Futuro 50|50
A speculative design project, reflecting on the past and future of technology and society.
Context
In 1968, the Finnish architect and designer, Matti Suuronen designed the Futuro House, as a symbol of innovation and freedom through technology. On the occasion of its 50-year anniversary, the students of industrial design and architecture at TUM set up an installation at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, one of the biggest modern art museums in the world — and the site of one of the remaining Futuro Houses.
Looking back 50 years inspired us to turn around and look 50 years ahead and imagine what life will be like in 2068.
Theme
Seven teams worked on the different aspects of life. We worked collectively on the topics of the Environment, Climate Change, Mobility, Education, Society, Health and Work. My main focus (along with my team) would be on Work and the workplace of the future.
How would a typical workday look like? What industries would persist? What new fields of work would technology bring into existence? And how we as a society deal with the consequences? These were the questions we wanted the museum visitors to ask themselves. The goal wasn’t to give them right answers — it was rather to understand and reflect on “possible futures”.
As Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby say in their book, Speculative Everything:
“What we are interested in, though, is the idea of possible futures and using them as tools to better understand the present and to discuss the kind of future people want, and, of course, ones people do not want.”
Story
An abstract concept like the one we chose easily becomes confusing and intimidating. We needed a story that would serve as the guide for discussion. After several creative brainstorming sessions, we ended up asking ourselves what the future of crime looked like and how the investigators of these crimes would work. We wanted to explore how technology would improve crime prevention and crime detection, but also where it might be lacking.
After narrowing the theme to “the future of criminal investigation”, we set about trying to communicate this idea. Being heavily inspired by science fiction books and movies, we made a “movie trailer” for the concept.
We only wanted to hint at the “plot” at this stage, without giving too much away. This was only a vehicle for us to represent the scenario and to gauge the reactions to it. We deliberately stuck to just silhouettes. This made the scenario mysterious and ominous.
Installation Concept
After garnering interest through the trailer, we decided to continue the narrative into a short film. Even though it was speculation, we wanted to make the concept more concrete. We didn’t want the concept to be superficial. After all, as the writer Frederik Pohl said, a good story predicts not the automobile, but the traffic jam. The more fleshed out it is, the more visceral the reactions from the observer would be.
The physical installation was to be a reflection of the technology shown in the concept film. Through “augmented reality”, the visitors could follow a cold-case detective as he travels back in time to solve a crime.
In essence, the physical setup was two projectors that worked in sync to tell one combined story. One projector tracked the location of the detective by projecting animation onto an architectural model of the city, and the other one showed the film.
The installation was made attractive and story-driven but would be engaging regardless of at what point the visitor starts watching.
Production and Editing
The film was shot in Munich, in and around the museum itself. We used handheld cameras and a drone. We also were the “actors” in the film ourselves.
Animating the visual effects proved to be a lot harder than anticipated — given that I was learning it from scratch during the project. We used Adobe After Effects for the visual effects and Premiere Pro for the final production.
Bringing it all together
Even though we had all the elements of the installation, they were still just that: individual, separate elements. Bringing them together seamlessly with limited time and resources was challenging and, as it always is, fun. We had to constantly put out small fires ranging from figuring out the power source to the installation to finding a place to put the tablets that were the video source for the projectors. It was a lot of prototyping and failing forward. I now have a new-found respect for museum curators and installation designers.
The Installation
Takeaways
Over the course of the project, we questioned the validity of our prediction. But judging speculative design based solely on the accuracy of the speculation is not only wrong, it misses the point of speculative design entirely. I now feel better-equipped to really test the boundaries of possibility and innovation through design.
I also learnt about the medium of film and animation, and other forms of visual communication — something that was quite new to me as a mechanical engineer. By exploring a new medium, I have learnt to appreciate the power of the medium in communication and how important it is to select the right medium. To finish, here is a quote again from Speculative Everything that has stayed with me:
“It is often said that if something is conceptual, it is only an idea, but that is missing the point. It is because it is an idea that it is important”
Listen to the first episode of my podcast, Cognitive Snap, which talks about this project in the context of speculative design.
Project done in collaboration with Alex Graf, Lukas Schwabenbauer, Katharina Steinbach and the curators of the Pinakothek der Moderne.
Original Futuro House picture by Gili Merin.
See more of the project: here.
To see more of this project and my other projects, please check out my website.
