When did inspiration strike you for your last project? We like to think of ideas coming from one big burst of an “aha” moment, but it was probably a bunch of little threads finally weaving together into one cohesive vision, right? As a story incubator, we’re really interested in how to cultivate an environment that helps nurture those moments of inspiration that will eventually build up to our next great idea. But, unlike something like a writers room, we start from a place of research about a broad topic — climate change, justice, medical equity — and the key is to bridge the gap between the research process and the creative process.

What’s been really exciting about the last year or so is that while we’re working on that transformation on a large scale, we’ll hear about our process playing out in other people’s work after we’ve crossed paths. For each project we undertake, we invite a group with diverse expertise and lived experiences to listening sessions that help shape our understanding of an issue at hand and inform our creative direction. They’re often creatives themselves, and we love hearing when participating in our projects inspires their own ideas.

Take the artist Sarah Filley, for example. As a regenerative futurist, we thought her deep understanding of how climate change affects the design of urban spaces would be an excellent perspective to have while thinking about stories we could tell during our Climate Visibility Project last year. A few months after the project concluded, Sarah shared that her experience led to the creation of the Anthropocene Mixtape, a series of immersive soundscapes that seeks to reconstruct lost ecological abundance. The Owl Edition launched at ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan and reimagined what a moonlit stroll along the waterfront would sound like if the owl population hadn’t declined by 90% since 1970.

“I was particularly inspired when we were asked what climate change looked like, sounded like, smelled like, tasted like,” said Sarah. “I imagined what a landscape would be through sound, as a more visceral representation of this data about loss that’s hard to emotionally connect with.” Conversations about inspiring hope rather than dwelling on doom led to contending with that loss by recreating the possibilities of abundance, allowing people to experience what could be achieved again. “My work in climate futures is all about the relationship between grief and optimism. Being a part of this community really helped me think creatively about my role and how I could participate not just as a researcher but as an artist.” What a way to see our approach to our work in action!

Learn more about the Anthropocene Mixtape (including hearing some audio) here.