DF Detour: This Week's Design Fiction Finds
Let's veer off the road and stop at some nearby attractions.
Links to feed your imagination
This has been a busy week for me with the Work Kit livestream I had with Near Future Laboratory’s Julian Bleecker. Check out the wrap up post from the other day.
This week’s links include:
Talk to a robot from the future.
Got wood? I mean, Milk?
Life after cheap money.
Future Festival Field Guide.
Fired on Mars.
📞🤖 Talk to a robot from the future.
At a nondescript payphone booth in Chicago, at the corner of California and Fullerton, there’s a strange payphone that allows you to talk to a robot from the future.
If you live in Chicago, it’ll be more interesting to go in person. If you are elsewhere, you can play along by calling (833)-353-4824.
🐮Got Wood? I mean, Milk?
So, have you seen this "Wood Milk" campaign featuring Aubrey Plaza? It's as if someone's found the design fiction knob on the stereo and decided to give it a twist. This strangely plausible artefact not only hints to a bit more of a world, but they follow through with the gag. It's got its own website, social media, even merchandise! And while it's giving us a good chuckle, it's also making us scratch our heads about plant-based milks and what the word "milk" really means. Throw in a dash of controversy from an animal advocacy group, and you've got a recipe for some seriously amplified chatter about dairy and plant-based milks.
Source: Creative Bloq & h/t: Drew Wiberg
🤑 Life After Cheap Money
My pal Filippo shared a report he worked on that examines how to do futures in a commercial settings. Their first report, Life After Cheap Money, is a proof-of-concept: instead of extrapolating trends or using traditional methods, they model future environments in computer simulations and let them evolve (read: evolutionary algorithms) to see what could effervesce.
This is some wonderful stimulus for Design Fiction ideas.
🥳Future Festivals Field Guide
This article / project by Holo Mag probes the future of festivals, envisaging a new model that promotes accessibility, inclusion, and environmental responsibility while remaining vibrant spaces for cultural exchange. A must-read for those interested in the culture, society, and sustainability.
h/t @camillemakes
🚀Fired on Mars
I’m always looking for the another thing to watch, and based on the description of Fired on Mars, I’m hopeful there’ll be some future mundane ideas along with the possibility of some animated design fiction.
Jeff Cooper has it all: a fulfilling career as the graphic designer for space start-up Mars.ly, a relationship with his soon-to-be Red Planet-bound girlfriend, Hannah, and... well, maybe that's it. But when his bosses unceremoniously eliminate his role, Jeff finds himself jobless and unable to return to Earth.
If I find any design fiction examples, I’ll report back.
