How do you envision the world in 2070 as an artist/designer? How do you transform stories of the future, based on interviews with experts, into interactive experiences? And most importantly, how do you start a dialogue with the inhabitants of the future and invite the audience to share their imaginations of that future?
These were some of the questions the five artists that were selected by KOP were asked to reflect on. To kick off this process they were invited to participate in a two-day workshop program organized by KOP and in collaboration with different partners of the New Canterbury Project.
DAY 1
On the first day, the five artists, Chantal van Lieshout, Christine Ayo, Emilija Riviere, Kate Studley and Olivier van den Brandt and Bjorn Roetman, representing KOP, were invited to time-travel to New Canterbury 2070 after arriving in Breda for the two-day workshop. They were asked to role-play a ‘Grand Hearing’ under the supervision of Catriona a SIMA of New Canterbury, played by Nina Kramer, initiator of The New Canterbury project. All participants had received the story of their character and some instruction on forehand by mail. It took them a short time to get into character. After discovering they were allowed to improvise they really got into their roles, shining their light on the case of Jack. The participants had a lot of fun and according to the survey it helped them to get into the project: ‘The conversations and discussions were a really nice start to begin thinking about the subjects of living with nature and compassionate communities.’ And ‘An immersive way for everyone - I honestly don't remember a more entertaining opening to a workshop.’
The workshop started with more personal introductions of the artist telling about themselves and the fascinations that form the inspiration for their artwork. And the roleplaying was followed up by a bit more background information about the project. As the weather was great, lunch was taken outside in the sun.
The afternoon started with a presentation on playful interactions by Antoin Linssen from Zerow. The artists were challenged to come up with their own ideas for playful interactions after this intro and found their spots to sit, contemplate and sketch. They all agreed that the amount of time given for this was a bit short, but their ideas were input for lively discussions on takes on future scenarios like working with sweat (Ayo) or learning from animals to enhance our bodies (Olivier). The afternoon was concluded by testing a prototype made by Justin Sabio, and giving feedback on ideas of Wouter Blanksma, fourth-year Communication and Multimedia Design students, working with Antoin on their graduation projects.
DAY 2
The morning started with a workshop aimed at creating a more radical perspective on the future through speculative storytelling and worldbuilding by Nina Kramer and Sarah Lugthart: How can we use scenario prototyping to envision daily life in 2070?
After an introduction to the concepts of speculative storytelling and worldbuilding, the participants got to work on creating their own vision of 2070 based on different scenarios (source: Prototyping 2040). Certain weak signals – developments that we can already see happening if we look past the trends – can be amplified towards 2070: what will a world look like when resources are dwindling and people have to depend more on local communities? Or the alternative, where there is an abundance of resources and big tech companies start acting like well-fare states?
This thought experiment resulted in some surprising short stories of daily life in 2070: from factories with endless production power that were challenged by their bored king and queen in a competition to create the newest gadget (story by Olivier), to a story of a mother going in for an ultrasound and having to consult her community to make a difficult decision about her unborn child. The different stories elicited lively discussions on the details that made the world come to life (story by Kate).
After a joint lunch, Maarten Bel took over and showed a few examples of projects he developed. A key element in his work is undertaking a situated approach: the concept for a project is developed within a certain context and/or location. Then it was time to go outside and act like emissaries from the future. The participants were divided into two groups and each was given a small black briefcase. Within this briefcase were small envelopes to be opened at specific times, and materials like paper, pens, tape and clay. With different creative prompts like “find an amplifier to send back the sound of people in 2023” or “use tape to make sense of your world,” the participants were challenged to connect a chosen location, their own views and the creative prompts within a short timeframe, which resulted in some unlikely combinations and perspectives.
The two-day workshop ended with drinks at KOP.
Conclusion
We hope the different methodologies inspired the artists and that they look back on a fruitful exchange of ideas. We look forward to the next steps for all the artists that participated. One of them will continue further with Maarten Bel to develop a project.
Written by Sarah Lughthart and Nina Kramer
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