These beautiful, haunting photos show how we might eat in the future.
Imagine you've been invited to a dinner party in the near future.
The place is a small home along the New England coastline. Not too many years have passed since today, but the world is noticeably different. The Earth is warmer. Sea levels have risen. Ecosystems have changed and society — and the way society feeds itself — has changed with them.
"Flooded" is a project by artist Allie Wist, with photographer Heami Lee, food stylist C.C. Buckley, and prop stylist Rebecca Bartoshesy. As part of the collection, the team combined predictions, scientific research, and art to create a near-future dinner.
This hypothetical dinner party might start with an appetizer: oysters with slippers.
All photos from Allie Wist, Heami Lee, C.C. Buckley, and Rebecca Bartoshesky.
The hosts might dip into the kitchen for soup — mollusks in a broth with mustard greens — and a seaweed and sea kale caesar salad.
Mollusks, which are a relatively easy and sustainable form of protein, might make up a much greater portion of our diet.
Then comes the main course:
Burdock and dandelion root hummus with sunchoke chips...
...hen of the woods mushrooms...
...and jellyfish salad, dressed with mustard, chili, and pickled cucumbers.
It might be uncommon in the current American diet, but jellyfish, cut thin, tastes and feels a bit like noodles.
Throughout, there'd be wine — though not from the vineyards you're familiar with now — and desalinated water.
Two bowls, a stone, and plastic wrap placed in the sun is a simple way to desalinate ocean water.
As the world has become warmer, vineyards will either move north or grow different varietals.
Dessert would be a simple carob agar-agar pudding.
Agar-agar is a gelatin made from algae.
While the futuristic images of "Flooded" might seem dreamlike, there's a serious undertone to this project.
None of these dishes is preposterous. Jellyfish and seaweed are common ingredients in Asian cuisine, for instance, and while they may be a departure from our current mainstays, this is what adaptation could look like.
Red meat and large fish might be rare. Environmentally sensitive crops, like chocolate, might be replaced with hardier fare like carob. A focus on sustainable or restorative agriculture would see more clams, oysters, and seaweed on our tables.
And while certain changes to our diet would be out of our control, that doesn't mean "Flooded" is meant to be gloomy.
“It’s also about our ability to adapt and be creative," says Wist. It's an opportunity to imagine enthusiastic, proactive, and purposeful changes as well.
“Eating seaweed isn’t as terrible as someone might think," says Wist.
The story of how we eat is, in a large way, the story of who we are.
"Eating engages all of our senses, not to mention our memories, our culture, and our identity," says Wist. "We all eat every day, and the fact that it's a part of our daily lives makes us relate to it in a more personal way."
The futuristic dinner party in "Flooded" is only one piece of a larger project, which also includes location photography, writing, and recipes. More information and photos can be found on Allie Wist, Heami Lee, C. C. Buckley, and Rebecca Bartoshesky's websites.
A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via 
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
Gif of baby being baptized
Woman gives toddler a bath Canva
An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
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Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.