our senses fall short of conceptualized the true scale of the catastrophe of climate change. Each of our actions, nonetheless, contributes to the catastrophe. As Alvin Toffler put it in the sensationalized Future Shock in 1970: “Again and again the human brain has blinded itself to the novel possibilities of the future.” What novel possibilities of our future—that is, what radical and outlandish visions of a changing world—can we bring into our daily experience now, in a kind of humilty towards humans’ limited foresight?
