What is Carbon Ruins?

The exhibition is the result of several initiatives at Lund University, most notably the Narrating Climate Futures Initiative, the Climaginaries project and the think tank LU Futura. The aim is to transport visitors in space and time, to a future where transitions to post-fossil society has already happened, to spark a visionary and tangible conversation on what we leave behind and what we take with us.

By focusing on physical objects, recognisable and culturally powerful, we bridge the gap between the concrete every day lives of humans and the abstract impacts of climate change. As you pick up an ad for frequent flyer points, you hear the story of how a growing social movement boycotted air travel, forced governments to implement fair taxation on aviation and ultimately made the practice of frequent flying obsolete.

The choice of the objects and the associated stories are based on an aggregate of climate models and expertise from the Narrating Climate Futures network. The participating characters and events which construct the story have been generated through participatory workshops with researchers and practitioners in food, transport, steel, energy and plastic.