Benal Johnson

Experience designer and maker

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About 

Resume

Public Work

Netherlands Pavilion @Expo Osaka 2025
Dinner in 2050 @COP28
Poetic Technologies
Capital One Commercial Card*

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Experiments
Sketchbook
Cultivate*









Dinner in 2050 @ COP28


A radical rethink of how our food systems will change in the future through an immersive and AI-powered experience for the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference.
The House of Sustainability at COP28
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
30 Nov 2023 - 12 Dec 2023


Introduction

“Dinner in 2050 is an AI-assisted visual game that makes climate action real on a plate. Tellart has conceptualised, designed and produced an immersive installation that provokes fresh views of the food we eat, and how this contributes to food security and sustainable living in an intimate, playful setting.

Lamb is swapped for grasshoppers, broccoli for algae, and beef for lab-grown meat. Standing around a table made of sustainable palm wood, guests speak their favorite meal into a microphone. Tellart’s custom AI model identifies the top ingredients in their meal, selects which ingredients have the highest carbon footprint, chooses sustainable alternatives (based on U.N. data), then generates a future version of this dish with an informative description. Guests learn how their meal can impact water and energy use, carbon emissions and biodiversity, and improve their nutrition.”
Description via Tellart




This project began as an experiment in using AI and live prompting to create a personalised, imaginative, and never-before-seen vision of the future of food to life. Using technology, nature, storytelling, and deep research into climate resilient food items, we created a hopeful and realistic vision for the future at COP28.

Several key design challenges emerged while designing this guest experience: the unpredictability of AI, creating a custom AI model that would identify key food items and swap them, and creating an interface between guest and the AI. 

Through many rounds of prototyping, refining loras for our AI model, and stress testing the guest experience, we created an experience that visualises guests favourite foods in 2050.


Courtesy of Diana Kartasheva

Courtesy of Diana Kartasheva
Credits

Client
Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation for COP28

Collaborators
Tellart (NL) – Experience design
Tellart Productions (NL) – Media production
Resonate (SA) – Sound design
Sisi (NL) – Lighting design
Matthew Herbert (UK) – Musical composition & soundscapes
Loom Atelier (NL) – Spatial design
Michael Garnett (UK) – Vessel architect
OKA ceramics (UAE) – Ceramics
House of Artisans (UAE) – Khous mats