“Our belief in what the future holds is literally what is created” my good friend Lucian Tarnowski, the founding curator of the fantastically inventive United Planet (UP) Game series, told me when I asked if it is #ACopHalfFull for him here at COP27.
Lucian insists people “should not be conquered by dystopia” and should move towards the future with a positive mindset; and that as we continue to “reimagine every aspect of our world” together, it is in our gift to pen a “new story for our collective thriving”.
I caught up with Lucian outside Hub Culture at COP27, where the closing ceremony will be held next week of what sounds like the standout creative event at COP27. Before then though, the Sinai Desert will be the first location for those taking part in the Ancient Future UP Game.
“I am here as a partner of Hub Culture but also as the co-host of the Ancient Future UP Game that we’re doing, which I am very excited to share,” he says. “We’re bringing climate leaders, visionaries, changemakers, investors, philanthropists, thought leaders for the future, together on a journey of a lifetime.”
Stepping outside of time
It is a journey where the limits and pressures of time are removed.
“We are spending six days outside of time together in an immersive game experience where everything we have envisioned for the world has happened, where we have achieved a planetary civilisation and a society that is in harmony with all life,” Lucian says. “A society based on living within planetary boundaries and in harmony with the natural world.”
The Ancient Future UP Game begins this Sunday, 13 November, on ‘Time Day’.
“We are gathering these leaders, beginning with Time Day, which is where every UP game starts. And we are going to a desert oasis in the Sinai Desert to spend the night under the stars, stepping outside of time in order to gain a new perspective on how we design from the place where we have already done it, where we have achieved the future we wish to see. And from that place we then reverse engineer the strategy, starting with the story of how we got there.”
The adventure continues on to the Blue Hole in the Red Sea.
Lucian adds: “We’re going on this journey that takes us from the Sinai Desert to the Blue Hole in the Red Sea, for Water Day, which is all about community and belonging and then we are coming back into Sharm and doing the closing event at Hub Culture.”
And next Tuesday, on Fire Day, things will really heat up when the game heads to the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
“We’re flying to Cairo, we have rented the Great Pyramid of Giza and we’re doing a fire ceremony, a time ceremony, inside the Kings Chamber of the great pyramid,” Lucian says.
Sound exciting? Read more about the Ancient Future Up Game.
And remember to follow #ACopHalfFull on twitter and share your vision and ideas for a better future.
