Do you know what’s going to happen tomorrow? How about in 10 years time? Or even 100 years? Do you know what kind of houses we’ll be living in, how we’ll travel to work or school, what kind of food we will eat, or what will the landscape will look like? The uncertainty of the future can be exciting for some and worrying for others, but what’s certain is that we all have a significant part to play in what lies ahead. So how do we encourage people engage people with their future now? This week at The first Norfolk + Norwich Sustainable Living Festival The Butterfly Effect installation invites visitors to find their own points of view on the future of the Norfolk Broads.

In collaboration with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research my sustainable design consultancy Elio Studio has created an enormous map of the Norfolk Broads as part of a project called CreativeData.

Each day of the festival we have been asking people to stick icon stickers on the ‘future map’ of the Norfolk Broads. We’re asking everyone to think about what the landscape will be used for in the future and what they can do to look after this ecologically sensitive environment that is vunerable to the potential effects of climate change. With each individual contribution the map changes and develops, becoming more that the sum of its parts over time.

It has been an amazing week so far, with participants of every age, from 1 to 80 years old. Everyone has found it challenging to imagine their future, but they have loved interacting with the map, sticking their stickers down and giving us their opinions. The kids workshops have been particularly rewarding, with local children thinking about what their lives will be like in Norfolk in 2050. ‘The Butterfly Effect’ has attracted lots of interest from local newspapers, BBC East and the good people of Norfolk. We’ve had about 4000 people a day walking across our ‘future map’ and there is still one day left to participate, so if you find yourselves near by do come and join us to add your contribution to the future.

The Butterfly Effect is the culmination of CreativeData, an innovative collaborative project between social and climate scientists from the Tyndall Centre at the University of East Anglia (www.cru.uea.ac.uk/projects/creativedata/index.htm) and sustainable design consultancy Elio Studio (www.eliostudio.com).

The Butterfly Effect at The Forum in Norwich 22-28 May.

Written by Leonora Oppenheim