Sunk Costs: Unsecurities Lab, 2026
An interactive decision theatre navigating ecological and economic interdependencies
Developed in collaboration with Célestin Meunier, Jamie Allen, Matt Lutz, Nathan Jones

Staged within Lancaster University's Data Immersion Suite, SUNK COSTS operated as an immersive workshop, situation room, and decision theatre.

The project used the 2022 EV-vehicle fire and sinking of the cargo ship MV Felicity Ace as a starting point to explore the increasingly untenable practices of global capitalism. Through ongoing narrative reconstitutions, media works, and structured perspective shifts, the event functioned as both a critical investigation and a memorialization of the incident. The core objective was to examine what happens when the crew, the ocean, and the market are evaluated together as a single, interconnected system.

Developed as part of the Unsecurities Lab format created by Dr. Nathan Jones, the workshop facilitated high-level, real-time collaboration. It brought together a multidisciplinary community of marine ecologists, maritime transport specialists, sustainability experts, artists, activists, and policy professionals to map out these complex global dynamics.

Location: Data Immersion Suite (DIS), Lancaster University, UK
Hosts & Partners: University Lancaster, Unsecurities Lab and the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business
Unsecurities Lab Format Developer: Dr. Nathan Jones
Media & Workshop Design: Matthew Lutz, Jamie Allen, Chris Woebken
3D & Worldbuilding: Célestin Meunier
Technical Support: David McBride
Key Contributors: Charlie Gere, Jan Bebbington, Basil Germond

CHRIS WOEBKEN STUDIO

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