Submerged

Project

269215

Status

Submitted

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NEW EUROPEAN BAUHAUS RISING STARS : concepts or ideas submitted by young talents (aged 30 or less)

Project title

Submerged

Full concept/idea title

Description

Submerged is an independent magazine born from the crucial need to address an increasingly present problem: climate change. In order to give a complete overview on the current climate situation, the magazine is approached from a double point of view, a scientific and artistic one. The aim is to provide a comprehensive overview of climate change issues, a hypothetical dystopian future in case the situation gets worse, and the solutions that mankind is implementing to avoid this scenario.  

Where is your concept/idea being developed or intended to be implemented in the EU?

Please provide a summary of your concept/ idea

Submerged is an independent magazine, which arises from the very crucial need to address a day-by-day more present problem: climate change. This is an editorial project that develops itself into three issues, each one facing a problem related to a specific natural element. Beginning with water, through plants and flora and finally desert. We want to explore what lies beyond the evidence, questioning and researching the mysterious and unknown that has already become a looming reality and will only worsen if a paradigm shift doesn’t happen. We will do so through the eye of science and art, addressing the environmental issue as never before. The storytelling of each issue develops through a collection of essays, articles, photo reportages, and opinions that analyse the topic, showing not-so-dystopian future scenarios, and gives an overview of current solutions implemented by humans, respectively in three sections. The projects shown will be bold, impressive, remarkable, and profound. They will offer an objective and highly pragmatic interpretation regarding the impending consequences of environmental issues, nonetheless keeping a provocative attitude. The reader is invited to draw his conclusions since none is going to be offered or imposed. Our ambition is to inspire our audience with daring solutions and an undaunted narrative, leveraging social responsibility and guiding the reader into an introspective and reflective path. The intent is to escape an overwhelming sense of fatalism and refuse a complacent attitude towards the current development of events. In a world where there are no longer choices made, but circumstances passively accepted, this is what we can do. This approach responds to the 2030 Agenda's goal of taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts, helping to improve education, awareness of climate change mitigation and adaptation, and promoting critical thinking about it.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of sustainability and how these would be met

In order to give an complete and original overview on the current climate situation, this one is approached in the Magazine from a double point of view. The first is scientific and provides data and studies with specific terms and an objective tone of voice, putting the reader in front of reality as it is. The second point of view is the artistic one, which through various installations and works of art, proposes a different perspective on the various issues, with a purpose-oriented towards awareness. This approach fulfils one of the objectives of the European Green Deal, which is to restore biodiversity and reduce pollution, the main causes of current climate change. In order to offer a wide and complete perspective on climate change, each issue is divided into three sections. Each section has a specific goal: to inform, to look ahead, and to make the reader aware. The first section aims to inform the reader about the current climate situation with a focus on the individual issue. The first issue focuses on the problem of sea level rise and therefore addresses the issue by analyzing its causes, consequences and giving a perspective on future consequences. The second section projects the reader into a future, a dystopian scenario that presents what life could be like if the conditions predicted by the scientists actually occurred. In the case of the first issue, the project of an underwater city is shown and then the various problems that man might have to face in this dystopian future are analyzed, both from a physical, psychological, and more social point of view. In this section too there are artistic projects more inherent to the speculative design. The third part is the concluding one and is a return to reality through the analysis of actions undertaken by society to improve the climate situation. The magazine, therefore, aims to make the reader more aware about the facts and make him reflect on them, proposing more conscious ideas for future actions.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience beyond functionality and how these would be met

