A space to see, touch, hear, smell, and experience actionable hope during a crucial week for leaders and the general public.

Working with long-time collaborator Ingka Group (IKEA), and their science partners Time CO2 and Project Drawdown, Superflux conceived, researched, designed and produced the Action Speaks Summit.

A stand-out of New York Climate Week, The summit invited business leaders, NGO’s, influential thinkers, community leaders and members of the public to reckon with the urgency of the climate crisis, and recognise their collective capacity to shift the needle.

Bringing positive action and tangible hope to New York Climate Week

Our long term collaborator INGKA Group (IKEA) invited us to help conceive and create a large-scale immersive public installation for New York Climate Week 2023: Action Speaks Summit – a two storey multi-sensory experience and exhibition space highlighting action from over 30 companies and organisations acting now to create a better tomorrow.

From Experience to Action

Our 15 years of work in the field has proven that when people can tangibly feel that positive futures are possible and plausible, they will enact them.

Upon arrival, visitors entered a room filled with a glowing orange light evocative of recent memories when New York was shrouded in the haze of wild fire spillover. A sonic experience captured the hum of the city mixed with the buzz of electronic smog and distant crackle of fires. The faint smell of wood smoke, burnt plastic and exhaust fumes hung in the air. A sobering text situated visitors in the midst of the climate crisis, detailing the stark reality of where we are now and where we are headed if we continue along our current trajectory. But, our collective futures don’t have to follow that course…

New York 2050

Crossing a critical threshold, visitors encountered an alternate future: Visualised in a 360 interactive projection, this speculative vision of New York in 2050 was built from Strategic Foresight, Horizon Scanning and Ethnographic Research \ Storytelling, Scenarios and Worldbuilding \ extrapolations from multiple scientific studies, policy documents and climate data.

“The city’s changed, and now tropical, climate has led to shifts in industry, agriculture, transportation and new ways of living – from alternative diets and healthcare, to the repurposing of previously privatized buildings for social use and play – have emerged. With a different climate come different sounds, smells, tastes: You can hear torrential downpours against glass walls, the howls and purrs of coyotes, june bugs and other droning insects, humming battery walls, the steady lap of waves. You can smell mushrooms in all their states, wet soil, hot soil, new fuels like ethanol and corn oil, mosses mingling with rust and verdigris. You can taste Haskap berries, sake from locally grown rice, papaya grown in tower farms and plantain…”

Acting now to create a better tomorrow

Following an immersive journey into a positive future, the exhibition space showcased just how we might get there: The Action Speaks Exhibition brought together over 30 companies, communities and organisations who are acting now to create a better tomorrow.

Spanning five sectors – the climate impacts of how we eat, move, make, grow and power – and covering everything from Fukuoka’s no-till farming to Seneca Solar’s renewable energy products developed by Native communities; SSAB AB’s fossil-free steel and AMP’s AI powered robotic waste sorting systems; we consulted on and curated the final selection, working closely with the businesses and communities to best demonstrate their actions.

Together with our partners, we conceived an exhibition design of floating islands in organic forms for each of the thematic groupings. Animated screens and hanging fabric screens in bold neon colours communicated key data from Project Drawdown’s Solution Library to inspire a tangible sense of action, innovation and hope.

The success of the summit has led to the creation of a permanent platform and Action Speaks Community where businesses are invited to share climate action ideas and initiatives, discover partnerships, visibility or investment opportunities to take greater action together.

Acknowledgements

Commissioned by Ingka Group (IKEA) for the New York Climate Week 2023.

Huge thanks to our commissioners and their partners, Time C02 and Project Drawdown.

Specifically we would like to thank our close collaborators Ludvig Liljekvist, Lorenz Isler, Ylva Doyle as well as Sofia Tärneberg, Pontus Lundgren, Stephanie Macmillan, Sarah Jane King, Todd Reubold, Simon Mulcahy, Shyla Raghav, and extend thanks to Ingka CEO Jesper Brodin and CSO Karen Pflug.

Concept, Creative Direction, Experience Design and Production by Superflux

Graphic Design and Exhibit Architecture by Isometric Studio

Fabrication by New Project

Graphics production by DMR Graphics

Audio visual by ATD

Lighting by 4wall

New York 2050 projection visual created by Cream Projects

Sound design by James Bulley Studio

Native Grasses by Interior Foliage Design

Scent by AromAtom

Scent diffusion by Scent Marketing Inc.

NYC 2050 text by Madeline Ashby

Summit Dialogues curated by Xynteo

All exhibition materials have been reused, repurposed and recycled as appropriate, with sustainable cloth and inks used throughout for projections and printed matter.