Grid Pendant

Because climate change unfolds in a highly complex manner, it can be hard to relate to inherently abstract and intangible information. Flooded House aims to remove the numbing anonymity of scientific climate data by visually imagining what consequences could look like in your own home. The project does this by visualizing NASA’s ocean level rise predictions by physically flooding my own apartment according to the real prediction data.

Through my project, I want to underscore the lack of climate accountability of high-income countries. Despite being major contributors to carbon emissions, more vulnerable communities and ecosystems are often left to bear the consequences. That is not fair. In Flooded House, the scenario is inverted: It’s your own belongings, furniture, home and life that are flooded.

To interact with the piece, users select a location on the world map, a year in the future, and a climate prediction scenario. The scenarios begin at 1.5 degree celsius temperature increase - the Paris Agreement - and reach up to a worst-case scenario of 5 degrees increase. Water is then pumped from the hidden tank into the apartment until the predicted ocean level rise is reached.