A New World

When the old world started dying, many looked to the stars for salvation. Others looked beneath the water, exploring the oceans as somewhere humanity might one day survive. They found a new type of jellyfish. Beautiful, but of no use to them, they thought. But over time, they realised this was not actually the case. Once the creatures became comfortable in the presence of the humans, they started to draw closer, eventually attaching themselves by their tentacles and causing a feeling of gentle euphoria in the host. They were feeding off human energy. But in return, in that moment, the host could breathe underwater. A perfect symbiotic relationship. Survival was no longer about conquering an environment, but becoming part of an existing one. The relationship evolved into one of respectful permanence.

Eventually, humans stopped returning to the surface. As the world continued to die, the ocean became their home. And the treasures they once valued so highly sank quietly into the past.

At its heart, A New World considers our relationship with the world we inhabit, and what we risk by treating it as something that can be relentlessly manipulated to our own ends. It considers what might become possible if, instead, we learn to compromise and give more consideration to what our environment needs in order to sustain us.