OcéanoFuturismos: Speculative fiction for ocean governance

How can we imagine fairer ocean futures if we don’t have the stories to inspire them?

On the eve of Mondiacult Barcelona 2025, the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM–CSIC) and TBA21–Academy present OcéanoFuturismos, a working session bringing together international experts and practitioners to explore the potential of speculative fiction as a critical tool to rethink the future of our oceans.

Starting with the screening of three short films created by the art collective Inferstudio, the event proposes a journey through possible futures; not as predictions, but as strategic provocations from which to reimagine ocean governance. Beyond dystopian or utopian visions, these narratives tackle themes such as transnational sovereignty, activism against deep-sea extractivism, and biocultural conservation, through a lens that weaves together science, politics, art, and storytelling.

Current frameworks for ocean governance are not up to the challenges of the Anthropocene. Scientific, legal, and policy tools alone fall short: we need citizen participation, narratives that inspire, and a long-term vision capable of imagining common futures for the ocean. Without shared imaginaries, collective action becomes fragmented, reactive, and reduced to technical fixes.

Today, discourse about the ocean remains trapped in extractive metaphors (“resources”), crisis framings (“climate emergency”), or technocratic language disconnected from lived experience. These approaches fail to mobilize hearts and communities. We must change the way we speak and think about the ocean—through culture, emotion, and politics—in order to open pathways toward real collective transformation.

PROTOTYPING OCEAN FUTURES THROUGH SPECULATIVE THINKING

Part I · Screening of Scenarios
Three filmed stories—MANA, HAVSRÅ, and MATSYA—open the event with visually provocative, scientifically grounded, and poetically suggestive proposals. Each imagines a future scenario around marine life, ecological justice, and the technological dilemmas of our present.

Part II · Backcasting Workshop
Building on these scenarios, participants will work in groups to develop political, social, and technological responses that outline desirable trajectories (or prevent undesirable ones). Using a backcasting methodology, the workshop turns narrative speculation into a tool for future design.

Part III · Collective Debrief & Networking
The proposals developed will be shared in a plenary session, followed by an informal exchange between participants and representatives of scientific, cultural, and policy institutions.

FICTIONS THAT SHAPE POLICY: A STEP TOWARD MONDIACULT 2025

OcéanoFuturismos is an invitation-only event addressed to a transdisciplinary community of scientists, artists, activists, and policymakers. Its outcomes will contribute to the cultural program of TBA21 and ICM for UNESCO’s international summit Mondiacult 2025.

Organized by TBA21–Academy × Institut de Ciències del Mar (CSIC)

In collaboration with: Radical Ocean Futures