The Swiss city of Yverdon-les-Bains – where Diller+Scofidio set up their famous blur building during the 2002 Swiss Expo – features a unique museum, called La Maison d’Ailleurs (the House of Elsewhere), dedicated to science fiction, utopia and extraordinary journeys. The museum will soon also feature a Jules Verne Exhibition Space.

Recent exhibitions include the work of our visionary belgian Luc Schuiten (indeed, brother of), photographer Mario del Curto’s, the Blue Man etc.

The current exhibition ‘Entropia‘ features the work of Christian Lorenz-Scheurer (Swiss-born, attended art-school in Brussels), the illustrator/matte-painter/concept designer for movies such as Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element, the Wachowski brothers’ The Matrix and Peter Chung’s The Animatrix, Vincent Ward’s What Dreams May Come and Alex Proyas’ Dark City.

Currently, (until October 28th 2007) there’s also a fascinating exhibition (incl. lecture series MundAgoras) on the topic of utopias going on at the Mundaneum in Mons (Belgium), titled Utopia, de l’Atlantide aux cités du futur.

Also in Belgium, at the Museum of Fine Arts (BOZAR) in Brussels (until September 16th 2007), sixteen architects and urban designers enrolled at the renowned Berlage Institute in Rotterdam (Netherlands) share with the world their visions of Brussels as a European capital in an exhibition titled A Vision for Brussels: Imagining the Captial of Europe.

Asking architects to dream about future/futuristic dwellings and cities for the movie industry is nothing new. Asking sci-fi matte painters and concept designers from the movie industry to lecture to and inspire architects is perhaps more so.

This is exactly what architecture futurist Geoff Manaugh did: on May 8th, at the Art Center College of Design, he invited the amazing Ryan Church, James Clyne, Mark Goerner and Ben Procter (see also here) to give their take on future architecture. In addition, three films were shown: Giant Robot, K.I.L.L., 2x4x96.

It is interesting to see how matte painters in a sense also work in a scenario-based way, by designing e.g. a cityscape by seeing it as connected to and co-shaped by the society of which it is part. We already highlighted the work of Syd Mead in this respect.
As a matter of fact, we got a nice email from Joaquin Montalvan the other day, who was so kind to let us know that his movie ‘Visual Futurist: the art and life of Syd Mead’ is finally out and available to the public.

At Pantopicon, time and time again we tell our clients that not only today’s choices influence tomorrow’s future but also that the way one forms oneself an image, an experience of tomorrow’s world, as one sees it, influences the way in which one makes choices today. As soon as these images and experiences of the futures as we envision them, stop living only in our heads but make it physically into the real world, they become tools for thought, for discussion, for exploration, for inspiration, etc.

In the past, we already shared with you some of the fascinating visualizations of the future that people came up with in the past. For those of you, who are – like us – ever hungry for more, there is the inspiring paleo-future blog.

The topic of moving the future from inside our heads to out into the world, so that they can start leading a life, resonates strongly with the whole idea of prototyping. Prototyping can have an enormous added value in futures studies, not only as a series of established methods, techniques and best practices, but also more conceptually as as an attitude, a mentality of approach to deal with that which is not yet physically there but asks us to be ‘born’. ‘Prototyping futures’ is one of the ways in which we at Pantopicon try to move people to get ‘hands-on with the future’, rather than purely ‘heads-in’.
A few years ago WIRED published an interesting article on the value but also effects of prototyping.

Via Serendipity Book

It’s been a while since we last put another visionary figure from the past in the spotlight. For that matter, let’s pay a visit to France, a country which has brought forth quite a few. Among them there is the fascinating Albert Robida (1848-1926) (or for those of you who understand French, see also here).

Albert Robida – visionary, illustrator, caricaturist, novellist – had a visual  mind, which allowed him to ‘distort’ reality and explore what such new forms of the world might mean. Both his drawings as well as his stories show a scenarist at heart, stage-setting an integrated view of a world yet to exist. He was a visionary who not only looked at technologies, but also at their consequences, social changes brought about in society, etc. In a unique way, his work showed a future ‘in context’.

