THEATRE OF THE GREAT ELECTRIC BOAT

by Amber Collinson

This project sets out to provide a site for Cosmists and non-Cosmists to prepare themselves for the next Great Flood - should it ever come! While the non-Cosmists come to the site as visitors, to look at what is going on, the Cosmists are preoccupied with designing a vessel that will allow their work to survive the deluge. The Cosmists are based in the laboratory building I designed for my semester one project. There they are tasked with closely surveying rises in sea level, especially those linked to climate change. The Cosmists have already found out that if global temperatures were to increase by circa 3.2 degrees centigrade, the seas could rise by as much as 10 meters! Based on this somewhat alarming information, the Cosmists have created a theatrical spectacle that simulates what would happen in the case of a Great Flood, wherein Planet Earth would be entirely immersed in water, effectively a one ocean globe! Non-Cosmists (the public) can see the spectacle from places all over London, but they can also pay to come and view the spectacle close up and to engage with it more intimately (which also helps fund the Cosmists' work). The Cosmists take pride in the Visitor Experience, they curate it very carefully, not only because they want to show-off their work but also because they believe it will have a cathartic effect on everyone, relieving the anxieties we all have about forces beyond our control.