Author Talk: Ultrawild: an audacious plan to rewild every city on Earth

Compost firing cannons, habitat-printing robot birds, water-filtering sewer submarines, and flying bikes launched with waste heat from buildings. These are just some of the 100-plus, ludicrous sounding, but theoretically possible inventions that artist and industrial designer Steve Mushin proposes in Ultrawild. 

Part graphic novel, part inventor's sketchbook, Ultrawild is a hilarious and deadly serious manifesto for ultrawilding – the high-tech urban rewilding concept which Mushin argues Aotearoa leads the world in. Join us for a thought-provoking discussion about transforming cities to reverse climate change, and Steve's 7 year journey collaborating with scientists to create the ideas in Ultrawild.

Ultrawild by Stephen Mushin

About the author:
Steve Mushin is an industrial designer and inventor who collaborates with scientists to solve perplexing problems – like what can be done with explosive cow gas, or how to make bikes fly, or cities transform into jungles as fast as possible.

Steve is the author and illustrator of Ultrawild: An Audacious Plan to Rewild Every City on Earth. Ultrawild won Best Designed Children's Non-Fiction book at the 2024 Australian Book Design Awards, and is nominated for the 2024 Elsie Locke Award For Nonfiction.