A Design Exhibit Exploring the World As It Might Be
Design for a not so distant future
There are endless ways to imagine the future, and each vision falls somewhere along the spectrum of dystopia and idealism. There are futures that we might anticipate with excitement, and others that we anxiously work to prevent. “Design for Different Futures” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in partnership with The Art Institute of Chicago and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, presents designs ranging from object to experience, that connect with tangible emotions we hold about the future. Some of the 80 works on display portend to protect us from future threats, or to anticipate a need that has not yet burdened us, but could – or will.
Visitors are immersed in these possible futures, organized in 11 categories: resources, generations, earths, bodies, intimacies, foods, jobs, cities, materials, power and data.
Biomimicry and Multi-Planetary Societies
The overwhelming theme of the “Materials” section was the inspiration taken from nature. Fashion, furniture, moon habitats – the exhibited works were all trying to solve engineering problems, or achieve innovative visual effect, and found structural and design solutions in the natural world. Designers, architects and engineers have been leaning into biomimicry to solve challenges, because nature is a smart designer whose efficient solutions have been honed over millennia.
Bird bone interior has cavities of negative space, a closed cell structure, which looks similar to coral reef. Architects working with the ESA recognized the potential of this structure for lunar habitats, which can be 3d printed in-situ. The display included all of the elements, from model of the building process to actual bird bone, to a block of the actual prototype structure for the lunar surface habitat.
In fashion and textiles, there were the butterfly wings of the ThreeASFOUR dress, a woven seaweed textile, and ballet slippers growing crystals from the sweat and wear of the dancer. A series of masks from Neri Oxman’s team at MIT were fabricated using Hybrid Living Materials (HLMs) which could eventually encase vital nutrients or antibodies, or conversely act as a filter responding to the external environment. The lingering inquiry was how our man-made objects can be more a dialogue with, rather than an extraction from, the natural world.
Power, Data, and Self-Expression
Questions of technology are becoming more and more intimately connected to our person. Privacy and data are connected to new perceptions of power, and new forms of real power.
A font that can’t be read by artificial intelligence, a video showing the process of creating a “deep fake” video, and a DNA scrambler were all on display as responses to real threats of technology infiltrating our independence and freedom of expression.
The iconic red robe and bonnet of The Handmaid’s Tale costume designed by Ane Crabtree was displayed next to two portraits whose faces were covered in patterns of crystals. Mimicking the effect of Dazzle Camouflage used by the British navy, the crystals distort data points on the face, combating facial recognition software.
The exhibit doesn’t provide any answers, or any prediction of what the future holds. It is an invitation for the visitor to reflect on possible futures, and an invitation for us to design the future we want.
Context
Questions around the type of future we want to live in, and what could be if we don’t take intentional and urgent action, are all around us today. Other museums have made similar contributions to the conversation, including “Wired to Wear” at my local Museum of Science and Industry, and MoMA‘s “Design and the Elastic Mind.” It is exciting that museums are integrating these objects, concepts and speculative designs as a provocative way for the public to engage with the issues that mark our time.
