TOWARDS STANDARDIZED CATASTROPHIES
FABIAN PITZER
The ISO 7010 hazard symbols are standardized warning signs intended to be universally readable. Folded into a platonic solid, their form resembles a globe, congruent to Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion projection. Rather than ensuring safety, the symbols spread over its surface like natural disasters, mirroring the surge of real-world crises including nuclear disasters, floods and wildfires.
The icosahedron, known as the D20 die in worlds of play, is symbolic of chance. Despite being the result of a highly chaotic system, it has been known for decades that climate change and its dire consequences were imminent and anthropogenic. Rolling the die results in a whirring visual overload until it resolves into an abstracted calamity. The result is accepted apathetically, like bad luck on a throw determining a hazard’s gravity in a role playing adventure. Humanity treats climate change like a push-your-luck game, gambling with catastrophe in pursuit of progress.
Fabian Pitzer programs design through graphic play in the digital.