In retrospect many of Robida’s boundless ‘fantasies’ at the time have turned into reality in one way or another, in some contexts, to certain degrees. His visionary mind’s eye saw the female’s struggle for gender equality, modern warfare with robotic missiles and poisoned gas, the ‘air-bus’ (cf. airliners), the phono-opéragraphe (cf. walkman), the ‘telephonoscope’ (cf. tv), ‘téléconférences’ (made me smile and think of our friend Otlet), mass produced food, the abolition of the death penalty, pollution and the need to conserve nature, mass-tourism, etc.

For those of you hungry for more, several of his written works are freely available online (e.g. The end of books, visit the French National Library’s online digital archives Gallica for several more of his works)

Only few days apart two of the world’s probably most inspiring gettogethers have/are taking place, i.e. Doors of Perception in New Delhi, India (this year’s theme: “juice: food, energy & design”) directed by John Thackara and TED in Monterey, California (this year’s heading: “Icons. Geniuses. Mavericks.”) brainchild of Richard Saul Wurman and now curated by Chris Anderson (no, the other one).

Fortunately, for those of us who are unable to attend, several bloggers are covering the events. For example, follow along with TED via Ethan Zuckerman’s inspiring My heart’s in Accra or Bruno Giussani’s excellent LunchOverIP. Do also keep an eye on the TED Talks videos.

This years TED prizes went to Former US president Bill Clinton, photographer James Nachtwey and biologist E.O. Wilson. Read more about their ‘TED wish’ here. Last year’s winner Cameron Sinclair of Architects for Humanity ‘Design like you give a damn’ fame saw his wish come through in the launch of the open architecture network.

Several bloggers have also posted about Doors, e.g. various food- and sustainability-related blogs, such as TastyThinking, WorldChanging, etc. but I’m sure much more of its content will pop up across the blogosphere in the coming days and weeks.

Take a moment to inspire and energize yourselves.

One approach to bring the future to life is by taking elements present in our real lives today and turning them into or replacing them by ‘futurized’ alternatives (cf. something we also ask people to do in FFWD>>. btw join in on this month’s theme: education). The friction caused by a combination of a familiar element and a completely new one enhances the ‘future’ effect on the observer. Take for example advertising. In the future ads will promote different brands, products and services (cf. artifacts of the future), but also advertising itself will change.

Motion graphics company Foreign Office, put a showreel online of their fictional advertising (and other) work for the fascinating movie Children of Men. The reel shows in more detail what are environmental elements in the movie, all designed as subtle ways to wrap both the scenery and the viewer experience in an envelope of the future.

Via PSFK

Vividly I remember Prof. Stefano Boeri‘s fascinating project (Liquid Europe &) Solid Sea in which he invited people to switch viewpoint and consider the Mediterranean as ‘land’ instead of sea and the land surrounding it as water. In doing so the concepts of migration, roads, ports, departure and arrival, frontiers, that which is fixed and that which is fluid, volatile, moving etc. and consequently planning and design for such an environment change completely.

Now the studio of which he is a cofounder, Multiplicity, is preparing a promising book titled ‘Milano. Cronache dell’abitare’ to be published by Giorgio Mondadori Publishers next month in which the future of Milan (timehorizon 2020) is portrayed and discussed along the lines of 3 possible scenarios:

1. Milan as a city, completely void of fixed residents, with life concentrated around commuters and grand events such as the Salone del Mobile and other fashion and design-related happenings.
2. Milan as an archipelago-like city in which each and every ethno-cultural-economic community has carved out its turf.
3. Milan as a city in which public services are no longer, yet where free agents and entrepreneurs flourish and have taken over ‘management’ of the city.

Via Elle Decor Italy

One of the beauties of the pantopical viewpoint is that it reflects the wonderful diversity of ways in which people look at the future of certain aspects of their lives and express them in terms of their dreams, nightmares, expectations, wonderings … As such, following our participatory approach, breathing life into the future by visualizing one’s views on it, is something we like to do – and find important to do so – also beyond the boundaries of our day-to-day projects with customers in the public and private realm.

Therefore, after a long hiatus we decided to kickstart our FFWD>> competition again to involve you (yes, also you) in showcasing this diversity of views on the future. So we would hereby like to invite all you photoshoppers, mattepainting fans and visually creative minds out there, to participate in a new series of FFWD>> events. Current theme: education. How do you think education might look 20 years from now? Share with us a look through your mind’s eye.

Feel free to browse previous entries in the FFWD>> archive.

