Mosaic: A Chorus of Futures
Mosaic: A Chorus of Futures
by Brandon McWilliams
Mosaic is a story of place. It is a story rooted in the city and lands and waters of present-day Seattle, in western Washington, on the ancestral home of the Duwamish, Suquamish, Stillaguamish, and Muckleshoot People. It is a snapshot of a possible moment, told through glimpses into the lives of the people that call this future place home. It is a whole story, inherently incomplete, made up of fragments.
While each story is set in a positive future, the people in them are not always happy. Positive does not mean perfect. Life is messy and no one is always pleased - some people’s most honest expression of themselves is when they are a bit grumpy. Stressors still happen; trees still fall on fences, laws are still imperfect, and many, many challenges still loom even in a better future. The key, though, is that these moments of turbulence are balanced by joy, by care, and by progress. This piece does not engage with utopia - which is inherently unattainable - but is instead grappling with protopia.
Each fragment is plotted directly onto a contemporary map of Seattle. There is no linear path to these stories - just like there is no straightforward story of a place or to the future we are working towards. You are welcome to explore these stories as you like - maybe a narrative will emerge for you. Try to unfocus the eye of your imagination and see what shape emerges when you let each fragment blur together. Or think of each piece as a frame in a flip book. What begins to move as you let the moments flip by?
Finally, many of the fragments have a QR code attached to them which will take you to some links. These are some of the real life people, organizations, adaptation strategies, or pieces of further reading I was thinking about when writing each piece. I tried to cover a lot of climate-action ground in this project, so I hope you take the time to dive deeper into one of these stories and discover how the things it describes are already being instantiated in our world.
To explore stories from Seattle of 2075, click the full screen icon above, or click here.
Today’s science, Brandon’s climate future:
Mosaic: A Chorus of Futures features over 25 climate solutions that exist today, imagined in their full-fledged capacity in the year 2075. Organized by which solutions appear in which story, these existing opportunities for climate mitigation and adaptation range from sea farms to food forests, heat pumps to living buildings, moss to libraries.
Brandon McWilliams
27, Seattle, WA
I used to work in environmental education, doing climate advocacy and adaptation work with youth groups and community organizations. Repeated questions were common: “How do you know climate change is happening? How bad is it really? Does that mean I can’t have ___ anymore?” But one time, a young person asked a question I didn’t know how to answer: “So what happens if we succeed?”
I realized, despite working to bring about a positive climate future, despite orienting much of my life around making change, I didn’t have a good idea of what that future could actually, tangibly be. I had some vague ideas about electric cars or wind turbines - something between a Studio Ghibli movie and a Chibani commercial (IYKYK), but nothing about real lives, nothing I could taste, touch, smell, nothing tied to the places I know.
I’ve been slowly trying to fill that gap ever since, starting with the landscapes I love and call home. The futures I imagine are based in community - told through many individual moments. I rant to anyone who will sit still long enough about the inadequacy of the “silver bullet” climate solution narrative that is still so pervasive. It would be lovely if we could flip a single switch and solve the challenges we face, but sadly that isn't possible. Instead, I think about our path to a thriving future as a tapestry of many solutions, some small, some big.
This work has brought together parts of me that I thought would remain disparate for a long time. In my creative practice, I am consistently drawn to fragments, snippets, constellations of narrative rather than straight roads. My academic life has been focused on climate narratives and framing, thinking about how the stories we tell influence the actions people take - but has been limited to fairly traditional mediums and stories. My professional life as a science communicator has exposed me to just how wide the world of climate research, adaptation, mitigation, and assessment are, but usually keeps me in the world of the here and now, rather than what could be.
Mosaic is my attempt at pulling all these threads together - an exercise in hopeful imagination, rooted in the beautiful complexities and messiness of science, and told in a way that lets it flex and twist in response to each reader.