The Age of.

The Age of. takes the audience on a journey from present day issues of climate change. To a near future, where nurture nature, nature made and ecological models underpin our vision of a new symbiotic ecology. To a multi-planetary future, where humans are neither superior nor inferior to other life forms.

The Age of Humans, narrates the background to the times we are currently living in. Presently, we have started to understand the unmistakable impact that we have made on planet Earth.

We have only been around for a sliver of time in Earth’s 4.6 billion year history. No other species has had such an impact on the planet, we know that now.

The human population is growing, and we are

consuming resources at an ever-increasing rate which modifies the surface of the Earth, causing environmental damage to water sources, land, biodiversity and marine life.

But why is it that we, who are being brought up in a modern Western culture, predominantly view ourselves as separate from nature?

How aware are we that this mindset provides us with a false sense of justification, to ignorantly exploit and consume other species and the planet?

In response to environmental decay and increasing material scarcity on Earth, scientists and the space industry are investing in the potential of asteroid mining, planetary engineering and in-space manufacturing to meet the demands of our growing population.

Much of the research and development today is primarily human-centered, very little has been done to consider the potential ecological impact on this unknown environment of Mars.

Is it easier for humans to imagine life on Mars than to change our destructive behaviour on Earth? At the same time, a growing understanding of that we as humans are not exceptional beings but rather fully entangled and dependent on other species, renders the urgency of our own extinction clear.

What if focus would shift from exploiting space, just as we have exploited Earth, to develop more sustainable lifestyles in mutualistic symbiosis with other species? What can we learn, or perhaps unlearn, by imagining and designing for multispecies life on Mars?