For quite some time, I’ve wanted to share with you some absolutely fascinating developments in the area of fashion, which need little imagination to realize how they could turn tomorrow into a very different reality. Let me introduce you to a few such developments.

During his Spring 2007 runway show, top-notch designer, media- and allround artist Hussein Chalayan demonstrated an absolutely amazing collection of robotically enhanced / animatronic clothing (see videos here and here). Poetry prevails over technology, leading to a breathtaking experience. Imagine a world in which garments change appearance, function, in which textiles change characteristics, in response to the person wearing them or the environment in which he or she moves. Our friends Luca Marchetti and Emanuele Quinz of Anomos and Mosign in Paris have the pleasure to work with a whole series of designers, among which Chalayan, for example, on avant-garde, artistic experience design projects weaving together past, present and possible futures of fashion.

A few months ago I already blogged about Philips design’s Skin project (part of Design Probes), focussing on the interaction between technology and our bodies and how that might affect the concept of clothing and our personal environment. Over in London, our friends Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz from wearable technology company CuteCircuit, not only made it to Wired’s NextFest future fair but also onto Time magazine’s list of “Best inventions of 2006″ with their hugshirt, a project they initiated while still at the former Interaction Design Institute in Ivrea, Italy and kept on finetuning ever since.

Some of their projects are also included in the book “Fashioning the future”, published by Thames & Hudson, which gives a glimpse into tomorrow’s wardrobe.

Obviously, all clothes need washing or stay clean, but imagine leaving out the water … think ultrasonic waves, or ozone, or ultraviolet light, or bacteria.

Like any e-technology, wearable technology embedded in clothing needs energy, power. Several solutions are under study or development, e.g. solutions based on body-heat, light-sensitive fibres, kinetic energy from body-movement, recharging washing cycles, etc.

For more future-forwarded fashion, also check out “Fashion for the 21st century”. Stay tuned for more entries on our ‘wearable future’.

Image from Style.com

Ask any filmfan to describe the future and many will – one way or another – refer to Blade Runner. The mastermind behind the Bladerunner imagery is ‘visual futurist’ Syd Mead.

Syd Mead worked as a designer for major companies such as Ford Motor Company, Philips and US Steel. Soon he delivered ‘futurist consultancy’ in the form of visual artwork for companies such as Chrysler, Sony and many others. Most of his medals however, Mead earned in the filmindustry working on large budget films such as Blade Runner, Tron, Star Trek – The Motion Picture, Mission Impossible III etc. as a conceptual artist.

Many will remember instantly the many futuristic chrome-finished modes of transport designed by Mead, yet what really sets his work apart from other conceptual artists in the field is the meticulous way in which he pays attention to ‘scenario’. Every object designed, every event depicted sits ‘in context’. It is this integrative approach to visualizing possible future worlds and societies which continues to push the limits of (en)visioning and imagineering, separating his work from mere scifi or fantasy drawings.
Sentury and Oblagon are two books showing some of the futuristic worlds designed by Syd Mead. For those of you who’d like to have a look behind the scenes , check out The Gnomon Workshop’s DVD series on Mead’s work and techniques.

On a more biographical note, filmmaker Joaquin Montalvan recently created the documentary ‘Visual Futurist: the art and life of Syd Mead’. A few months ago, Jean-Eric Hénault over at CGChannel interviewed Syd Mead at his home residence. Check out the video here. Ballistic Publishing features another illustrated interview on their website.

Visionaries and ‘envisioners’ do not only occur in history books. Some alive today work relentlessly, rigorously, step by step, on a day to day basis to bring their grand visions to reality. Some are more successful in this than others, some more utopian than others, yet all believers in the possibility of a better tomorrow and a clear vision of their own on how this ought to be.

Engineer, designer and futurist Jacque Fresco (born 1916), writes, draws, plans and constructs the future out of his home-based Research Centre in Florida. A child of the Great Depression, he is an everlasting optimist and strong believer in man’s ability to change the world, to change society, especially in view of today’s many challenges for tomorrow. With enthusiasm Fresco illustrates and shares his holistic visions of another tomorrow, of possible worlds ahead, worlds in which the economy is based upon managed resources instead of scarcity/money, where cities are designed to operate in a sustainable way, where man’s designs and behaviour are energy efficient, where automated and autonomous technologies are omnipresent etc.

