Visualisations of Food Futures

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BACKGROUND: 'Visualisations of Food Futures' are representations of exploratory research outcomes from a co-design workshop led by Judith Glover. The workshop is part of a large-scale, 4-year research project by the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab (across University of Melbourne, University of New South Wales and Swinburne University) to articulate visions, scenarios and pathways for a low carbon and resilient built environment in Australia. Out of the set of visualisations produced, 6 were published in the Visions 2040 report. CONTRIBUTION: The visualisations are a powerful way of enabling the public to glimpse solutions or scenarios for climate change, which is often a complex area of research. This type of research sits within Sustainable Design knowledge fields and methods. Glover's participation in this initial phase of exploratory research focuses on the city of Melbourne's climate change resilience and adaption set-up. As part of the communication strategy, she engaged illustrator Haeju Kwon for his particular style of drawing, to engage the public with a softer style of visualisation. SIGNIFICANCE: VEIL has a long record of envisaging future urban conditions and modelling changes to systems of provision that can contribute to decarbonisation and resilience.Based on her experience in Sustainable Design education and the use of visualisation tools to produce research outcomes, Glover was one of eight workshop leaders selected as leaders. The visualisations are central to the project's communication of adaptive solutions to the public in order to bring climate change issues for Melbourne out of academia and into the public domain. They are published in a comprehensive report and on the VEIL website: Ryan, C., Twomey, P., Gaziulusoy, A. I., & McGrail, S. (2015), 'Visions 2040 - Results from the first year of Visions and Pathways 2040: Glimpses of the future and critical uncertainties,' Melbourne, Australia.