Playing God

Playing God envisions a speculative settlement that at first glance appears to be similar to the external world, full of living creatures and perfectly manicured scenery. When looking closer, it reveals itself to be a facade: carefully crafted assemblies of plants and animals, projecting the illusion of life, while rejecting authenticity in favor of man-made constructs. The settlement establishes itself as a test environment that studies the viability for residents to live a normal life in artificial and synthetic surroundings. This experimental lifestyle will question humanity’s needs for the future, determining if it is a feasible option to be implemented at a larger scale during the worst of the climate crisis.

This artificial ecosystem serves as both a reflection and a commentary on our relationship with nature. This shift towards the “fake” highlights society’s detachment from the natural world, viewing it as a commodity rather than a necessity for survival. Amidst the backdrop of environmental degradation and a lack of urgency in addressing the climate crisis, the settlement embodies an acceptance of the inevitable, framed in a satirical manner: why attempt to salvage what is lost, when we can create something new?

This thesis work leans on the silly and satirical, promoting a lifestyle that divorces itself from the constraints of traditional environmentalism in favor of an ”easier solution.” It highlights the absurdity of the situation and the humorous adaptation strategies the settlement uses to cope with the absence of real, living nature. Each banner depicts locations within the settlement and scenarios of residents interacting with their synthetic surroundings, transitioning at the bottom to reveal the “behind the scenes” manufacturing process behind this settlement’s fake reality. By using promotional welcome posters, the thesis invites outsiders to playfully join this new, “real” way of living and encourages them to become a resident within this artificial space, painting the settlement in a positive light while poking fun at its clearly unreal, and unnatural atmosphere.