Taking singularly, many of the man’s designs and illustrations are reminiscent of scifi-scenery. Set on a stage of their own, the designs, like the sketches, descriptions and visualizations of many visionaries, have the utopianist’s tabula rasa touch to them. Yet contextualized by Fresco’s texts, interviews, lectures, and beyond the technosurface there are a set of ideas and systems that range quite a bit further than their appearance.

The Venus Project, subtitled The redesign of a culture illustrates well Fresco’s scope and vision-span. It does more than talk about technologies over the horizon or utopian city design, digging into the larger societal fabric of Fresco’s vision on today and tomorrow’s world.

Award winning filmmaker William Gazecki recently created a film about Jacque’s life and ideas, titled Future by Design (DVD release planned for next week).
Be sure also to check out the other fascinating video material available online (e.g. here or Jacque’s mySpace page ).

To visualize what might possibly be or to visually and narratively stretch a situation to an extreme that might look absurd, but sets your minds in motion, thinking: ‘ok, but what if … ?’. That is one of these fascinating points where future thinking, learning and art and design touch and can make a difference. Our experiences at Pantopicon show the amazing impact such tangible thought experiments can have as experience enhancers and triggers in foresight and future studies, especially in a participatory setting.

Floris Kaayk and Sil van der Woerd are two young dutch filmmakers, fascinated by the art of combining live motion and computer graphics (think: lots of bluescreens/chromakeys, motion tracking, cg, etc.). Floris’ recently completed a short documentary-style movie titled ‘metalosis maligna‘ (not for the faint of heart), which deals with a fictitious disease caused by bacteria infecting people with artificial body implants, leading to outgrowths of metal.

Be sure to check out their other interesting works as well. Artistically, technically and in terms of concept/narrative, Floris and Sil’s work shows promising talent to say the least. Some of their experimental movies reminded me somehow of the work of Joseph Kosinski.

Via WeMakeMoneyNotArt

Canadian artist Max Dean, Matt Donovan and Cornell University’s robotics engineer Raffaello D’Andrea (also known for his involvement in the RoboCup Soccer Championships) and his former student Steve Lowe have developed an artistic project featuring a robotic chair, which falls apart and then autonomously reassembles itself. The movie has become an online hit.

While interesting in itself, a bit of mindstretching on the theme of self-repair and self-assembly reveals a manifold of opportunities, some of which have technological developments underway. At a more abstract level, it all boils down to moving from a crippled state back to a normal state, via autonomous, intelligent and pro-active problemsolving. Various scenarios can be envisaged in which such an ability (intentionally designed) might be of practical use. Let’s shift contexts and think about what it could mean:

think virtual: information that rearranges itself depending on the needs of the situation, self-healing hard- & software (link),

think small: remember Eric Drexler’s nanovisions including self-assembly (see also his website)

think practical: imagine driving through your carwash after an accident and watching your car un-(c)ripple, self-cleaning tissues and other materials (cf. self-cleaning windows)

think health: self-healing skin/organs, self-repairing protheses, …

think politics: …

Image courtesy of Cornell University.

Theatre is a wonderful medium able to touch people at profound levels of experience. As such, it is also a fascinating tool to bring to life things which we cannot see, because they are intangible or because they simply not exist yet (think imaginary scenarios, possible futures etc.).

Our friends at Theater ad Hoc , to put it in their own words,

“make performances about invisible science – current developments in science that can no longer be seen by the naked eye. Developments that have a great influence on our comings and goings. On our near future. Take for instance elementary particles, the building blocks of matter. We are completely made up out of them, yet we can’t see them. What’s more, they behave entirely differently than we could ever possibly imagine. It’s food for thought: the building blocks of our bodies follow a different logic than we do ourselves.

Under the motto Reality is too interesting to leave it to the realists, Theater Adhoc tries literally and figuratively to gain insight into such invisible dimensions by unleashing the imaginative power of the arts upon them.”

Their research-theatre performances have covered topics such as genomics, elementary particles, classification, etc. Their current production is titled “Blueprint: thinking brings illumination”, and is on display, or rather to be experienced on several locations in the Netherlands these days.
It is an interactive installation for one or more visitors at a time, a blueprint for the visualization of the invisible, a sensory experience at the boundaries of thinking and seeing.