Can we change the way we imagine and relate to the risks of our common world, such as plastic pollution, nuclear threats, climate change or economic crisis? With this question at heart, this thesis discusses our interaction with the mediated, and often distant, global complexities and risks.

Following the perspective of the spectator and consumer, this study weaves together literature with stories from culture, media, design and entertainment. It examines the relationship of the personal to the global by outlining five critical looking lenses focused on distance, emission, contact, disruption and invisibility.

The resulting project articulates speculative design strategies for reconfiguring our relation to two select global risks; the nuclear contamination threat and plastic pollution. What if these scenarios were real, what if we felt these values, how would the world be different? By questioning the rational, these narratives aim to trigger the imagination of alternative possibilities, and requestion our current global dilemmas.