Submerged is a printed magazine which presents itself in a large format, it’s 24x30cm. Submerged is a collection of three issues that stand for three natural elements, therefore the chromatic range of each issue is characterized by the element taken into consideration. The paper choose is the “Munken Lynx Rough, 120gsm” by Artic Paper and has been chosen for its ecological characteristics. This has been used for all the pages in the magazine, except for the designer call’s pages, which are printed on matte-coated paper. The cover of each issue shows an emblematic image about the element treated on the inside, while the name of the headline is treated with a particular chrome effect. The cover also shows the subtitle “A looming reality” and other information about the year and the issue. On the spine, which is left with the cover’s image, is reported the issue’s number, the name, and the ISSN code, while on the back are listed the names of the contributors. Inside, there are some stylistic choices that have been made according to the article’s subject. One of the most particular choices that have been made during the realization of this project is the use of two different types of fonts: a sans-serif, Sharp Grotesk 25 by SharpType, for the scientistic articles and a serif, SangBleu OG Serif by SuissTypefaces for the artistic ones. The first section is printed with a blank page background. Each article presents photos and infographic data visualizations that help the reader picture the situation or subject described in the article.  The second section is characterized by a deep blue background color. Here, most of the images aren’t realistic but just renders that represent a futuristic reality.  In the third section, there is a return to a more realistic situation, explaining what it has already been done or is in progress. That is why it has a structure similar to the first section, with a blank page background and imagery is used to a great extent.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of inclusion and how these would be been met

Submerged Magazine treats the environmental and climate change issue from a new perspective, providing the reader with a broad view of the problem. In fact, the magazine opens with a more general and impactful article on the specific topic of the issue, thus helping the reader to prepare for the following more specific and complex articles and sections. The approach to the topics is therefore gradual so that the reader can fully understand each article, even the most technical. In fact, the basics are provided, which will then help the reader to immerse himself in the atmosphere of the magazine that gradually intensifies. In the first section, a general explanation of the problem is given, so that the reader can get his own idea about the issue and can then continue reading more intentionally. With the second section, the reader is projected into a dystopian future, but at this point he already has the basis to make his own more conscious idea about this hypothetical future, finding interesting insights that may also lead him to action. The magazine then ends with the third section that brings the reader back to a more realistic and practical scenario, illustrating a set of actions that are already taking place. All the more technical and scientific contents are accompanied by specific data, reported in graphic form, to make them easier to understand and accessible to all, even to those who approach these issues for the first time. It is in fact very important to give everyone the opportunity to increase their knowledge in order to develop critical thinking about these very topics and extremely important issues.

Please explain the innovative character of your concept/ idea

The innovative character of Subgmerged Magazine lies in the way Ambientalism and climatic change are addressed and analyzed. One of the aims of this project was to propose a different approach to the topic, which has already been considered in several ways.  What is different in Submerged is the combination of science, art and the future. In the first section, what captures the attention of the reader is the dialog created between reliable and technical data, scientific essays about the real situation, and the power of artistic work or installation. The result is a dualistic and pressing rhythm, which is able to prepare the reader for the second section. In the latter, the tone changes; it becomes more dystopic and futuristic, showing what are the possibilities of a possible and looming submerged life. The range of projects shown is very wide, from underwater cities to 4D printed food, to physical and sociological problems. This variety helps to convey the uncertainty of the future, if anything will be done to solve the situation presented in the first section.  Then, there is a change of path and the third section wants to present a more practical and grounding approach, with projects that have already been done or are under construction. Here the themes proposed are a reflection of the problems faced in the first section, creating a parallelism between them.  The idea behind this concept and this specific structure of the content of the magazine was not to alarm, neither to reassure, but to raise questions, which don’t necessarily have an answer but generate a strange feeling, a mix between hope, uncertainty and worry.

Please detail the plans you have for the further development, promotion and/or implementation of your concept/idea, with a particular attention to the initiatives to be taken before May 2022

Submerged Magazine is a publishing project with three issues, the first being The water issue of 2021 (the project presented), which focuses on sea level rise. Being an annual magazine the other two issues will be in 2022 and 2023. These two issues will cover other issues related to environmentalism and climate change. The flora issue will be published in 2022 and will deal with rewilding and flora in general, which is trying to take back the space that has been taken away by man. The last issue will be The desert issue in 2023 and will deal with the theme of desertification and all its consequences for mankind. All and between the releases aim to raise awareness and make readers aware of the consequences of climate change.

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that the proposed concept/idea has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Rising Stars Awards more than once in the same category.