Look Down
“Look down” is an invitation to travel for interconnected knowledge that earth is filled with. Mainly, to learn about the nutritious interactions between trees, mushrooms, and other plant forms. In 2035, we see Tallinn parks as interconnected hubs for people to take time and submerge themselves into relationships with different entities that live with us.
HUMAN [in latin “humus” - earth, ground].
How would tourism look like in 2035? Was our departure question. Thinking in futures, just like touristic experience itself, comes with a certain dualistic expectation for familiarity and novelty – something that would shift our habitual ways of being in the world, and yet be familiar enough to make sense, to feel comfortable.
Our expedition to futures of tourism was guided by diverse trends that forecast higher volume of in-country travels due to increased energy prices and unexpected global phenomena; sustainable travel preferences by travelers and service providers; and our client's wish for future traveling experiences to offer value over money. All the previous was laden with the need to go beyond the idea of flashy, fast touristic experiences that often leave behind traces of carelessness. Instead, what if in the future, we travel to understand? To make kin with forms of life that serve us quietly and often invisibly? What if we choose to travel within? What if we travel to learn about the buzzing life that lives under our feet?
The ancient Estonian tribes believed in animism. Before the beginning of the 20th century, Estonians believed that forests, trees, rocks and all other elements from nature had their own spirit, and they practiced certain rituals in the attempt to understand them. Almost a century later, after years of being under multiple regimes of power that tried to eradicate their identity, Estonia became the benchmark for technological innovation in Europe. They did so without forgetting their origins and core beliefs that cherish their relationship with nature. In the near future, we see Tallinn as the epicenter of interspecies interactions enhanced by new technologies. Which allows humans to understand other entities that belong in this Earth by shifting our focus towards the ground instead of the sky.
