The prognosis does not look good.Paola Antonelli will tell you, with a provocative lack of sentimentality, that climate change, collapsing ecosystems, and other effects of human activity on the environment will eventually, inevitably, render the Earth uninhabitable—for people, at least. And at this year’s Triennale di Milano, Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design and director of research and development at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, organized an exhibition that emerges from a humble, clear-eyed acceptance that humans have irreversibly authored our own extinction.

If that makes you want to give up and pull down your solar panels—because, sheesh, what’s the point?—Antonelli hints that her exploration of extinction actually has a note of optimism. Titled Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival, and on view through September 1, the show, curated by Antonelli, Ala Tannir, Laura Maeran, and Erica Petrillo, comprises some 120 works that represent three decades of designers and artists reckoning with humanity’s complicated and varied relationship with nature. We spoke with Antonelli about how, even in the face of irrevocable change, design can create a healthier, more equitable— and longer—future for humans.

This show has such a depressing title. Have we really “broken” nature?

It’s quite clear that one of the most urgent problems facing us today is our attitude toward nature. You start by saying, “Oh, nature and man.” And then you start thinking, wait a second, humans are part of nature. Then you start thinking, nature is not only trees and plants and oceans and animals. It’s also politics, because what we do to the environment starts a chain reaction that leads to social injustice, disparity, poverty, climate refugees.“Broken” can be, well, it’s negative in most cases, but in some cultures, it’s actually positive, and what is broken leads to something new—almost like a rebirth. But the idea is that we are linked to other aspects of nature by many threads. And some of these threads have been broken, have been severed. Especially in the past century and a half.

Can you give us an example?

Well, there is the importance of the intraspecies. The idea is that there are other species in the world and that we are sharing the Earth with them. So, there’s a beautiful, beautiful object in the exhibition that came from an initiative called “Little Inventors,” which was started by the British designer Dominic Wilcox. It’s a little umbrella for a ladybug. It’s the work of a young girl—I think she was five when she designed it. It’s made in blown glass and it’s fantastic. Just as simple as that. Ladybug umbrella. Of course.Then there is this amazing photographer, Laura Aguilar, from Los Angeles, who unfortunately has passed away. She took self-portraits in front of large rocks, saying that she identified with boulders. And truly, you can see the human body and the boulder really mimicking each other. It’s amazing.

“We want people to understand that we live in complex systems and that complexity is our friend, not our enemy. We cannot completely master it, but that doesn’t really matter.” Paola Antonelli, Curator

What do you want us to take away from all this?

We have three main goals. The first is: We want people to get the sense of long-term. That’s very important to us, and there are parts of the exhibition that really inspire that. Second goal: We want people to understand that we live in complex systems and that complexity is our friend, not our enemy. We cannot completely master it, but that doesn’t really matter. At least knowing that the complexity is there is important if we’re going to act differently. And the third goal is that we want everyone who comes to the exhibition to leave with an idea of what they can do in their everyday lives to have a more restorative attitude—whether they get inspired by the biodegradable pregnancy test or the Capsula Mundi, a green burial system in which the body gets put in this big egg and then planted in the ground with a tree on top. We want people to leave having changed their attitude inside.

So we’re not doomed?

I do believe we will become extinct. But I believe that we can make our extinction count. We can design a better ending so that the next species will remember us and maybe incorporate some of our best traits in the way they will live in the world.

I’m not Pollyannaish. I think we have done a lot of damage. And even though death is a natural part of life, maybe we have hastened our ending with our behavior. But we can still make it better. You know what I’m saying? Anybody who thinks we should live forever is completely delusional.

Then extinction doesn’t keep you up at night?

No, not at all. I sleep like a baby

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Q&A: Curator Paola Antonelli Takes a Surprisingly Optimistic Look at Human Extinction