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A World Without Us Revisited

Due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus, the streets of the world were empty for a long time and we experienced the vulnerability of humans in a globalized world. In recent months the pandemic has shown us the powerful workings of the natural world, thereby only proving the urgency for change and the importance of knowledge of our planet’s ecosystem and all the organisms living on it. 

In the exhibition A World Without Us, which was on show at IMPAKT in 2018, various artists reflected on the idea of ​​a world without people, caused by the destructive way in which we treat our environment. In the non-fiction book The World Without Us (2007), American journalist Alan Weisman describes what would happen to the planet if people suddenly disappear; which traces of human civilization would soon be lost, how cities and houses would perish, what materials and structures would survive the longest, and how different non-human organisms would develop after the disappearance of humanity. 

We asked the artists who took part in the exhibition in 2018 to rethink the exhibition theme, taking into account their current knowledge and their own experience of the world during this pandemic. This resulted in a new web project: A World Without Us Revisited. The artists in this project offer visions of the contemporary world and our own position in it and how nature and technology relate to each other in various ways. Scroll through A World Without Us Revisited and discover photos with simulated flying birds, video works, a VR app, an “underwater” soundwork and remote-controlled robots that you can control from home.

Projects in this programme

Taavi Suisalu
VIDEO: TOUCH OF THE NETWORK
Whilst the world locked down, we discovered a world without others. Virtual meetings and experiences became the norm as networks...
Alex May
Algorithmic Photography
In the deepest part of the lockdown, when the vast majority of people were staying at home, the skies cleared from plane trails and...
Daniel Rourke
A reflection on A World Without Us from a post-corona perspective
“The Plasticine is an action being carried out on itself; a wave molding the very substrate that carries it, as it crashes against its...
IC-98
application: house of khronos
House of Khronos tries to visualize a world without us, a world without humans and where there are no chains on the will of nature. They...
Ruben Baart
Text reflecting on A World Without Us
A World Without Us implies an ‘us’ and a ‘them’. A doomsday plot line about what would happen to the natural and built...
Katrin Hochschuh & Adam Donovan
Empathy Swarm Remote Memory Robots
Welcome to Empathy Swarm Remote Memory – a vessel for your memory in a possible 'World without us'. Empathy Swarm is a swarm of 50...
Maarten Vanden Eynde
TEXT ON THE GREAT DECLINE
We find ourselves in a reality where increased awareness of interconnectedness is gaining momentum. Whether we talk about global...
Morehshin Allahyari
VIDEO EXCERPT: KABOUS, The Right Witness and The Left Witness, 2019
"I’m talking about healing our ancestors to alter our daughters, altering this idea of birthing and what birthing can be. I’m...
Robertina Šebjanič
Sound work: Talks with Grey Heron
Over and underwater sound sketches of the Ljubljanica river. Recorded between 15 March - 30 April 2020. Location between 46°02'44.7"N...
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