Rehabilitation Futures Worldbuilding Platform is a participatory speculation platform to help us imagine a more inclusive and sustainable lived experience in a complex world that contains people of diverse needs and abilities. The web platform features expert interviews and public art and stories. Our history begins in the year 2028. The asteroid scientists have been warning us about for centuries makes impact creating a new epidemic. The asteroid carried mysterious energy and pathogens that affect every life form. The world adjusts to widespread injuries in people, nature, and infrastructure. Cities near the crash moved quickly toward a more Utopian society and universal design. Cities farther from the crash believed that the pathogenic health issues did not apply to them, so they were slow to integrate infrastructural and societal changes. Visitors can contribute letters and art from this future to our present so we can prepare for what is coming.
Marientina Gotsis is a Professor of Cinematic Practice at the University of Southern California and Director of the Creative Media & Behavioral Health Center. She is an artist, designer, and technologist working at the intersection of interactive entertainment, neuroscience, and medicine.
Laura Cechanowicz is an Assistant Professor at Arizona State University in the MIX Mesa City Center. Laura is a designer, worldbuilder, and artist using critical worldbuilding to collaboratively build spatialized content focused on embodiment, identity, health, and technology.
Lizzy Hogenson is a stop motion animator and doctoral student. Her work emphasizes recycled materials, tactility, and imperfections while exploring health, body autonomy, and gender themes.
Julie Lutz is an artist and recent graduate of the University of Southern California’s doctoral occupational therapy program. She studied the impact of Virtual Reality within healthcare and currently serves the senior population in the greater Los Angeles area.
