Commission
In June 2011, in partnership with the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), two hundred Sciences Po students participated in a simulation of the Copenhagen Climate Summit, which had of course ended in failure. The objective was to explore new ways of presenting the issues and organizing negotiations, in order to determine whether a different outcome might have been possible. A group of SPEAP students was specifically charged with thinking about an alternative mode of representing the issue.
Project
The team produced a film/performance at the opening of the simulation, after conducting a study of the various representations in use during the Summit. The film is largely based on interviews — with climatologists, professional negociators, computer scientists, the Summit opening film director, the logo designer, etc. —, on drafts spontaneously outlined by the interlocutors, and on a collection of images exploring the relationship between man and the globe.
During the simulation, the team also put in place a special system to follow the negotiators/students with cameras, microphones and roadmaps, mapping their trajectories during the negotiations and their interactions with other delegates. This documentation was used to stage a presentation of the event during the closing ceremony.
Today the project is going on: a film and an exhibition are under preparation, and the group is invited in several symposiums about negociations techniques.