Nominees Threshold Award Social Practices
Meet Maya Bloem and Jackie Stam! Maya and Jackie are nominated for the 2021 Threshold Award Social Practices with their graduation project ‘New Roots’. In this interview, the duo tells us about their work and future plans.
Can you tell us a bit about your graduation project and how it came about?
Maya: New Roots is a story-driven pixel game about rewilding set in a future version of the Netherlands, where average global temperatures have just started to drop. In this game you play as Stick, a non-binary capybara, as they try to bring back native plants that have died out due to global warming. You can explore the town of Piertje, located on the new Eastern-Dutch coastline, and help improve the lives of its quirky residents as well as repopulating plants from the past that now have the opportunity to thrive again. At the Graduation Show we will be exhibiting a demo version of New Roots, which we are planning to release for free on Steam and itch.io.
Jackie: We started thinking about New Roots in December last year. It all started when I found an online movement called ‘solarpunk’. Its philosophy is that the planet and its inhabitants should be protected by using technology as a means. The unique thing about this climate philosophy is the focus on optimism and fixing things. According to solarpunk, there is nothing in the world that can not be improved, as long as people are willing to work together.
Maya: Of course, a lot of major things happened around climate change the past couple of years. That made us quite sad and depressed. When you talk to young people about climate change, more often than not it has quite a depressing tone. The general attitude is that we are past the tipping point anyway, so things will only get worse from here. So when we found out about the existence of solarpunk, it gave us back some hope that things would be able to improve and that people were motivated to change things for the better.
Which themes or societal concerns are you addressing in your work, and how?
Maya: As we mentioned, our game addresses climate change and the loss of biodiversity. The game is set in a futuristic version of the Netherlands where pretty much most of the country is submerged after extreme weather and severe flooding, which is something that is already starting to happen—just look at the severe flooding that took place in Limburg, Belgium and Germany in July this year.
Jackie: The plants that you need to bring back in our game are real plants that are going extinct in the Netherlands as a consequence of climate change. So with the game, we are also creating awareness of nature in the Netherlands that needs our attention right now.
Also, we think it is very important not to shy away from the harsh reality of climate change. We do not want to contribute to misinformation that is already happening on such a large scale. So we made it our priority to keep things as logical and science-based as possible.
Maya: That being said, we still needed to find the optimistic angle on the topic. For example, the opening scene of our game is set at a party called the Hittetop Festival, a Dutch word we made up meaning ‘heat summit’. The occasion for the party is that united societies around the world have managed to stop the global average temperature from rising and it is now starting to fall. So you start the game on a climate positive note, although it does acknowledge how serious things got.
What will you be working on in the near future? What are your next steps?
Jackie: At the moment, our plan is to keep working on the project. We both really enjoy working on it. But we also recently graduated and we need to find a place to live, which means we need a job. Those are priorities for now. But after that, I feel like we can continue working on it, maybe even pitch it around for funding.
To read more about Maya and Jackie’s work, pay a visit to their Graduation Catalogue Pages (New Roots page) or the New Roots Twitter or Tiktok. More information on their work can be found on Maya’s Twitter and Jackie’s Twitter. The winners of the Threshold Award Social Practices will be announced during a festive ceremony as part of the Graduation Show. Keep an eye on our Graduation Show page for more information.
