Sea Level Stories, City of San Francisco
Working with the City of San Francisco and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, co-founder Johanna Hoffman developed and fabricated Sea Level Stories -- a time travel machine that doubles as on-the-street-living room, data visualization and creative climate change workshop. Sea Level Stories invited you to explore how sea level rise changes the San Francisco Bay Area – in the past, present and future – and share your thoughts on what those what those impacts mean to you.
By walking inside the space, visitors were transported 200 years into the future, when sea levels have risen roughly 25 ft and the world is a much warmer place. They landed in the living room of a young urban designer named Jara Aniton, who was renting them the use of her apartment through whatever version of Airbnb exists in the year 2200. The apartment was complete with objects useful for navigating the future San Francisco, including a paddle for Jara's canoe, inflatable water wings, dry shampoo and waders for exploring more watery areas of the city. All objects came with audio instructions for guests' ease of use.
Before leaving, visistors were asked to respond to a series of questions. Answers fed into city-supported work on how to cultivate more approachable dialogues about climate change and its impacts on our lives and cities.