Our Broken Planet

Our Broken Planet: How We Got Here and Ways to Fix It

What was the challenge?

Museums are a critical player on the journey to global climate consciousness. They hold the key to wider public knowledge and debate. The way we feed ourselves, build our homes and cities and generate energy is impacting life on earth in a way that is not sustainable, and we need urgent global action in order to protect future generations and the biodiversity around us that is under threat from the age of Anthropocene.

Home to over 80 million artefacts and covering over 4.5 billion years of natural history, the Natural History Museum decided it was time to kickstart a public debate about how and why our relationship with the natural world needs to change. The museum asked us to collaborate with them in creating an experience that would invite a young adult audience to consider their role in the changing world and inspire them to make active, positive choices to improve and be critical of their relationship with the planet.

Amanda Gore and Lottie Dodwell discuss the impact of Our Broken Planet at the Green Museums Summit 2022

What did we do?

We conceived and developed a series of interventions to playfully disrupt the traditional pathways through the gallery, building a richer sense of narrative and connection for an audience that the museum has not typically catered for.

Our Broken Planet comprised three separate areas, each representing a different system that contributes to the climate crisis – the food we eat, the products we use and the energy we consume. Working alongside the curatorial and design teams we inserted tangible objects throughout each area that questioned and interrogated the artefacts on display and linked them to our daily habits and routines. From a fictional burger wrapper discarded beside the skull of an auroch – provoking questions on meat production – to an interactive recipe builder for visitors to design their perfect menu from the future, our approach was to add touchpoints that provided an everyday lens to the specimens preserved in the museum’s vast collection.

We utilised space in surprising ways, from a post-it note hidden inside a specimen case to provocations filling screens in-between films. Questions such as How we can nourish ourselves in the future whilst still respecting the planet? were used to confront visitors with a call to action. By creating an open and contemporary twist on the Natural History Museum’s traditional approach, Our Broken Planet helped visitors to understand the value of the museum’s research in the global move towards a sustainable future, and inspired them to recognise that they have a stake in the climate conversation.

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What was the impact?

Our Broken Planet welcomed over 750,000 visitors, including key climate activists such as Greta Thunberg. People were able to further engage with the Our Broken Planet activities when it had a presence at COP26 in Glasgow, and there are currently plans in place to roll out localised versions of Our Broken Planet across the UK.

Brad Irwin, Head of Global Engagement at Natural History Museum, said of the exhibition: "Our Broken Planet has been an opportunity for our audiences to hear directly from scientists on the state of the planet as well as creative and surprising solutions pioneered around the world."

The Our Broken Planet exhibition was a finalist in the Inspire Category of the 2022 UN SDG Action Awards, and was credited with “flipping the script and demonstrating impact on shifting behaviour for the SDGs – in this case, particularly on Goals 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and 13 (Climate Action)”.

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COLLABORATORS

Photography: Albert Penn