Exhibition on geoengineering inspired by Utrecht University research

For centuries, designers, architects and engineers have dreamed of shaping the world to their liking. What if we could construct entire continents, tame hurricanes or even dim the sun? Such large-scale, deliberate interventions in nature are known as geoengineering. The exhibition Design for the Planet, partially inspired by the book Imagining Climate Engineering by Jeroen Oomen offers a groundbreaking exploration of the design and history behind this phenomenon.

The exhibition explores how designers, engineers, and scientists have sought to shape and control the world for decades. Among the highlights is Klaus Lackner's "mechanical tree," a towering machine capable of extracting 1000 times more carbon dioxide from the air than a living tree. Lackner envisions a future where such mechanical trees could absorb carbon dioxide across the globe. The exhibition also features colonial maps from the 17th and 18th centuries, which reveal the intricate and troubling origins of a concept that feels distinctly modern.

Art-science collaboration

Jeroen Oomen, an assistant professor at the Urban Futures Studio, part of Utrecht University’s Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, was an external consultant for the exhibition and his book Imagining Climate Engineering inspired the way the exhibition was designed. “I do my research as part of a larger discussion in society and to facilitate these kinds of cross-fertilisation. It really felt like exactly the kind of ‘impact’ I want to have,” he says.

“What I loved about the exhibition was that it felt like walking into my own mind about geoengineering: all the strands about the history, the types of knowledge, and the politics of these technologies were brought to life through artifacts. This is really the achievement of the curator, Tomas van den Heuvel”.