Expedition Æqualis is an ongoing design-research project by Dutch Invertuals in collaboration with The Future Laboratory, and Reon Brand. Together, we have embarked on a transformative design exploration towards an eco-centric future.
Exploring the building blocks for a nature-centric future
As a civilization, humanity has reached a point of no return. Around the world, we are facing the perils of accelerating climate change and ecosystem collapse, brought about by our own relentless pursuit of material progress. Difficult choices lie ahead, with no easy solutions to navigating the uncertain future, which may ultimately threaten our own survival as a species.
But as we face the perils of climate change and ecosystem decline, we realize that to heal the planet and safeguard our future existence, we should not impose our solutions on it, but leverage and learn from the remarkable resilience of nature. It is constantly emerging and evolving like an intelligent adaptive algorithm, exploring options and optimizing itself to regenerate and flourish in changing conditions.
‘We need to transform our relationship with nature through a perpetual expedition to find and re establish deep connections, where our lives become intricately interwoven in natural systems.’ –Wendy Plomp
Designing for redemption
As humanity we need thriving natural ecosystems to live healthy and meaningful lives. Therefore, instead of further exploiting and disrupting nature, we need to deprogram our anthropocentric approach and learn how to be part of nature again on equal terms. What if we could have a change of heart and become explorers who seek to understand, connect and relate to nature in a mutually beneficial way, for rekindling our humility, love and respect for our host: planet Earth.
The quest of Expedition Æqualis is to employ design as a creative force to inspire and support humanity to transition to a nature-centric existence. We see it as ‘designing for redemption’, where design becomes key in transforming our relationship with the planet. Design has always been a powerful tool to rethink and rebuild the world we live in. Together with designers, researchers and other makers and thinkers we create speculative probes and experiments, conversation pieces that spark curiosity to live a different kind of life.
Read more: expeditionaequalis.com
