Operation Habbakuk
Colin Lyons
Official Selection
𖤘 Short: Critical, Experimental, Speculative
Following Mammoth, Operation Habbakuk continues the discourse on techno-fixes, this time as an invitation to imagine. The film revisits a peculiar episode of WWII military history – the proposal to build an unsinkable aircraft carrier from pykrete, a mixture of ice and sawdust. From this curious point of departure, Colin Lyons connects to more recent geoengineering ideas aimed at preserving polar ice, exposing both the absurdity and allure of such schemes.
The work is not a prescription but a provocation. To face the climate crisis, we must innovate and think beyond the obvious, yet also ask whether technological fixes can truly deliver the futures they promise. Lyons’s tongue-in-cheek approach balances satire with urgency, reminding us that creative speculation – even when improbable – can spark vital debate about which radical solutions merit exploration, and how they must remain accountable to ecosystems and communities alike.
Lyons’ site-based installations have been located in sacrificial landscapes such as mine tailings, decommissioned landfills, historic flood infrastructure, urban brownfields, and remote islands, where he develops speculative contingency plans for the post-extraction landscapes we leave behind.
Production: Colin Lyons
Narration: Maria Pick
Courtesy of the artist