Hydrotopia 02050

Ieva Valule, Elena Zaghis, Poorvi Garag

Formed during the Ice Age, the landscape of the Berlin-Brandenburg region is predominantly water-scarce, a fact that places immense ecosystem pressure on this land/waterscape.

The new Tesla Gigafactory in Berlin-Brandenburg aims to produce 20.000 electric cars per month, consuming fourteen-million cubic centimetres of water a year. With the Tesla Gigafactory exacerbating water scarcity in this region, our goal is to guide an optimistic speculation on the future of the drought-prone Berlin-Brandenburg through our design practices

We have seen how bodies of water and human bodies have collectively served as sites of transformation, liberation, and even resistance, in the past and we have noticed similarities with contemporary subjects and events.

Using Solarpunk, a speculative sci-fi activist movement, we create space to imagine what a sustainable civilization looks like and how to achieve it. By working backwards from a utopian future, we can open up a space for dialogue and discussion and observe and analyse the issue of water scarcity from different perspectives today.

Through interviews with FKK participants and water crisis activists against the Tesla gigafactory, alongside field research in Müggelsee, we were able to design a Live Action Role Play game and a video.

The game Hydrotopia 2050 researches the complex matter of water distribution by creating an archive of reflection, embracing a future, hypothetical sense of hope and optimism around the conquered water crisis of 2023.

Game players embody the future year 2050 and are tasked with reflecting on past efforts made to overcome water challenges. Through the lens of different Ancestors and employing a variety of Values and Tools, this solar punk-inspired reflective gameplay encourages participants to envision a world where restorative justice prevails, fostering greater equity and sustainability. This vision fully embraces and celebrates our interdependence with both each other and the natural world, offering an alternative to the bleak prospects of climate doom.